The library system in the Chicago suburb of Naperville has signed a contract with U.S. Biometrics Corp. to put fingerprint scanners on 130 computers.
Library officials said requiring index fingerprint identification to use computers in the three-library system would prevent misuse of public computers with Internet access.
Naperville will be only the second U.S. library system to install fingerprint scanners, the American Library Association said. The main library in downtown Buffalo, N.Y., already has the technology.
Naperville officials say fingerprint records would be confidential but the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois says people should not have to leave a fingerprint record to use library facilities.
"We take people's fingerprints because we think they might be guilty of something, not because they want to use the library," ACLU spokesman Ed Yohnka told the Chicago Tribune. "You're creating just another database of information about people."
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