Big Brother…

From the article

"We, the employees of the Tompkins County Public Library, wish to write an open letter to the Library Board and the County Legislature concerning the recent actions by the Library Director to secretly install a spy camera in our building. We feel that trust, respect and privacy is important at our workplace. We need positive leadership and integrity. We need a leader who will support and energize us, so that we can better serve our patrons."

Why did the library administration intall the camera?

"Library Director Janet Steiner suspected money was being taken from the library donation box. Steiner then contacted the Ithaca Police Department, who placed a surveillance camera in a clock radio."

More bad press for libraries can be found here.

Oy!

2 Responses to “Big Brother…”

  1. Kungfu Librarian
    February 25, 2007 at 5:45 pm #

    Stealing in the library is a serious issue. I’ve been faced with these kinds of decisions before — do you let someone continue stealing from you? If you take away the money, does that mean your collections are still safe? What if you have valuable books (special collections)? Would you be willing to lose a few (maybe many) of those in order to avoid spying on staff members? It’s a tough call. Seems prematurely sneaky, but what if all other options were exhausted? Finding the right balance of protecting innocent employees while trying to nab employees actively stealing from the library, thereby protecting services and collections, is not easy…it’s also not a morally easy decision to come to.

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    […] Steven says, more bad […]

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