Cybersecurity Hygiene for Your Library
Cyber hygiene is a reference to the practices and steps that users of computers and other devices take to maintain system health and improve online security. These practices are often part of a routine to ensure the safety of identity and other details that could be stolen or corrupted. Much like physical hygiene, cyber hygiene is regularly conducted to ward off natural deterioration and common threats. Think of your system as… well… you!
TLC strongly believes in taking a proactive approach to application security for our customers, so much so that we’ve built it into our routine processes; it’s not an afterthought. Part of our development cycle includes continuously assessing the security of our own application and remediating issues as they are found.
Our level of assurance is built into the development cycle for every major release and applicable patch releases, using industry-leading vulnerability analysis tools. We also deploy a DHS CISA check frequently for external testing. In addition to securing our own applications, our hosting and corporate infrastructure are protected by world-class endpoint security.
TLC has teamed up with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to create TLC•Cloud Services, a state-of-the-art cloud-based hosting platform that you and your library can trust to keep your information safe.
Because security is not a one-time event, TLC support is prepared when customers report concerns to replicate with our internal processes and respond as needed with application updates or guidance on local practices to mitigate risk. Please see our case study on the ransomware attack that threatened to cripple TLC customer, Butler County Federated Library System, and the risk-reduction mindset we used to diligently restore data and further protect the library.
Check your system’s health: info@TLCdelivers.com or 1.800.325.7759
Looking toward the future with diminishing budgets, we need to leverage today’s resources and technology for tomorrow’s audience.”- It is a new way to think about cataloging and it’s still compatible with our existing records.”
- The promise of RDA is Linked Data. It’s necessary and cost-effective to use a conversion service to get us there.”
RDA-ified Print Titles
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We're about to embark on a project to move our servers to an OCI environment and we've been able to go into that with confidence because of previous TLC projects on that kind of scale."
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure combines the highest performance along with low, predictable pricing to support all enterprise workloads.”
Librarians have taken on the mantle of Superhero in the last couple of decades. There are T-shirts, comics, pins, even ribbons at conferences depicting librarians as flying in, to the rescue! In 2010 Marilyn Johnson’s book, 
Lately, we have all been struggling to be superheroes in a true age of darkness. Libraries are shuttered, schools are closed, we are sheltered in our homes. Librarians are struggling with how to be a superhero in their community when they don’t have a place to be, let alone capes and superpowers. Libraries have advocated as essential services. Libraries are community centers where we go when there is a crisis. Now what do we do? The worst thing a library can be right now is a gathering place. Yet the pressure to succeed and be what the community needs is still there. Many librarians are grappling with how to be innovative and dynamic in a pandemic.
Librarians have spent the better part of the last 30 years fighting to prove the necessity of the library in every community and school. As the economy changed libraries were targets for closure, deemed unnecessary by many with the advent of the internet and digital resources. When we tell people what we do they say, “We still have libraries?” or the ever-popular, “why do we need libraries? We have the internet!” 
When COVID-19 showed up on our shores there was a dilemma: we have spent years telling people we are essential yet now we are closing our doors. Many communities kept the libraries open because they are the place for communities to “gather in times of emergency.” Of course, this emergency meant we SHOULDN’T be gathering, so what do we do? How do libraries still serve their communities if they can’t open their buildings?
My job as a cataloguer should make working from home nearly impossible. I have several colleagues from around the country lamenting about how they don’t have a viable way to work from home right now, due to the nature of their ILS system and the need to have the books physically on hand. But like most of you out there, my job has many hats, some of those hats are amazingly suitable for working from home and can be worn with fuzzy slippers.
Asking someone “Are you OK?” at the start of a call and ending it with “Stay safe” are the new Hello and Goodbye. Asking if someone’s local store has restocked on toilet paper and pepperoni is the new “do you need anything else?”.
Megan Fisher