My vaccine passport

Vaccine "passports" are getting a lot of press lately. Whether you are for'm, again'm, or couldn't-care-less about'm, know that they have been around for a rather long time. I got mine in 2010.

A speaking invitation to a conference in Nairobi gave me the opportunity to fulfill my long time dream of hiking Kilimanjaro. Yippee! I was advised by my tour agent to make sure all my shots were current, so I headed to see see my primary care physician - who redirected me to the clinic's "travel specialist."

Physicians who specialize in travel preparation for developing countries must at heart be sadists. As you can see from the scans of my vaccination passport, I received six separate needles in the arms that day. I guess it could have been worse if he had insisted the shots had to be in my butt. Thankfully, the doctor also gave me a prescription for pills that helped with altitude problems. They worked but made my fingers and toes feel like they had gone to sleep - about three days of tingles as I approached the summit.

Unfortunately, the life-span of my yellow fever, typhoid, and other exotic immunizations has lapsed, so should I want to back to a country where these diseases exist, I will be making another visit to the specialist. Hmmm, maybe a trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota to climb Black Elk Peak instead? 

Anyway, I don't remember any problems with my having got this passport. I don't even remember even being asked to produce it in Kenya or Tanzania. I suppose with the newest COVID passports being digital and all, there is a greater potential for privacy abuse and discriminatory practice, but I can't get too worked up about it. 

Yes, I made it to the top without getting yellow fever.

Readers' advisory on steroids

My friend Mary recently wrote on Facebook:

This is a little freaky. Earlier I was just thinking - thinking mind you, not talking about it or Googling, that it might be a good idea for me to get an office chair for working at home. And what appeared on my Facebook feed? An ad for office chairs. Maybe the chip implant that comes with your COVID vaccine is really a thing.

 It does often feel Facebook and targeted ads on other websites are prescient (see What Makes Them Think I Need This?) and makes one wonder if the computer camera is not not just turned on all the time, but someone is listening to your conversations and reading your mind. (Hence the quote above.) But I have also recognized the positive side of data sharing and quoted Scott Adams in this post:

• Maybe you shared your medical history with your doctor and that allowed him to treat you more effectively.
• Maybe you put your personal information on an online dating service and it helped you find the love of your life.
• Maybe you showed your past tax returns to your bank and it helped you secure a mortgage to your dream house.
• Maybe you were secretly gay or lesbian and it was a huge relief when you came out.
• Maybe you installed a device on your car that allows your insurance company to track your driving history in return for lower rates.
• Maybe you enjoy sharing your life on Facebook.
• Maybe Google tracked your search history and later served up an ad that was exactly what you were looking for.
• Maybe your favorite airline gave you a free upgrade because they know you fly with them often.
• Maybe you put your work history on LinkedIn and someone offered you a job.

One of the services librarians provide is "readers' advisory" -  helping patrons find new books they might enjoy reading. It was something I happily did as a school librarian. Not only did finding kids books they liked to read make them happier and more engaged,  it made them better readers since they read more. But in order to do a good job of finding the next great book, one had to know something about the reader's personal interests, often starting with the question "What have you read recently that you've enjoyed." Sharing this "private" information had a positive result.

I've looked at targeted advertising as a sort of readers' advisory on steroids. Amazon certainly knows my purchasing history and is always ready with information about books that are similar to those I've read and new books by authors I enjoy. Netflix knows my viewing history and suggests (rather poorly, I think) other movies I may want to view. And as Mary in the quote above states, Facebook is more than happy to throw in a whole bunch of ads every time I open the site - and every now and then sucker me into actually clicking on the link for a new piece of luggage or an intriguing pair of hiking pants. (On Facebook's bad days, it thinks I am a cross-dressing lacrosse player with a new baby.)

It's extremely important that while online, we are proactive about data sharing. Here's an updated list of things I think about when online:

• Ask if there are positives in sharing information with others (no Trump campaign ads in my Facebook feed).
• Understand how to control in social media apps what data is shared and with whom. Check the settings regularly.
• Adopt reasonable safeguards in schools and other institutions to protect unauthorized use of personal information (with the operative word being reasonable.)
• Learn that there are some really stupid things that people do which can lead to identity theft. 
• Realize that if one wishes to commit an illegal or immoral act using social media, the chances of getting discovered are pretty damn good. As they should be.

I have challenged uber-privacy advocates to share examples from your their law-abiding lives in which shared data created a lasting problem for them. So far, no takers.

Excuse me while go back and look at the ad for the latest Mazda in my Facebook feed... Oh, and Mary, be sure to recharge your implanted chip now and then

Other related posts:

Eggar's The Circle - Google as Big Brother

Google Knows What You Are Looking For - So What?

What Makes Them Think I Need This?

Readers' Advisory and On-line Privacy

The library: my home away from home

Yesterday's excellent post You have always been my safe home: the school library  by Lia Fisher Jansoz on the Knowledge Quest blog put me in mind of this story I often told back in my days as a library consultant:

As an elementary library media specialist for the Aramco schools in Saudi Arabia, one of my favorite students was a Nigerian boy named Chinedu. Big for his age, talkative, focused on his own agenda and relentlessly cheerful, he drove his regular classroom teachers crazy. As a result, Chinedu was often sent to the library for a little timeout for the three years I knew him.

Chinedu really was a pest. He always wanted to visit at the times I was the busiest. He needed watching – his silliness could be a real bother to everyone in the library. But he also liked work. As a result, I kept on hand a Chinedu –do list of small jobs he could work at during his frequent visits that kept him productively occupied. Things would go smoothly for weeks and then Chinedu would do something outrageous like purposely dumping the cart of books he was shelving on the floor just to see reactions. And I would go home wondering why I even bothered with him. 

But late one afternoon, Chinedu reminded me of why I bothered. Out of the blue, he approached my desk, grinned, and in his melodious accent declared, “Ahh, Meester Johnson. Dees library. Eet is my hoom away from hoom.” And I was reminded again that the library is often the only place in school that is comfortable for many, many students.

As I look back on my 40+ year career as a school librarian/library supervisor, I take the greatest satisfaction in knowing I created or helped create places for children in schools where they felt safe, welcome, and affirmed. Yes, I hope the library program helped kids learn to read better, do thoughtful research, and learn some technology skills, but giving students a "third place" was by far the most important role.

So on this Library Day/Week/Moth, my wish is that my still working library colleagues continue to create spaces that are the "home away from home" for their students.