Due to Covid-19, the format of the forum has changed from in-person forum to online survey and virtual focus group. We appreciate the participants for our online survey and virtual focus group!

The School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in collaboration with other university research partners, public library professionals, and data privacy experts, is seeking to establish a National Forum for Privacy Protections in Public Libraries. With Associate Professor Masooda Bashir serving as Project Director, the proposed project aims to enable experts to collaborate with public library representatives in an exploratory study to identify, discuss, and evaluate what practices are currently in place to protect patrons’ privacy across the nation’s public library systems.

Specific project goals and outcomes include:

• identifying current privacy protection practices and challenges;
• engaging with public librarians and researchers to evaluate if such practices provide adequate privacy protections; and
• developing published resources that provide a clear view of the current practices and challenges public libraries face in protecting intellectual freedom.