The Filter Bubble: Implications for Libraries
Channel: Nebraska Library Commission
Date: 2013-05-02

Many companies track and use personal data in order to customize users' search
results and to tailor advertisements to user preferences. The flip side of this is that
other information is concealed from users in the process. Users become isolated in
personalized "filter bubbles," of which they may not even be aware. This has
implications for library service and for collection development. Librarians need to be
able to circumvent their own filters to find diverse resources to add to the collections
while patrons accustomed to a high level of personalization from Google and the like
may have difficulty finding the materials they want from non-personalized library search
results. Inspired by Eli Pariser's book, The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding
from You.