Privacy: A new taxonomy

This article presents a new taxonomy of privacy in library and information science (LIS). Current treatment of the concept often overlooks its diverse character within the LIS profession and neglects its heterogeneity within wider discourse. This study, by contrast, presents a taxonomy, connecting privacy in LIS with wider literature to improve understanding of the concept within professional practice. A structured literature search samples conceptions of privacy across LIS, paving the way for descriptive conceptualisation of the concept. The argument is presented in four stages. First, it is argued that privacy is a heterogenous concept within LIS which can be discussed in an abstract, ethical or practical context. Second, 10 conceptions of privacy in wider literature build a case for this diversity and form a theoretical backdrop for understanding the concept. Third, a structured search of literature reveals a range of views across the LIS profession. Constructivist grounded theory builds an informative taxonomy with four categories: conceptual, normative, contextual, and remedial, with the relationships between categories depicted via four ‘meta-categories’: theoretical, practical, descriptive and value-based. Fourth, the taxonomy’s benefit is twofold. First, to provide a template of comparison between LIS and wider literature and, second, to act as a tool within professional practice, asking what, where, why, and how the concept interacts with ethical situations. This, in turn, provokes a more thorough appreciation of privacy problems. This depth, it is argued, builds support for a re-orientation of core value in LIS as a manifestation of professional virtue.