History rewritten:

the saga of Drive D and the data storage that never was.

Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came,
and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold,
the half was not told me
Kings [1] 10:7

To fully appreciate this letter of 4 November and the apparent rewriting of history you need to know that all librarians had been told during their computer training that storage on C: (or its partition or virtual drive D:) was simply not possible for library users. Indeed, in a letter from Library HQ dated 21 August the Operational Support Librarian in charge of computer systems, Roy Eden, wrote to me as follows (and the underlining of not is his, not mine):

"The warning on WORD is there because there is not a facility to save your work to the C: drive, so if you want to save it, you need to do so to a floppy disk. When the computer session is ended, rebooting clears everything out, including the cache and history files, thereby protecting the privacy of each user"

So who is telling fibs and who does not know what he is talking about? Any papers that might tell the truth have probably already been shredded. Maybe having had the existence of the drive D: storage brought to their notice, DCC have had to cobble together the most plausible sounding story in the circumstances. The existence of passwords for drive D: was never a feature of the systems when I was using them and nor was a default destination into a folder that was emptied at the end of each session.

I was able to store WORD documents, scanned images, email pages and other material from the Internet on drive D: and it remained there for weeks. I also found it was possible to access the material using a children's ticket (when I just happened to see a children's emergency ticket on the issue counter and was able to memorise the number!). Computer literate library users who have experience of machines in other parts of the country please go to internet_privacy_help.htm where your help is sought in documenting how People's Network computers used to operate, as opposed to how they may do so now. Some comments on this letter are given in purple. There seems little point in writing again to DCC because they rarely if ever answer letters - and even when they do they avoid the main issues!

Dear Dr Wozniak

PUBLIC ACCESS PCs

In reply to your message of 28 October on the subject of potential abuse of the facilities for saving data on library public access PCs, it is indeed possible to save data to the D: partition of the C: drive. (Well I never! This will be news to all Devon librarians who have been told otherwise, also to all frustrated users who have been told there is no way to save large scanned images, and no way to use USB storage because the machines do not have readily accessible USB ports. Also, CD-R drives are not provided despite that they would have cost a negligible amount over and above the cost of the CD drives that are hardly if ever used anyway because it is not allowed to load one's own software!).

You will probably have noticed that the default destination is "D:/My Documents"; this folder is automatically emptied at the end of each session. It was deemed necessary to provide a temporary location for larger files such as those produced by scanned images. (So why was no-one told, and indeed why were staff specifically instructed otherwise?)

Files can also be saved elsewhere on the D: drive. Such files are not automatically deleted and could, as you say, be accessed at a later stage. This is not, as you suggest, a software error. The facility is there to enable those involved in formal training, both staff and public, to store their work from session to session. These files can, of course, be password protected. (No facility for this was evident or offered on any of the machines where I experimented with storage on D:) They can also be deleted automatically or selectively at each individual library or remotely by system administrators. (At least this admits that all files can be accessed remotely from County Hall, as part of the overall snooping policy)

The "Acceptable Use Policy" that everyone has to agree to before every session and our "Using Library Computers" leaflet both point out that "data saved elsewhere (i.e. not on removable disk) may be temporarily available to other users". This has always been ambiguous, inconsistent and confusing, and staff have been told specifically that it is NOT possible. Indeed, a letter from DCC confirmed this to me!

It is therefore technically possible for one person to save unsuitable material and another to access it at a later stage. However, we consider the likelihood of such a coincidence to be extremely remote (why??) and must point out that both parties would be in breach of several sections of the Acceptable Use Policy.

I should also mention that filters limiting what is available for download are in place. (A vast amount of pornographic material is available via e-mail 'junk mail' and this is difficult to filter). We are not in a position to comment on the People's Network provision in other authorities, as you suggest we might, but we are aware that not all apply filtering. (Some might even adopt the Council of Europe Guidelines!!)

On balance, it is our view that the benefits of providing space for those involved in training to save their work outweigh the risks. (Few if any of the PN machines have been or could ever be used in 'training' because of where they are located. See other pages in the website). We are aware of some files on D: drives but have not, as yet, experienced any abuse of the facility.

However, we acknowledge your concerns. We will continue to monitor use of the D:
drives and keep document management and retention practices under review.

On the subject of the Q&A document, it is not our view that you were "allowed" to read it and I should just clarify that, in fact, it says: "...one authority actually had all its public access computers shut down ... ". In case you are in any doubt, that authority was not Devon and it is difficult to see how drawing it to the attention of library staff to encourage them to be careful in relation to young people using the internet can be construed as evidence of "incompetence". (I never said it was!)

Yours sincerely

J A SWEENEY
Assistant County Solicitor

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