"Terror Reading"

[Harmon Seaver]

On Wed, Jun 26, 2002 at 01:09:53AM -0700, Bill Stewart wrote:
> It's been almost ten years since I was in the Keyport NJ library,
> but I'd be surprised if they've computerized their recordkeeping.
> If you wanted to see who'd checked out a given book
> that was on the shelf, you'd look at the card in the back and
> see the library card numbers of the people who'd checked it out,
> and they might have had dates as well.  To find which 3 or 4 digit number
> corresponded to which person, it'd depend on whether they took their
> library card home with them the last time they'd returned books
> or left it at the library (mine might still be there?),
> and if they currently had books out, it was definitely at the library.
> If they took the card home, they had privacy, though the librarian
> often did know her regular customers by sight.
> They might have computer records for books they got on interlibrary loan,
> but that'd be about it - no sense in spending money on computerizing
> when old-fashioned card catalogs worked well enough for the speed at
> which they acquired books.

   You'd probably be surprised then, because I'd bet it has been
computerized. In WI and MN at least, even the tiniest libraries are on line. It
came about because of laws mandating that all public libraries belong to a
library consortium, and the consortiums run the centralized databases. If they
don't join the consortium, they can't get state funding, and since most
libraries are strapped for cash, they join. And the computer revolution has been
going on in libraries for a decade now -- I can recall libraries where the staff
was terrified of computers, but most of those people either got on board or
retired. I'm sure there are non-computerized libraries in backwards states like
AL or MS, where they don't even fund the public schools, let alone libraries,
but NJ? Hardly.

> 
> On the other hand, any place that does computerize finds it almost as easy
> to keep records permanently as not, and it's certainly easier to centralize
> records and make them searchable.

   It's a matter of policy not to keep records, that, and the fact that library
software comes with that turned off by default. In some cases I think it would
take custom programming to turn it on. And in most cases, since most systems
librarians are not really computer gurus and rely heavily on outside
consultants, they would have to call the software manufacturer or an outside
consultant to help them figure out how to turn on the retention of patron
records after the books is checked back in. And then explain to them *why* they
would want to do such a nasty thing. And, as I said, there would be immediate
outrage on the part of the other librarians with much shouting and wailing and
demands for explanations, and demands that it be turned off.

   I think most people don't realize what strong civil libertarians most
librarians are -- and how much privacy and freedom of speech is stressed in
library administration and library schools. 


-- 
Harmon Seaver	
CyberShamanix
http://www.cybershamanix.com