Interlibrary Loan Monitoring Story Smelling Fishy

There is now another version of this story about a Dartmouth student who received a visit from Homeland Security after requesting an original version of Mao's Little Red Book. The latest version takes place at University of California/Santa Cruz and mentions History Professor Bruce Levine. I emailed Levine to see if he could verify the story, but my email was the first he'd heard about it. He was a bit amused, as his specialty is Civil War history, and curious about his name got tacked on to the story. ALA's Public Information Office is digging into the story as well. More details as they become available!
http://www.lisnews.com/
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The bit about student needing to give his SSN to get an ILL book set off flags for me.
I can't think of a library anywhere that would require a SSN.

It may be that the campus library requested his student id number which may still be his SSN. My school only stopped using ss numbers a couple of semesters ago.

my skool changed over just about 1.5 years ago, so many students still have their SS#s as their student ID #s

was probably a stupid idea to do that.

Most ILL systems require the student ID number, and at some schools that is still the SSN.

keep the id of Foster children secret, uses the child's SSN. :rofl:

I called them earlier
Ask them yourself (phone number on bottom) http://www.lib.umassd.edu/SPpages/Hourinfo.html
She told me 3 others were involved as well.

like most major university libraries.
http://www.lib.umassd.edu

It was true for me at Arizona State in the 90's, and it was true at the University of Texas until just a few semesters ago.

I imagine that many schools still have students use their SSN as their unique ID. It was never a concern until identity theft and privacy issues became a primary concern in the last couple of years.

What else besides the SSN causes you to doubt the veracity of this story?

and she confirmed the fact that feds came to this kids house. I was sort of in disbelief too, but not anymore! Very scary that this happened.

It happened here. Can't speak for CA, but can speak that it happened here. I know the reporter (not well, but know him) and believe the story as written.

It is close to final/leaving campus time. I will try to stop by the professors offices to see if they will speak to me directly about it.

I am not a student there, so I am not sure what their office hours are. I can find out easily enough though, and pay them a visit just the same.

just went from manual library cards to computer cards. To qualify for the computer card my SSN was required.

I think "Well I got nothing to hide and I am quite old so I think (FI). And then I went against all my beliefs and gave out my SSN so I can keep using the library system.

Remember; "One's SSN is for SS only and not to be used for identification." "Sure." I say.

180

a number close, but not exactly my SSN. Students can't do this if they're expecting any kind of paycheck from the uni, but I'd certainly do that with a public library (I doubt they verify??).

not an urban legend -- dire and terrifying proof of Bush's fascist intent -- and to suggest otherwise without proof is reflexive McCarthyism that merely furthers the Bush program of turning the U.S. into the Fourth Reich. Here is the link to the newspaper that courageously broke the story and is now itself (along with all its editorial staff members) no doubt on the secret police watch list:

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-17-05/a09lo650.htm

well, i could change it, but I'm lazy.