Librarians Go Rogue
Staff at the East Lake County Library say they were just trying to save books.
But one librarian has been fired in connection with a scheme
involving the creation of a fake library patron who “checked out” more
than 2,000 books over the last year, as
The fake patron, named “Chuck Finley” is recorded as checking out 2,361 books ranging from children’s book Why Do My Ears Pop? to John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row.
Branch supervisor George
Dore was fired on Dec. 27, Two other employees involved are still working at
the library.Dore told the Sentinel that
two employees hatched the plan for a good reason. The library’s computer
system automatically flags books for removal if no one has checked them
out within a year, and they wanted to keep the books on the shelves.
This plan prevented the
books from getting tossed, which also prevented the library from having
to spend money re-purchasing books its staff wanted to keep.
Some news outlets have
suggested that the library might have an ulterior motive — boosting its
funding by fraudulently increasing circulation statistics. But county
spokeswoman Pappacoda told said that this just isn’t true — county
libraries, she said, do not receive funding based on circulation
numbers.
Even so, Pappacoda said, the
county felt that firing Dore was justified because in creating the fake
patron — which involved a made-up address and driver’s license number —
the library was “creating a false public record.” She added that no one
involved was facing any criminal charges.
Pappacoda also said that
after the county was tipped off that something seemed suspicious with
the library’s records, they got a third-party auditor to assess the
situation. It was that auditor who found out the truth about Finley.
This is to sad, trying to save books and get fired for it. What do you think?
