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Automated book-culling software drives librarians to create fake patrons to "check out" endangered titles

Doctorow, Cory
http://boingboing.net/2017/01/02/automated-book-culling-softwar.html

Publisher:  http://boingboing.net
Date Written:  02/01/2017
Year Published:  2017  
Resource Type:  Article

Two employees at the East Lake County Library created a fictional patron called Chuck Finley and then used the account to check out 2,361 books over nine months in 2016, rescuing the books from automated purges of low-popularity titles.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Two employees at the East Lake County Library created a fictional patron called Chuck Finley -- entering fake driver's license and address details into the library system -- and then used the account to check out 2,361 books over nine months in 2016, in order to trick the system into believing that the books they loved were being circulated to the library's patrons, thus rescuing the books from automated purges of low-popularity titles.

Library branch supervisor George Dore was suspended for his role in the episode; he said that he was trying to game the algorithm because he knew that these books would come back into vogue and that his library would have to spend extra money re-purchasing them later. He said that other libraries were doing the same thing.

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