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slaveluci -> RE: A question for the conservatives. Libraries? (8/16/2010 6:20:27 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Jeffff
quote:
ORIGINAL: kdsub
I hope you don't think they are happy with the system... or have you forgotten the banned books in school libraries in Kansas and other conservative states.
Butch
Not just banned books, the Patriot Act forces public libraries to keep track of any book you check out.
I don't want to look like Hunky or anything, but I always pay cash at the book store.
Couple of things....I was going to say what you said, Butch, about book banning. Conservatives don't seem to attack the library system as a whole but lots of conservative individuals seek to challenge and/or ban individual titles all the time. It's more of a content-is-offensive-to-me-based attack than a libraries-are-bad type of attack.
Secondly, the Patriot Act was a real problem for libraries initially but the progressive ones - most of them, frankly - have found ways around it. Libraries are not forced to keep track of all books checked out. What happened was IF they WERE somehow keeping records of past checkouts, those records could be and were initially being subpeonaed. This led many libraries -including the systems that the two I have been in charge of over the years since the act was passed were a part of - to stop keeping those records. If there is no record, there is nothing to have to turn over. The system I work with now has an option available on the patron's account that they can choose to turn on. It keeps track of their reading history. Only the patron can do it from their web account (with their own private PIN) and they have to deliberately opt in for such history to be kept. All we as librarians see is what they currently have checked out and we can see the information of the last patron who had any particular item (in case it was checked in with damage). Amazon keeps track of one's reading waaaaay more than any library I've worked for. So...that paying cash at the bookstore thing is bright but you know they put you on "The List" when you buy certain things, right? Ha, ha....if so, I'm up shitcreek[;)]
luci
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