Not sure how to feel about this one. The Orlando Sentinel reports that two staff members of the East Lake Library in Florida have been suspended for allegedly creating bogus borrowers, in order to outwit automated book-culling software designed to discard titles that are not being read. The accused have alleged that the practice is widespread among librarians fighting to protect book budgets. After an anonymous complaint was filed about the library an investigation revealed that librarians had created several fake identities with false addresses and drivers’ license numbers. Support for the librarians has come from digital activist Cory Doctorow of the Boing Boing blog. He attacked the use of automated stock systems, calling it “datafication at its worst”.
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