I would really like to know what privacy or security problems public libraries have that need to be solved with expensive biometrics equipment and patron ID-ing via fingerprints? Please note that I am not related to Naperville Public Library director Mark West who seems to have a willful misunderstanding of the difference between a fingerpint and a bar code. Please also note that US Biometrics who sold the library the system is headquartered in Naperville Illinois. Here are some more specifics about their arrangement with the library. Note the obligatory library pervert tossed in to the article just to make people think that this level of increased security is necessary for some crime-fighting reason. If you read through to page 2 of the article you’ll notice that only one other library system in the US uses fingerprint IDs on a voluntary basis. The library serves 400,000 people. 1,787 patrons use it. How do you think that works out, in terms of return on investment? [thanks jill]
Category: libraries
MAO & MPL & FBI & XOX
Don’t take my words for it, you can check out all of the “edgy” ads for the new Minneapolis Public Library on the Friends of the Library site. Apparently at least the Mao image is on hold for now. I was asked by a reporter, completely seriously, if my objecting to these ads was the same as taking a book off the library shelves because I disagreed with what it said. I assured her that it was not.
Welcome to the Big Bibliothèque
Montreal gets a big downtown library, to house the public library collection as well as Quebec’s National Library collection. Not as fancy outside as, say, Seattle Public, but pretty feature-rich nonetheless, lots of nice photos. [thanks aaron]
outreach + inreach
A lot of librarianship is about meeting the needs of your users and your not-yet-users. Surveys help, acting on surveys helps more and letting users know what your survey results were and how you are acting on them is a very proactive way to interact with your community. Here is an example from the Bank Street College Library’s recent survey.
NHLA Conferences from days past
When I went to prowl around the Carpenter Memorial Library in Manchester, I saw some old photos of a previous NH Library Association Conference from, I think, 1924. Take a look at these librarians. Greg took a few nice shots of the library interior, love that octagonal reference desk!