Some people may be starting to feel like, in the modern world, no place is a safe place to store our personal information.
Add the Mercer County Library System to the list of organizations that are moving to help protect their customers’ identities.
Starting this month, library staff will take photos of patrons as a means of guarding against “library card identity theft.”
Up until now, when patrons of the library system check materials out, library staff call up screens on their computers that provide personal information about those patrons—what they’ve checked out, as well as who they are and where they live.
Patrons who opt to have their photos taken and added to the system will give library staff a way to confirm that the person handing over the library key fob is the person in the system. The photos will appear on the librarians’ screens.
All this talk about library card identity theft left one reporter asking a question: is that a thing?
“It does happen,” said James Damron, branch manager at the Lawrence headquarters of the Mercer County Library System. “If you lost your card and somebody used your card to check out materials, this would be a way to help prohibit that from happening.”
The photographs will not become part of revamped ID cards. Library members will continue to use their existing fobs or cards. The photos will be stored in a secure database, used only for counter identification purposes, used in accordance with the state Identity Theft Protection Act.
While enterprising thieves may not be stealing library cards left and right, Damron says the photos are just a way the library and its patrons can be proactive.
“We’re offering people the option to have their picture as a part of a record. It’s just another way we’re working to protect patrons’ information and privacy.”
–Joe Emanski
