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Mystical Beast - 2004-04-01 10:59:17
I think they started giving out the cards a while ago (I have one that looks like the example) but they don't seem to have their super-powers yet.
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Garrigus - 2004-04-01 11:24:05
I gots me one o' dem cards. But I ain't know dey was gonna go all Magneto. And shit.
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Paula - 2004-04-01 11:58:43
Garrigus & Mystical B:
You have your ABC cards? they're givin' them out now?! I have to git me one. I can only pick locks with mine.
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Library lady - 2004-04-01 12:18:58
At my place of employ, we've distributed multipurpose library cards for years & years. They do the debit thing via a magnetic strip on the backside, and the library checkout thing via a bar code on the front. I take it the new BPL cards do all that and more in an integrated fashion; that's the trend & it's high time. Even reserving computer time, yow. Some interesting potential privacy concerns surface. Hmm.
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Paula - 2004-04-01 12:49:44
Library lady:
I'm shocked that Brooklyn was not at the forefront of the magnetic card revolution, as we were in so many other things.
Some interesting potential privacy concerns surface. Hmm.
Wow, didn't think of that. Can you flesh this idea out a little?
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Shhhh this is a library - 2004-04-01 13:40:17
Well, there's the whole library-record business, though I'd be shocked if BPL didn't expunge items from y'alls cards the second you get them checked back in. Per the USA-PATRIOT Act, certain federal agents could demand of the library your borrowing record. Remember the Robert Bork video rental brouhaha? Okay, neither did I. But the potential is there.
Anyway, the business about reserving computer time via library card is particularly intriguing. Does one have to sign in electronically using one's library card? If so, how are you assured that all the sites you visit aren't being logged, with you the positively identified visitor via your library card #?
We intellectual freedom types must needs get a little hysterical from time to time in this business.
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she again - 2004-04-01 13:50:37
BTW, the Bork problem predated the PATRIOT Act by years-n-years, of course. I raise it merely as an example of the evil and crumminess that can come of having your consumer behavior recorded. Think about that when you whip out your Kroger Plus card.
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Paula - 2004-04-01 14:01:38
Library Lady is referring to this.
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