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Privacy Protection

This collection of print & electronic subscription library resources and free websites was originally developed for UTSA's Debate Union Summer Institute program.

The Summer 2000 debate resolution was: "Resolved: That the United States federal government should significantly increase protection of privacy in one or more of the following areas: employment, medical records, consumer information, search and seizure."

If you are not familiar with the topic of privacy protection, start with one of the sources listed under Background Information.

Background Information

CQ Researcher
Location: JPL Reference Stacks H35 .E35
Look in the index of the most recent compilation--it will refer you to articles from other years as well as the current one. CQ Researcher provides an outline of events, issues surrounding a variety of topics, and other key facts. Overall the BEST starting place for any controversial issue! Also available online CQ Researcher.(UTSA subscription) Full Text/Full Image

The New Encyclopaedia Britannica
Location: JPL Reference Stacks AE5 .E363 1998
A wealth of information of every sort for those wanting a very complete encyclopedic treatment, from colonial history to detailed climatic patterns. Also available electronically via Britannica Online. (UTSA subscription) Full Text/Full Image

Freedom of Information Act, Reference Guide
Free Website: http://www.usdoj.gov/04foia/04_3.html
U.S. Department of Justice document providing an introduction to the FOIA, which was enacted in 1966 and provides that any person has the right to request access to federal agency records or information.

Overview of the Privacy Act of 1974
Free Website: http://www.usdoj.gov/04foia/04_7_1.html
U.S. Department of Justice document outlining the Act's disclosure prohibitions, its access and amendment provisions, and its agency record keeping requirements. Includes an introduction, legislative history, criminal penalties, exemptions, et al.

The Right to Privacy
Free Website: http://www.louisville.edu/library/law/brandeis/privacy.html
Originally published in 4 Harvard Law Review 193 (1890), this article by Samuel Warren and Louis D. Brandeis, established the generally accepted definition of privacy to be "the right to be left alone."

Thomas: U.S. Congress on the Internet
Free Website: http://thomas.loc.gov/
Search by bill number or keyword "privacy" to view bills currently pending in the House and Senate.

U.S. Constitution
Free Website: http://www.law.emory.edu/FEDERAL/usconst.html
From Emory University School of Law. Provides the U.S. Constitution as amended to date, and texts of proposed amendments to the Constitution which have been approved by the Congress but not by the required number of states. Also offers scanned images of the original Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

See also: UTSA Library subject guide for Controversial Issues: Background Information.

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Books

Books and Materials at the UTSA Library

UCAT, UTSA Library Online Catalog
Search UCAT to locate books, journal titles (not articles), government documents, maps and multimedia materials available at the UTSA Library. Read the Search Tips to learn how to conduct a better search.

• Need to obtain a book from another UTSA campus?
  Courier Service
  
  
• Want to know how UTSA books are organized?
  Library Of Congress Subject Classification

Books and Materials Elsewhere

• Want to find books and journal holdings in other libraries?
  Check the Catalogs list to search other library catalogs
  
  
• Need to use another library?
  TexShare Cards
  
  
• Want the UTSA Library to obtain materials for you?
  Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

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Databases & Article Searching

• Some databases provide full-text or full-image of articles.
• Some databases provide citations or abstracts only.

If you find articles in a citation-only database, search UCAT to see if the library owns or subscribes to the journal you need.
If the UTSA Library does not subscribe to the journal you need, either in print or an online format:

• use the e-Journal locator to see if the journal is online in a UTSA subscription database OR
• check WorldCat for other local libraries OR
• use Interlibrary Services to obtain the articles

Academic Universe (Lexis-Nexis) (UTSA subscription)
Full text of 6,000 news,business, medical and legal publications. Includes U.S. and foreign newspapers. Updated continuously. Full Text

Access World News - (via NewsBank) (UTSA subscription)
Features full-text articles from the electronic editions of record for more than 1300 North and South American, African, Asian, Australian, and European newspapers. Each paper provides coverage of local and regional news, including companies, politics, sports, industries, cultural activities, and people in the community. Paid advertising is excluded. Dates of coverage vary. Updated daily. Full Text

Congressional Universe (Lexis-Nexis) (UTSA subscription)
Provides access to information from and about the U.S. Congress. Includes congressional publications; bill tracking and full text of bills; legislative history; federal regulations; and member affiliations, demographic, financial, and voting records.
Note: See special section Hot Topics > Privacy Protection for full-text articles. Full Text

Criminal Justice Abstracts (UTSA subscription)
Indexes and abstracts journal articles in criminology and related disciplines from 1968 to the present. Includes extensive coverage of books as well as reports from government and non-government agencies. Citations Only

PAIS International (UTSA subscription)
PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) indexes and abstracts articles, books, conference proceedings, government documents, book chapters, and statistical information in a variety of subjects including, agriculture, business, education, finance, health, political science, and the social sciences. Corresponds to the last ten years of citations from the print indexes, PAIS Bulletin, PAIS Foreign Language Index, and PAIS International in Print. Updated monthly. Citations Only

ProQuest (UTSA subscription)
Provides access to journal articles in a number of databases across all subject areas, with particular strengths in business and the social sciences. Also includes 9 major national newspapers, including Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, USA TODAY, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. Complete content of the following databases is included: ABI/INFORM Dateline, ABI/INFORM Global, ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry, Accounting & Tax, Alt-Press Watch, Criminal Justice Periodicals, Ethnic NewsWatch, GenderWatch, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, National Newspapers, and ProQuest Research Library. More than 5,500 titles are indexed and abstracted from at least 1971 to the present. Full text and/or images are available for more than 2,000 titles. Full Text/Full Image

See also: for help in evaluating journals, see UTSA Library subject guides for Types of Periodicals and Scholarly Journals v. Popular Magazine Articles.

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Further Research

The following websites provide valuable information relating to privacy protection. To find out more about evaluating websites for accuracy, credibility, and so on, see the UTSA Library subject guide Internet 101/102: Why Should I Evaluate?

ACLU: American Civil Liberties Union
Free Website: http://www.aclu.org
"The American Civil Liberties Union is the nation's foremost advocate of individual rights -- litigating, legislating, and educating the public on a broad array of issues affecting individual freedom in the United States." Browse through links to issues ranging from Criminal Justice to Workplace Rights.

Consumer Project on Technology: Privacy
Free Website: http://www.cptech.org/privacy/
Founded in 1995 by Ralph Nader, the CPT is currently focusing on intellectual property rights and health care, electronic commerce and competition policy.

EFF: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Free Website: http://www.eff.org/
"EFF is a non-profit, non-partisan organization working in the public interest to protect fundamental civil liberties, including privacy and freedom of expression in the arena of computers and the Internet."

EPIC: Electronic Privacy Information Center
Free Website: http://www.epic.org/
EPIC is a project of the Fund for Constitutional Government and was established to "focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values." EPIC works in association with Privacy International, and is also a member of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign, the Internet Free Expression Alliance, the Internet Privacy Coalition, and the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD).

FTC: Federal Trade Commission
Free Website: http://www.ftc.gov/
The Federal Trade Commission enforces a variety of federal antitrust and consumer protection laws. Browse through the links under the Privacy Initiatives section to find reports to Congress, news releases, online privacy cases and more.

GPOAccess
Free Website: http://www.gpo.gov/
From the U.S. Government Printing Office. Find legislative, executives, judicial and regulatory materials. Search the Federal Register, browse the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Public Laws, and more.

Health Privacy Project
Free Website: http://www.healthprivacy.org/
Read the latest news and legislation, browse online publications, congressional testimony and fact sheets, or browse through their collection of related links. From the Institute for Health Care Research and Policy, Georgetown University.

SpeakOut.com
Free Website: http://speakout.com/activism/issues
Mission is to "...(showcase) leading research, opinions and events shaping public policy on dozens of issues including education, technology and healthcare."

The PRIVACY Forum
Free Website: http://www.vortex.com/privacy
The PRIVACY Forum includes a moderated e-mail digest (and archive of those digests and related documents) for the discussion and analysis of issues relating to privacy (both personal and collective) in the information age.

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
Free Website: http://www.privacyrights.org/
The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse is a nonprofit consumer information and advocacy program. Includes links to fact sheets, speeches & testimony, other privacy links and cases.

Yahoo! > Government > Law > Privacy
Free Website: http://dir.yahoo.com/Government/Law/Privacy/
Yahoo! web directory's collection of sites about the topic of privacy.