UPDATE 9/18/2019: LinkedIn has sent out the following message to its library customers:

“First, thank you for being a valued customer and working so closely with us on the migration from Lynda.com to LinkedIn Learning.

While we are excited about the learning experience we offer on LinkedIn Learning, we’ve made the decision to pause your transition on 9/23/19.

While we’ve worked with many of our public library customers on this transition, we recognize that there are ongoing concerns about some of the changes we are making. This pause will give us time to continue our discussions with the library community and understand if we can build an online learning solution that meets the needs of public libraries and library patrons.

While we cannot commit to any changes in our approach at this time, this pause will give us time to have the right, thoughtful discussions.Thank you for your patience during this process. For now, please continue to use Lynda.com to help your patrons learn new skills.We will be in touch on next steps once we determine a path forward. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions or would like to share any feedback.”

Original post continues below:

Due to changes in our user agreement with LinkedIn Learning, access to the platform (formerly known as Lynda.com) requires the creation of a LinkedIn account. Click through to access the service, or read on for more details.

Creating a LinkedIn Learning Account

After the transition to LinkedIn Learning, all access to the service will require a LinkedIn account. This requires you to provide a small amount of personal information to LinkedIn. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Create or sign in to your existing LinkedIn account.
   If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, you can create a one with just your email address, first name, and last name. 
2. Verify your email address by opening your email and clicking the verification link LinkedIn sends you.
3. Enter your library card barcode number and PIN.

Once you’ve completed these steps, you’ll be able to access all of the content available on LinkedIn Learning.

A note on privacy

There has been a lot of internal debate as to whether we should keep offering LinkedIn Learning to our community.  Having direct access to the personal information that comes with a LinkedIn account means LinkedIn can use your name, email, and browser cookies to target advertising. It can also repackage bundles of personal information to sell to other vendors.

In making this decision, the library has had to weigh its professional ethical responsibility to protect our patron’s personally identifiable information with our commitment to provide resources that our patrons need and value. In this case, we felt a compromise was necessary: CLP will continue to provide the resource, with the caveat that its users are informed how their personal data is being harvested and used by the vendor.  

But we’re not done negotiating with LinkedIn. We continue to stress the opinion that library patrons shouldn’t have to give up personally identifiable information to access library resources. We hope to stress this point in our ongoing conversations, and explore other options for online learning that don’t require personal data.  

If you would like to voice your opinion, please contact us or send your comments directly to LinkedIn.  

Toby Greenwalt is Director of Digital Strategy and Technology Integration at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.