Let Your Fingers Do the Talking

As sure as the sun rises, children will forget to bring their library cards to the library. Is there a way to avoid long lines, embarrassed kids, and staff frustration caused by having to look up their records? Softlink America and Sagebrush—makers of library automation systems—have an answer: identify kids by their fingerprints.

Softlink's Finger Recognition System (FRS) (www.softlinkamerica.com) and Sagebrush's Ucheck (www.sagebrushcorp.com) work like a library card scanner. Students place their finger on a pad. The software scans the fingerprint and then matches it with a code number in the database. It is then linked to a student's circulation record, which pops up on a computer screen. Once the fingerprint is recorded, the program is ready to check out materials or deal with overdues in a matter of seconds.

There's one hitch—libraries must have installed Softlink Alice library automation software, or Sagebrush's Athena or Winnebago Spectrum system software. While Sagebrush is a familiar name, Softlink is the American division of an Australian company that provides automation systems in 70 percent of school libraries in Australia and 55 percent in the UK. It formerly produced software for the Alexandria for Windows product, sold by COMPanion Corporation. It is now selling the Softlink Alice system under its own brand name. Softlink unveiled its fingerprinting software last November, and no American libraries are using it yet. However, Sue Wise, Softlink America's president, is quick to point out that libraries around the world "are using it and love it."

Although the fingerprinting software may make life easier for school libraries, the real question is whether such intrusive technology will go over well in the U.S. Both Wise and Sagebrush's Keith Halasy acknowledge that many parents—and librarians—will be skittish about a government institution collecting private information about their child. "Any time you take student ID information and store it in a centralized place, red flags go up everywhere among parents," Halasy says. Wise, however, is quick to emphasize FRS's security and accuracy. Softlink recently conducted an extensive test at an Australian school, and the system never came up with the wrong borrower. "The hardware manufacturers cite it as a million-to-one chance," says Wise. If a matching fingerprint isn't found, the computer will display 'invalid read,' and it will not display the closest borrower. But are the fingerprints secure, and would others have access to the image? Wise admits that some adults are nervous about the "Big Brother" problem, but adds that when the fingerprint of a new borrower is scanned, it's immediately encrypted, meaning a long string of numerical codes are stored rather than actual fingerprints.

For those who use either Sagebrush's or Softlink's library management system, the fingerprinting software is reasonably priced. Softlink's FRS costs about $400—including tech support—and the fingerprint pads cost $200 each (or $350 for a unit with a keypad). A self-checkout module is also available for Softlink Alice, thus allowing users to fingerprint, and check items out, themselves.

Ucheck sells for $695, which includes the fingerprint-identification software, plus one fingerprint pad. "Our goal was to bring student self-checkout to the lower grades," says Halasy. The thumbprint unit, he says, is actually one option for its self-checkout system that also allows students to use library cards to check out their own books. But Halasy says that Sagebrush also wanted a way to offer self-checkout to elementary schools, or schools in which staff would like to offer minimum-hassle checkout to users. Its software takes three scans of a student's finger, selects the best one, and like the Softlink system, transforms the scanned fingerprint into a numeric code. Halasy says that great care was taken in testing the Ucheck system with primary students. "You're dealing with kids; they have smaller fingerprints. Kids eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before they check out their books."