[Koha] Re: user comments

[Ed Haskell]

The issue with USA libraries, I would think, will revolve around keeping a 
history of the patrons' borrowings. Retaining info on who had the material 
last for, say, 48 hours to allow for discovering damage, etc., doesn't seem 
to me to be a problem. This could be easily implemented using the techniques 
discussed in this thread by simply adjusting the timing of the anonymize 
function.

On a separate part of this thread: the possibility that a  court could order 
a library to turn the history function on for a user or users--- that problem 
exists now for all automation systems. The fact that it is impossible or 
impractical for most of them would not in any way dissuade a US court from 
issuing an order that usage must be tracked. The thing most US librarians are 
concerned about is the possibility of being ordered to turn over information 
that has already been collected without a patron's knowledge. I think the 
techniques we are discussing here allow for handling that concern.

Ed Haskell
Rochester Public Library Board of Trustees



On Friday 03 May 2002 16:50, Chris Cormack wrote:
> On Fri, May 03, 2002 at 05:42:23PM -0400, Nicholas Rosasco said:
> > > Or even worse someone returns a dvd case without the dvd in it,
> > > the data is
> > > anonymised, now someone has a free dvd.
> >
> > Perhaps.  Don't we have (or shouldn't we have?) a function that returns
> > permits  "who has this now" checks on a barcode.  Most library
> > circulation staff (with perishable items :) like DVDs, etc) open the
> > box/case before running it through the return function -- a "who has"
> > would let them check w/out removing the item.
>
> Yep we can certainly find out who has an item now. And presently we can
> find out who last had the item.
> I dont want to lose that function. Damage to a book may be found after it
> has been returned (librarians dont really have time to check every item as
> its returned for damage, so they may miss one)
>
> Hope this makes sense.
>
> And thanks everyone for your contributions to this discussion its really
> helped me understand the issue a lot better.
>
> Chris