Disruptive Library Technology Jester

Disruptive Library Technology Jester

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Peter E. Murray

Library technologist, open source advocate, striving to think globally while acting locally

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  • Issue 115: Public and Private Camera Networks

    This Thursday Threads issue explores the growth of surveillance camera networks like license plate readers, highlighting privacy concerns despite their law enforcement benefits. It discusses investigations, security flaws, private networks, AI integration, and artistic controversies.

     Posted on  April 17, 2025
     ·  14 minutes reading time
  • Issue 114: Digital Privacy

    Amazon's cloud mandate for Echo recordings sparks privacy worries. Workplace surveillance tech and the FTC’s findings on social media data collection highlight ongoing security challenges, alongside Fiverr's controversial data access listings.

     Posted on  April 10, 2025
     ·  7 minutes reading time
  • Issue 111: End-to-end Encryption

    This Thursday Threads explores global security issues, encryption reforms, and tech giants’ countermeasures against quantum threats and AI, reinforcing the crucial role of end-to-end encryption in safeguarding privacy and communication.

     Posted on  March 13, 2025
     ·  10 minutes reading time
  • The ILS without patron data: open questions

    In my prior two posts, I outlined a strategy to minimize personally identifiable information in library automation systems (idea overview, impact on FOLIO). This approach uses a unique single-service identifier (the "pairwise-id") recognized exclusively by the identity provider (IdP) and the library's service provider (SP), effectively preventing any cross-system correlation …

     Posted on  June 23, 2024
     and last updated July 06, 2024
     ·  5 minutes reading time
  • The ILS without patron data: a thought experiment realized with FOLIO

    In the previous blog post, I outlined the concept of a library system with no personally identifiable information as a way to safeguard a patron's right to privacy. Library systems commonly retain traces of a patron's library activity, and the librarian ethos protects a patron's privacy as they conduct their …

     Posted on  June 21, 2024
     and last updated July 06, 2024
     ·  8 minutes reading time
  • The ILS without patron data: a thought experiment

    Library systems hold significant information about patrons, including their search and reading histories. For librarians, ensuring the privacy and confidentiality of this data is an essential component of professional ethics. In the United States, for example, the third point in the American Library Association Code of Ethics is "We protect …

     Posted on  June 20, 2024
     and last updated July 06, 2024
     ·  7 minutes reading time
  • Issue 92: Privacy Stories From 2014 Still Echo Today

    Back again. Thanks for the comments on the return of the newsletter. I've heard that Microsoft Outlook isn't playing nice with my email theme. (It also isn't playing fair...someone forwarded the newsletter back to me, and when I replied that person said the view of the newsletter in the …

     Posted on  December 08, 2022
     and last updated December 07, 2022
     ·  8 minutes reading time
  • Issue 86: Tracking Media Provenance, Digital Classroom Surveillance, Don't Pixelate to Redact, Android In-App Advertising

    I've deleted what I originally had here as newsletter-opening-banter. These are serious times. I think the world has radically changed overnight, and roughly 7.9 billion of us are not in positions to do anything about it. To those that are in positions to do something about it and to …

     Posted on  February 24, 2022
     and last updated February 24, 2022
     ·  9 minutes reading time
  • Issue 85: Privacy-busting Journal Article Fingerprints, Fraud in NFTs, Improve Your Life

    The middle of February already. Time is flying; I hope you are having fun.

    The threads this week:

    • Privacy-busting Fingerprints in Journal Articles
    • Fraud in NFTs
    • Improve Your Life

    Feel free to send this newsletter to others you think might be interested in the topics. If you are not already …

     Posted on  February 17, 2022
     and last updated February 16, 2022
     ·  5 minutes reading time
  • What EDUCAUSE's 2022 Top 10 IT Issues Mean for Libraries

    Last month, EDUCAUSE published its Top 10 IT Issues for 2022 with the subtitle "The Higher Education We Deserve". To reach the top 10, EDUCAUSE members were asked to prioritize 17 issues identified by the EDUCAUSE IT Issues Panel members. The members of the Issue Panel then broke up into …

     Posted on  December 05, 2021
     and last updated December 05, 2021
     ·  10 minutes reading time
  • On the Code4Lib Journal's Two Proposed Metrics article

    Code4Lib Journal (C4LJ) editor here. Becky Yoose's Twitter thread has stirred up a great deal of attention to an article published yesterday. This post has my own thoughts on the issue...published on Twitter to match Becky's medium and here on my blog for posterity.

    So yeah that Code4Lib Journal …

     Posted on  September 23, 2021
     and last updated September 23, 2021
     ·  4 minutes reading time
  • Privacy in the Context of Content Platforms and Discovery Tools

    These are the presentation notes for the Privacy in the Context of Content Platforms and Discovery Tools presentation during the NISO Information Freedom, Ethics, and Integrity virtual conference on Wednesday, April 18, 2018.

    • ALA Code of Ethics
    • Privacy: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights

    • Panopticlick - Electronic Frontier Foundation …
     Posted on  April 18, 2018
     and last updated December 07, 2022
     ·  17 minutes reading time
  • The Who, What, When, Where and Why of Library Discovery (text as intended for presentation)

    [caption id="attachment_KkOCeAtKHIc" align="alignright" width="210" caption="Me and my Jester's Cap"]

    Closing out #nisoforum w Peter Murray as disruptive tech jester! pic.twitter.com/TvRb8UEY0T

    — Lettie Conrad (@lyconrad) October 6, 2015

    [/caption]
    Last week I was at the NISO Forum: The Future of Library Resource Discovery with a …

     Posted on  October 12, 2015
     and last updated October 12, 2015
     ·  10 minutes reading time
  • Issue 78: Battles over strong encryption, IPv4 addresses exhausted while IPv6 surges

    Two articles in each of two threads this week:

    • If Strong Encryption is Outlawed...
    • Allocations of IPv4 Internet Addresses Now Restricted; It's a Good Thing IPv6 is Finally Here

    Feel free to send this newsletter to others you think might be interested in the topics. If you are not already …

     Posted on  July 09, 2015
     and last updated January 15, 2018
     ·  5 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Let's Encrypt is coming, Businesses want you coming to the office, OR2015 Summary

    This week's threads:

    • Let's Encrypt announces its launch schedule, so soon everyone can have web servers with encrypted transmissions;
    • Ploys by businesses to get you to come into the office, if you work at a place where coming into an office is optional; and
    • A summary of Open Repositories 2015 …
     Posted on  June 18, 2015
     and last updated June 18, 2015
     ·  4 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Advertising and Privacy, Giving Away Linux, A View of the Future

    In just a few weeks there will be a gathering of 25,000 librarians in the streets of San Francisco for the American Library Association annual meeting. The topics on my mind as the meeting draws closer? How patrons intersect with advertising and privacy when using our services. What one …

     Posted on  June 11, 2015
     and last updated June 11, 2015
     ·  5 minutes reading time
  • Can Google's New "My Account" Page be a Model for Libraries?

    One of the things discussed in the NISO patron privacy conference calls has been the need for transparency with patrons about what information is being gathered about them and what is done with it. The recent announcement by Google of a "My Account" page and a privacy question/answer site …

     Posted on  June 10, 2015
     and last updated June 11, 2015
     ·  4 minutes reading time
  • My View of the NISO Patron Privacy Working Group

    Yesterday Bobbi Newman posted Thinking Out Loud About Patron Privacy and Libraries on her blog. Both of us are on the NISO committee to develop a Consensus Framework to Support Patron Privacy in Digital Library and Information Systems, and her article sounded a note of discouragement that I hope to …

     Posted on  June 09, 2015
     and last updated June 09, 2015
     ·  6 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Man Photocopies Ebook, Google AutoAwesomes Photos, Librarians Called to HTTPS

    In this week's threads: a protest -- or maybe just an art project -- by a reader who saves his e-book copy of Orwell's 1984 by photocopying each page from his Kindle, the "AutoAwesome" nature of artificial intelligence, and a call to action for libraries to implement encryption on their websites.

    Feel …

     Posted on  May 28, 2015
     and last updated May 28, 2015
     ·  5 minutes reading time
  • Advancing Patron Privacy on Vendor Systems with a Shared Understanding

    Last week I had the pleasure of presenting a short talk at the second virtual meeting of the NISO effort to reach a Consensus Framework to Support Patron Privacy in Digital Library and Information Systems. The slides from the presentation are below and on SlideShare, followed by a cleaned-up transcript …

     Posted on  May 26, 2015
     and last updated May 26, 2015
     ·  8 minutes reading time