Another thought -
Bad etiquette?? - much more than that for publishing data about members
that a potential employer is not legally allowed to ask for and would be
deep litigation if they did.. The AALL dir. isn't a "personals" listing,
it's a *professional directory, IMHO
Karen
At 02:16 PM 1/26/1999 -0800, Sarah Crary Gregory wrote:
>Thanks, Margie & James, for both your clarification of the circumstances of
>the database, and for expediting the removal of ethnicity and member
>IDs from the public database. This is a good start.
>
>However, I am still disturbed that contact information is so readily
>available to the public. You write:
>
>> The new information about individual members was collected over a two-year
>> period when AALL members renewed their membership. Over 2500 members
>> submitted a voluntary "AALL Member Profile" to AALL Headquarters. The
>> member profile form indicated that the information would be added to the
>> membership database, and made available.
>
>My assumption when I completed the form was that my information would
>be made available in two ways:
>
>1) to AALL members, and
>2) to others (publishers, professional groups, etc.), as screened by
> AALL **in the organization's exercise of reasonable judgment.**
>
>Those were the circumstances under which I consented to have that
>information made available. I did not give AALL blanket permission to
>publish that information for the world to see. Judging by the responses
>I've already received to my posting earlier today, I was far from alone
>in that assumption.
>
>> The form also noted that "if
>> there are any questions you'd rather not answer, we respect your
>> privacy... " I apologize if this information wasn't as clear as it might
>> have been.
>
>Publishing the information on the web is a gross abuse of the license
>granted to use the information. Had I been aware that this would've
>been done, I would have withheld the information. I am all in favor of
>my professional colleagues having access to my contact information,
>and I had trusted AALL to otherwise use that information in a
>responsible manner. Please convince me that I did not err in placing
>that trust in the organization.
>
>(NB: As a former administrator of a small nonprofit organization
>nearly a decade ago, I am aware of the value of having a membership
>list available to sell or barter to other organizations. It can be
>a valuable networking and fundraising resource. However, part of
>its usefulness is its judicious disbursement. I fail to understand why
>AALL is either broadcasting valuable fundraising data or violating
>members' expectations - or both.)
>
>> Again, I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused and do thank you
>> for your comments.
>
>I'm sorry, but it's not just an "inconvenience". I consider it a serious
>breach of etiquette, at best. Simply saying "Well, don't fill out the
>form next year if you don't wish to have your contact information
>available to every data mining 'bot on the web" doesn't do anything
>to correct the original breach.
>
>Respectfully, but nonetheless frustrated -
>
>-- Sarah Gregory
>
>
>~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
>* Sarah Crary Gregory, JD Reference Librarian sgregory@lclark.edu*
>~ Boley Law Library, Northwestern School of Law ~
>* of Lewis & Clark College *
>~ Portland, OR 97219 503.768.6740 ~
>*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
>
>
>
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