Re: FBI's reading list worries librarians

[Carl Anderson <ca25@drexel.edu>]

One of my favorite library stories concerns the librarian at an
alternative public school in a progressive community in upstate New York.
He experimented with an honor system in his library, allowing students to
take books out at will without keeping any records of the activity.
Eventually he was informed by the principal that he was being dismissed:
not for his experiment, which was praised for its creativity and courage,
but because the library no longer had any books so needed no custodian to
protect them.  This librarian subsequently opened a very nice rare and
used book store, where every incoming bag, box, or parcel had to be
checked at the door and where every outgoing customer underwent a most
thorough scrutinization.

Virtual circulation systems only work when no one suspects that they are
only virtual.  The jig is up as soon as folks begin to realize that they
are never notified or fined for late returns or hauled before a magistrate
for persistent delinquency.

-- Carl Anderson

On Fri, 20 Dec 2002, David Goodman wrote:

> I suspect that there are people around who could resurrect the eradicated
> information after the book is returned.  But I was serious when I
> suggested the possibility that we consider not recording the information
> at all, and accepting the losses. I think we could design arrangements so
> the losses would be not much greater than at present. (would they even,
> perhaps, be less than the circ part of the system costs?) I have worked in
> two libraries where the circulation system didn't actually work, and the
> staff merely pretended it did (one manual, one punched card based). I
> don't think we really need do this now, but if things get worse...
> 
> David Goodman
> __