Usability vs. Security
Cliff November 16th, 2007
Today’s Dilbert is a perfect example of what librarians run into all the time…
We need both security and usability, but in many cases the culture of fear causes us to create “protections” to a perceived threat that may not exist. Rather than respond to genuine problems, we prevent any problems from taking place by locking things down (usually done in committee, thinking of every possible threat that could ever happen). This creates barriers to user service, which then drives the user to other services which provide both usability and security.
Perfect security is invisible.
Perfect security does not require users to jump through hoops to receive service, but instead runs in the background enhancing a highly usable service. How can librarians make their libraries more usable, while enhancing an invisible security that protects both the library’s users and resources?
Sigh. True.
Your questions are good… I just wish I had answers.