Okay, here's the irony: the reason (besides modernization) all public libraries, and presumably all school libraries as well, got rid of library cards is that system required signing a card in a pocket in the back of the book. Your name and date was then there for all the world to see which books you checked out when. "Someone"? decided it was an "invasion of privacy" for this to be available, so they switched to the computer system. The result:
1. My local library had to reinventory all books to the new computer system to comply with the law. Not wanting to bother with infrequently-read titles, they discarded thousands, including Newbery and Pulitzer Prizewinners and classics such as "The Right Stuff." (I ought to know; I bought them all for a quarter apiece and am now being crowded out of the house.)
2. Now that the information is in digital form, it goes God knows where instead of just being written on one card in the back of one book.
3. My 76-year-old mother, who can barely remember what happened two hours ago, must check out only new books--it's the only way she can be sure of not having read the thing before!
And, in the end, this system devised to protect "your" privacy makes it EASIER for someone to spy on you!? 1984 meets Fahrenheit 451 indeed! (For more on Fahrenheit 451, see the message boards at www.raybradbury.com).