Students working in the new learning commons area in the east wing of D.H. Hill Library are being watched from above.
Workers put up a Webcam in the student commons area during the renovation of the new wing. The live feed can be viewed by anyone on the library’s Web site.
They also set up security cameras in the special collections room and exhibit hall of the new wing.
Capt. Jon Barnwell of Campus Police said the security cameras have helped decrease crime in the the special collections room and exhibit hall.
He said the main purpose of the Webcam in the learning commons area is not for security, but said he anticipates it will help deter thefts.
According to Barnwell, the Webcam’s primary purpose is to promote the new commons area to prospective students.
“It’s a really good way to help promote the new area,” he said. “People don’t even have to leave their homes, and they can see all the great things they’ve added to the library.” The camera sits atop a bookcase near the entrance of the room and looks onto students walking by or sitting at computer work stations.
Barnwell said, while the camera helps promote the new area, students working lose privacy.
“Common people anywhere, at any time, can view whoever is in the library at that time,” he said. “But in this age of electronic media, no one can have a reasonable expectation for privacy when they are in a public area.”
Many students working in the learning commons area were not aware that a Webcam had been set up atop a bookcase across the room.
“I had no idea there was one in here,” Jasmine Clark, a freshman in electrical engineering, said.
Though Clark was unaware, she was sitting at a desk almost in the middle of the screen online – available to the public through the N.C. State Libraries’ Web site.
Clark said she’s OK with having the Webcam broadcasting students studying over the Internet.
“It’s a public library – a public place,” she said. “If someone doesn’t want to be seen, they should work in their own private area.”
Katherine Chesnutt, a senior in science education, was working in the learning commons area at the same time as Clark. She said she also wasn’t aware of the presence of the Webcam.
She agreed with Clark, and said she didn’t see anything wrong with a Webcam in the library.
“I guess it’s all right – it could be used for studies and security,” Chesnutt said. “As long as people aren’t abusing it, I think it’s OK. Then [if it was abused], maybe a Webcam wouldn’t be the best idea.”
On Thursday, a thread on The Wolf Web — the unofficial message board of NCSU — was made, dedicated to a female student studying in the commons area.
The creator of the thread had watched the woman on the live Webcam feed. Screen shots of two girls, taken from the Webcam footage, were posted on the thread. Users in the thread also commented on when the girls left and returned to the commons area.
This message board thread has prompted some students to inquire about the security of a Webcam.
“I really don’t think they should be doing that,” Chesnutt said. “It’s not going to stop me from coming [to the commons area], but I can really see it intimidating some girls from studying here. It’s not cool.”
But, Clark said she thinks the message board posters were simply entertaining themselves.
“It’s kinda funny,” she said. “It’s OK if it’s college kids doing it. They’re just doing it to be funny – as entertainment. It’s if it was a sex offender or someone like that. Obviously, it would be different.”
The security guard patrolling the library Monday evening declined to comment.
