LiB's thoughts on fingerprinting @ the library

The public library system in Naperville, Illinois (only a few minutes from where I grew up) is going to start requiring fingerprint scans to identify and authorize their computer users.  Library representatives are swearing up and down that the fingerprint data will be kept confidential and cannot be used in dubious ways.

I feel the pain of the Naperville library staff.  Our computer users also use other people's cards (usually family members') to get more computer time and violate our policies.  And we have no real way to track that down.  It's unfortunate.  But fingerprinting is not the answer.  Maybe re-examining your computer policies, and their enforcement, is.

The library also states that the new system will help them implement a new option they offer that allows parents to choose to filter their children's internet access.  A regular barcode system, which is what they use now, can also offer that option with the proper software.  To me, that reason is completely bogus.

I agree with the ACLU on this one--this opens a big whopping can of privacy worms, much worse than the current RFID scandal's can o' worms, and paints the picture of the library as a police-institution, not an open and welcoming environment in which you can seek information and entertainment without retribution.  I think that Sherri said it best: "...way to go for making libraries about as inviting and easy to use as a trip through airport security screening."