Help or Hazard? Patrons’ Checkout History Retention Choices and Relations to Trust and Campus Role

Abstract

We explored the motivations of 588 university library patrons who chose to either have the library retain their checkout histories or not. We also examined associations between checkout history choice and both general data privacy concerns, and campus role. Over 90% opted to retain their histories. This group, compared to the no-retain group, had fewer privacy concerns, had greater trust in the library relative to the university, and were less likely to be librarians, archivists, or curators. We discuss how these findings add to the literature on privacy concerns of library users, and their possible implications for privacy policies.