[Publib] barcodes scanned on phones

Wed May 11 19:41:42 EDT 2011

Hello all--

I think it's important to remember that we have obligations to the customer in front of us, and to all the residents (and future residents) of the community we serve.

With self-service, it seems clear to me that the only way to do that is to require the use of a PIN.  This saves a great amount of staff time as well.

We tell our patrons to treat their cards like credit cards--to tell us when they move, to let us know when a card is lost, to carefully consider who is allowed to use the card (if anyone).  We should treat the card and account equally responsibly and a PIN is a simple, familiar way to do that.

Just my opinion.

Regards,

Dale

http://www.linkedin.com/in/dalemcneill

On May 11, 2011, at 6:18 PM, "Gina A. Emory" <gina at ebcl.lib.id.us> wrote:

> I agree that allowing use of self-checks and computers without requiring a PIN can be problematic. I thought we were JUST talking about using barcodes shown on someone’s smartphone to check out at the circ desk. There is a human at the desk, which I would hope would at least give someone pause who might be trying to “pull a fast one” on the library system. We require a PIN to use our computers, which doesn’t preclude someone from using their spouse’s or child’s cards to give themselves additional sessions. We try to be cognizant of people who seem to be at the computers longer than they should, but there are always those scofflaws who get away with it for a while until we catch on. 
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> I think libraries and library staffers like to give patrons the benefit of the doubt as often as possible. I believe the vast majority of library users are honest and wouldn’t dream of stealing library materials, or checking out on someone else’s account. As a result, we do try to make checking out materials as easy as possible for patrons – within reason. There will always be people who steal library materials, despite our best efforts to dissuade them from doing so, but I don’t think any of us want to set guidelines based on the few abusers as opposed to the thousands and thousands of decent patrons.  Maybe I’m naïve, or think too well of patrons. Maybe it’s because I live in a relatively small town. Perhaps if I were in Seattle or Los Angeles, I would feel differently. I just don’t see a REAL problem with letting patrons enter their library barcode into a smartphone app and using that to check materials out at the desk. Maybe libraries could ask the patron to verify some piece of information in the patron’s record, such as an address or phone number, in order to use the smartphone barcode if there is real concern about misuse
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> Gina
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> 208-263- 6930 x 202
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> ebonnerlibrary.org
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> From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Sharon Foster
> Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2011 1:18 PM
> To: 'Melissa K. Davidson'; publib at webjunction.org
> Subject: Re: [Publib] barcodes scanned on phones
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> That’s what I was about to say… not about self-check but about public computers: I’ve had at least one patron who simply photocopied barcodes from the cards of a house-bound spouse and house-bound friends, and managed to use a public computer for several hours a day. We did finally catch him at it—he couldn’t remember which card he was logged into when he submitted his print jobs—but with 20 or 30 or 40 public computers, you just can’t watch everyone. That’s what an automated reservation system is supposed to save you from having to do. It all depends on the library, the patrons, the set up, floor layout, demand for computer time, etc., etc., etc., but without a PIN, it’s very easy, and it doesn’t require a smartphone. The only difference is that we might notice someone at the self-checkout consulting a piece of paper with barcodes on it, but we might not notice someone with a smartphone if that’s what we’re expecting them to do.
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> From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Melissa K. Davidson
> Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2011 4:03 PM
> To: publib at webjunction.org
> Subject: Re: [Publib] barcodes scanned on phones
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> Actually it was pretty easy before advanced technology…
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> Melissa
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> From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Shannon.Hammock at rcc.edu
> Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2011 3:42 PM
> To: mshorr at saclibrary.org; rballiot at gmail.com
> Cc: auf at haddonfieldlibrary.org; publib at webjunction.org
> Subject: Re: [Publib] barcodes scanned on phones
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> Greetings,
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>   I’m pretty close to doing an undercover operation just to show how easy it is to steal books from libraries. My only fear is of course I would be charged with fraud. But maybe then librarians would take seriously what Robert, myself, and others are saying about how easy it would be to steal library resources using this technology.
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> If your library uses self-checkout machines, I could be in your library tomorrow with several hundred library card numbers. Would they all work? Probably not, but a good percentage of them would. I could then use your self-checkout machine to my heart’s content and steal pretty much as many books as I wanted while some other person gets the fun experience of arguing with you about how they never checked out the books and therefore shouldn’t be held responsible for them. While I am glad your library staff are instructed to question the patron if they have reason to believe the card is not theirs (when we had this discussion a few months back a few on the list said they would never question the patron because it is their assumption that if a person had the library card number they are authorized to use it) , the problem is that there would not be any staff to question me because I would be using the self-checkout machine. And I have been in plenty of libraries where there is either no nearby staff or appropriate enough line of sight to the self-checkout machines that I would have no fear of getting caught.
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> There’s a big difference between a library card and a barcode on a phone. If I wanted to recreate the library card, I would have to get the graphics, buy the right stock, create a bunch of them, and all of this requires some up-front money on my part. That’s a bit of a deterrent. However, I can type in library card numbers into one of the barcode programs and it doesn’t cost me a dime. I quite literally could have hundreds of barcodes (admittedly not all would be valid) by tomorrow and my out of pocket expense is zilch. In the old days, I would need to go to the circulation desk to check out the books. Not good, because there is interaction and that increases my chance of getting caught, and crooks don’t like that. Today, I just walk over to the self-checkout machine, and as long as I don’t do anything too stupid, you would have no clue that I am using stolen library card numbers.
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> I am actually all in favor of allowing people to use barcodes from their phones and other devices. But do it responsibly and require the use of a PIN so someone cannot easily check out books on someone else’s card number. I’m glad you are trying to make library services easier, I think that’s a good thing and I believe card numbers on phones can be part of that. But you are not making library services easier for someone if they get a notice that they have to pay for 20 books (or however many books your library lets them check out) because someone else used their library card number because you failed to take simple steps to protect their account.
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> Shannon
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