Privacy literacy instruction practices in academic libraries: Past, present, and possibilities

This article explores the past, present, and possibilities of privacy and privacy literacy (PL) instruction in academic libraries. It surveys the scholarship on privacy and privacy literacy from the domains of philosophy, anthropology, history, law, education, and LIS. A privacy conceptual model is proposed demonstrating the zones of informational agency that privacy preserves, and a timeline of privacy and libraries documents key developments in privacy culture in the US. Findings from an original exploratory survey of privacy literacy instruction practices in academic libraries are discussed. The survey identifies the rationales, topics, contexts, methods, and assessments academic librarians use in delivering privacy literacy instruction, as well as barriers against privacy literacy that they encounter. The article concludes with a case study explicating the authors’ own privacy literacy instruction experiences, and specific recommendations for overcoming the barriers to delivering privacy literacy instruction in academic libraries identified in the survey findings.