Database of books read

The way I praise the Sacramento Public Library you'd think I owned it instead of just volunteering for it. But I really am impressed with the products they offer and the way they continue to look for opportunities to serve their public.

My topic today regards keeping track of books you've read or at least checked out. This is a human rights hot button because many people are not tickled with the idea that some cop or FBI agent could come to the library, flash a badge, and be able to look at the records to see who checked out the books that were critical of Bush or our American way or some Supreme Court decision. Most libraries have taken care of that concern by eliminating all long-term records of book loans. Obviously they need to track who has borrowed a book and when, but once the book is back in the library's possession, the record is deleted. Usage data such as the book was loaned on such a day for so many days may be kept for circulation decisions but the library no longer needs to know who checked out the book. And civil libertarians will agree that the FBI or police don't need to know either.

But what about the other side of the coin? Suppose I want to know which books I've checked out in the past month or year. I could keep my own database. This has the advantage that it's not easy for the police to know that it exists so it is safer from random "fishing" expeditions. Also, with my own database, I can keep additional information such as a synopsis of the story or a book review along with the book title and checkout information. But it is a real burden to keep track of all those things.

The Sacramento Public Library has an "opt in" program that will keep track of the books you check out from the time you sign up for the program until you stop it. You can at any time remove one or more entries or even clear the whole thing. Such control makes the Library database almost useless for the gendarmes since it could not be used to show that you did or didn't check out some book.

What's more is that the Library makes it very convenient to download the information into your own computer. Someone who is ultra cautious could download routinely and clear the Library's database so there would never be more that 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, whatever you feel comfortable with.

I said convenient to download. The Library will directly download your checkout file to you or email it or simply present it on the screen. And they will do it in one of three formats.

Full Detail



Brief Display
or MARC (MAchine Readable Catalog) format



You might have picked up that this was the 2nd entry of 124 and represents only the last couple of months. My strategy is to overload with data anyone who is interested in looking at my checkout list.