Straaawberyyy! Raaaspberyyy! Liiibraryyy!
Today I goed to the Kenton County (Kentucky) Public Library in downtown Covington, and I noticed something funny. Not ha-ha funny, but odd funny.
The libe is watching you!
The library seems to have at least one video camera in the ceiling. Among the row of microfilm machines, near the bluish-green wall, there appears to be a black sphere bulging out of the ceiling. That I'm pretty sure is a surveillance cam.
Why the libe would need a camera in that location is questionable. I plan on posting an entry soon about the incident that may have prompted the cam's installation, but the camera in that spot is a poor fix. Instead of deterring misbehavior, it seems to let the library in on what people are viewing with the machines.
How else would the friendly librarian have known I was having so much trouble with the machines today?
It gave me the creeps when she discovered the woes I was experiencing, and that's what led me to look around for a camera.
When I worked at the libe in Campbell County, we never had cameras, even though the technology had long since been invented. Knowing that there's cameras around certainly crimps customers who might need to read about embarrassing topics.
These days, you should be very, very careful when you visit libraries. Somebody might be watching. Treat all library equipment with respect. Bow before it, and kiss it on the cheek. Make sure you insert the microfilm reels frontward every single time, or you can be in for a lot of humiliation when the librarian catches you trying to read an upside-down newspaper from 1965.
Just as important as this, try to make sure you know where all the cameras in your local library are. When you think you know, warn all your friends and family. And try to keep an eye on the cameras.
That's countersurveillance on your part, and it keeps things honest.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Big Library is watching you!
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I went to a Wendy's in central KY last week and there were cameras focused on customers eating in the dining room. I saw the tv monitors that were showing what the cameras saw and I was shocked that I might be being watched or recorded as I ate my double cheeseburger. I can understand the cash register and even the exits being under surveillance, but the customers in the act of eating? I found this to be very odd. I also find it odd that there are few places in my city that one can go and not be in the sight of a camera. Do we have any privacy anymore? Where is this type of watching everyone, everywhere, all of the time going to take us. Very Orwellian, wouldn't you say?
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