Editor’s Note: This is part one of a five-part series about Vernon R. Alden Library.
Dean Scott Seaman wasn’t surprised when he found out a student discovered a social security number in an Alden library book during Winter Quarter last year.
As dean of Ohio University’s libraries, Seaman knew the backs of many of Alden’s books still contained checkout cards from the days before computers. He also knew some of these cards had sensitive information on them. But it wasn’t until that student came forward that the library’s employees began actively searching for the cards.
During spring and summer last year, library staff and student employees spent “hundreds, if not thousands, of hours” searching Alden’s nearly 3-million-item collection for old checkout cards, Seaman said. OU’s internal audit committee did a follow-up check earlier this quarter and determined the search had been successful.
“We think we’ve touched everything that would have a card in it,” Seaman said. “This was the right thing to do. Everyone needs to have confidence that there isn’t sensitive information at the library.”
People had written private information such as social security or driver’s license numbers and home addresses on the cards between the 1940s, when people first began receiving monthly social security payments, and the 1980s, when Alden switched to a computer checkout system, Seaman said.
Students had to use their student IDs and names to check out books, but Seaman does not know why they offered additional personal information, he added.
After the one student came forward, library employees had the computer system do a random sampling of 2,000 items dated before 1980 to determine the magnitude of the problem, Seaman said.
The sampling found that about 15 percent of titles had cards, less than 1 percent of cards had identification on them, and 0.5 percent of the cards had sensitive information on them, he said. The cards also seemed to appear in random sections of the library, he said.
This led Seaman to order a comprehensive search of Alden. Although he estimated that tens of thousands of cards were found during the search, no one kept track of how many social security or driver’s license numbers were found, Seaman said.
“It would have been interesting to know, but it would have taken us too long,” he said.
As it was, the project took student employees away from desk duties and shelving work, and OU paid students to work extra hours, Seaman said via e-mail. He has not gone back to calculate how much the project cost the library, and he would not give an estimate, he wrote.
Gary Ginther, the fine arts librarian, noted how much time employees had put into the project.
“We really gave it our full attention,” Ginther said. “We were lucky we could do it over the summer because we’re slower.”
Sophomore Alyssa Kovack, who works at the fourth floor circulation desk, remembers at least one student employee was sent to search through the third floor collection during each shift last Spring Quarter.
“Before I was told what (the cards) were, I just ignored them,” Kovack said. “I never thought it would have something like a social security number on them because that’s crazy to me. They’re so protected these days.”
Now, a computer message reminds Kovack and other employees to look inside the back covers of books whenever they are checked in or out, she said. Since the search, she has only come across one card.
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