Self Serve Reserves and Privacy Issues

Hello,
I've had a patron at my library voice concerns over our new Self Serve Reserves system. His issue is that having his name on the hold slips in his reserves which are then shelved in a public area constitutes an invasion of his privacy. I know that self serve reserves are fairly common practice in libraries in both Australia and the USA (where based in Australia). Has any one else come up against this argument? Is this really an invasion of privacy or are his concerns misplaced?
any comments, suggestions, and particularly references to literature where this matter is discussed are most welcome

How much information is actually being displayed? At the SSR of the public library where I work, we only print the first 4 letters of the customer's last name, and the the last 4 digits of their library card. This wouldn't be terribly communicative to strangers at large, in any event.

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I expect it varies. The library where I pick up my books uses first initial & last name.

I must say that I hadn't thought of this, perhaps because I don't mind who knows what I'm checking out, but I can see that it might be of concern to some people, particularly in a small library or a small town where everybody knows everybody.

You might not want your spouse to see that you've requested a book about "Protecting your assets in a divorce"!

Both my public and university libraries have gone to this system and they shelve the books backward so that a casual observer can't see what book is on reserve. To find out, someone would have to be able to figure out the name (both use an abbreviated form) and then physically pull the book from the shelf and turn it around. So yes, someone determined enough could find out, but they'd have to be really trying.

At the last library I worked at (a public one), the customers entire name was printed on the hold slip, but the books were wrapped in white paper so that no one could see the title. At my current library (also public), we also print the entire name but the hold slip is placed inside the book with just the last name and first initial showing and the books are shelved on their spines.

The reason we went to self serve holds was due to the sheer volume of items being held. We simply didn't have room to keep them in staff areas anymore. Plus, there is a trends towards self-service so that if a customer desires, they can leave the library without ever interacting with another person.

I've wondered about this at my local branch library, which moved to self-serve reserves last year. Although both first and last names are written on the slips, the books are at least shelved spine-down, so someone would have to move the books to determine what they are. FWIW, I've never noticed anyone flipping books up to see titles, only occasionally pushing them in or pulling them out in order to better read the slips.

I work in a library that has had our current self service system for a few months now. We are a small town library that is part of a county wide co-op and we put off implementing the self services system for quite a while. A few staff members did not like the idea and a couple of loyal patrons had voiced their opinions about it.
The solution to the problem was that we would allow patrons to request to have their holds shelved behind the counter for privacy or for ease of pick up, and only a few patrons have asked for this, one specifically out of privacy and quite a few elderly patrons that find the process of finding their name amongst all the other holds.
The majority of our patrons love having their holds available for their own pick up and we now have a self check out machine so the whole process frees up the front desk to help with research and readers advisory.
Also logistics of the shelving are that the holds are placed spine down on the bookshelf and the labels that are printed out have the patrons name in bigger bold and the item title in a fine print just below, no other critical information is on the slip.

The library where I have my part time job follows the same procedure described in post 2. You can find yourself, but it's unlikely that anybody else can identify you unless you've provided them with your card with the intent of their picking up your holds.

The library where I sub cited privacy concerns as why they hadn't gone to self service holds yet when I first started working there, but now that they have, they put full names on the slips and shelve them spine in, with the slip going across the open side of the book.

The closest library here wraps the outside in white with the last name on the spine. I'm just a patron, not a librarian, so I don't know if people object, but this is a big city so the names could be anybody.

I can definitely understand the privacy requests. When I was in high school (a private school) they would publish the honor roll in the local newspapers and also publicly in the main hallway of the school. I complained loudly and incessantly to the administration every marking period because my grades were my business and I didn't need everyone and their mother knowing about them and harrassing me. So, yeah, I definitely understand the desire for reading privacy.

My experiences match this.

My library prints holder's entire name and book titles are visible. This will discourage holds of material any requester deems personal, sensitive, or controversial. I doubt many will complain, but this does discourage diversity of requests. I would not use the library's hold system for health information, for example.

We put the date and the person's last name and first letter of the first name on a slip and put it on the book spine.

My library prints the entire name on the slip, but if a patron has issues with lack of privacy, we can hold things by the patron number instead, which is the letter p with a series of numbers. Each patron number is unique to the patron and solves the privacy issue with holds held in public spaces.

Our library uses self service pickups for books only (our DVDs tend to walk off so we keep them behind the desk). We use the an alias that is assigned to every patron when they get a library card. We use the first two letters of their first name followed by the first two letters of their last name and then the last 4 numbers on their library card. It would look like this for John Smith. JOSM9999

This way if there are more than one John Smith, the last 4 numbers are always different. Plus our system does not allow other patrons to check out books that are on reserve for other patrons so we don't have to worry about people getting the wrong books.