Article at Information Today, Inc. about the possibilities of library users being able to borrow items anonymously through the use of electronic cash cards.[via]
You’ve seen anonymous cash cards already; you may even have received them before. They’re better known as gift cards. Using the same principle, libraries can issue a borrower card that uses cash, rather than personal ID information, as collateral. Here’s an example: If a privacy-minded user deposits $20 to get an anonymous library card, she can check out The Terror State without identifying herself. Her account balance is temporarily reduced by $15, and when the library checks the CD back in (in good condition), her balance is restored to its original value.
Of course, she can still use an identity-based library card as much as she wants. Because the library knows how to contact the owner of a card associated with a photo ID, it is willing to loan hundreds of dollars worth of material. If the user doesn’t promptly return the material in good condition, the library can involve a collection agency or alert the police.
With an anonymous library card, the library is willing to loan materials to anyone because it knows it can’t really lose anything. Since the library would never loan more than it could re-coup from a cash deposit, it would be able to loan controversial items without storing personally sensitive information. If the user doesn’t return the material promptly, the fines would be deducted when it’s finally checked in (or once the accrued fines reach the price of the material).
With this system in place, libraries could also welcome tourists who want to borrow books about the local community, travellers who want to watch DVDs on their laptops in their hotels, and (where reciprocal borrowing agreements don’t exist) library users from neighbouring areas. I once drove to the next county over to borrow an obscure film on DVD only to realize there was no reciprocal borrowing agreement in place. I went home sad and empty-handed because a cash-based card was not an option.
Simply put, anonymous lending opens the door to new kinds of users, protects the library from loss of materials, protects the borrower from loss of privacy, and protects both from the repercussions of a privacy breach. And law enforcement could still investigate suspects in a criminal case: Having searched the suspect’s belongings with a legitimate warrant, police officers could ask the library for information about the use of the anonymous library card they seized. Random snooping, though, becomes completely fruitless. Law enforcement would have to begin with a suspect and work backward, instead of starting with a controversial title and fishing for borrowers.
Tags: ID cards
