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Case: 0037
Sector: Public library
Not under any circumstances – my daughter is at risk
What measures should a public library take to protect potentially vulnerable users?
Summary: A mother brings her daughter to a small branch library. They have just moved into the area; both mother and daughter have to prove their identity with appropriate paperwork. The mother insists that their address must not be included as they have moved to a ‘safe house’ (part of a network of refuges for abused women). She is worried that if her ex-partner (who is, by coincidence, a senior library manager in another part of the country) finds out where they live, her daughter will be at risk.
NOTE: This Case Study is fictitious. It is informed by experience in the information world, but it does not claim to represent a scenario of actual events or relate to individual people or organisations.
Case Study: A mother and her daughter have recently relocated to a different part of the country to get away from an abusing former partner. They have been allocated a so-called safe house, part of a network of refuges for abused women.
The mother goes with her daughter to register at the nearby public library where they are told that they must provide address details as part of confirming their identity. The mother objects to this, stating that her former partner (by coincidence, a senior library manager in another part of the country) could find out where they live, putting her daughter at risk.
The library assistant is told to ‘follow procedures’ but is distressed by advice she is given by senior library staff on duty. She is a para-professional but feels that this is wrong. She decides to complain ‘over the head’ of her own line manager (as she herself grew up in a household with an abusive father who had a history of alchohol-abuse).
The editors comment...
Most librarians are likely to sympathise with the plight of the mother and daughter and realise that always abrogating responsibility to a set of procedures can, at the very least, be frustrating or inconvenient or, at worst, quite dangerous.
Here we note that the library assistant has an instinctive feeling that simply demanding an address to record on the library computer is wrong. She also appears to be relatively junior, and her first action – to seek advice from her superiors – is sensible. Unfortunately she does not like the advice she is given (to follow procedures). In this particular situation the library assistant’s sense of personal responsibility must weigh heavy on her conscience, as she makes a bold decision to complain about the standard procedures to her manager’s manager (the Head of Library Service).
We believe that there is no clear guidance one can provide in a situation such as this. The decision to complain taken by the library assistant was not taken lightly, as she must have been aware of the risk of seeming not to follow procedures (i.e. insubordination).
Fortunately the Head of Library Service agrees with the library assistant that vulnerable members of the public such as the mother and daughter do need greater protection and that standard procedures may not be suitable in all situations. He agrees to vary the standard procedure and to allow a revised membership application which allows for a new member’s contact address to be “c/o branch library” in cases of such perceived vulnerability.
Finally, we note that although the mother and daughter, and the library assistant, saw the revealing of a street address to be potentially accessible by the former partner who works at a library in a different part of the country, it is not clear how he may, in fact, gain access to that address through the normal course of events. Data protection regulations would normally prohibit the giving of such confidential data which, in this case, does not seem to warrant being transferred to a different part of the country.
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Primary |
Secondary |
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Principles |
8 | 1 - 5 - 6 |
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Code |
E2 | B4 - D2 - D3 - D4 |
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Related cases |
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References:
To recommend resources related to this Case, please contact the editors.
Feedback:
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Created: v0.1 15-Oct-07 : SS
Revised: v0.2 19-Oct-07 : JG-T v0.3 27-Oct-07 : JG-T v0.4 30-Nov-07 : SS v1.0 31-Dec-07 : JG-T