Library Creates Fake Patron Records To Avoid Book-Purging (heraldnet.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Chuck Finley checked out 2,361 books from a Florida library in just nine months, increasing their total circulation by 3.9%. But he doesn't exist. "The fictional character was concocted by two employees at the library, complete with a false address and driver's license number," according to the Orlando Sentinel. The department overseeing the library acknowledges their general rule is "if something isn't circulated in one to two years, it's typically weeded out of circulation." So the fake patron scheme was concocted by a library assistant working with the library's branch supervisor, who "said he wanted to avoid having to later repurchase books purged from the shelf." But according to the newspaper the branch supervisor "said the same thing is being done at other libraries, too."

Comments

Why purge?

[Darinbob]

I don't understand why they would purge books? One of the benefits of a good library is that you can get hard to find books, rarely read books, older stuff that people have forgotten about, and so forth.

Re:Good for them

[elrous0]

It's a heartwarming tale in the summary, but the article implies that there may have been a somewhat less noble reason for the fake patron (emphasis mine):

nine city-run libraries that are part of the Lake County library system and receive a percentage of their funding based on circulation levels.

Re:No props for the Burn Notice reference?

[sconeu]

Finley played for the Angels from 1986 through 1999.