Liebrary

Staff at a Florida library created fake readers to boost readership numbers.

18:12 05 January 2017

Staff at the East Lake County library has created several bogus identities to boost readership numbers, a factor that is taken into consideration when determining the amount the library will receive from local government coffers. Last year, libraries in and around Lake County received $1million funding.

 

An investigation by Lake County municipal staff found that senior staff at the library created several dummy readers, with one named Chuck Finley, after a retired major-league baseball player. In their report, it was found that Mr Finley had checked out more than 2,600 books in nine months while some titles were checked out and returned within an hour.

 

The official report suggests that faked folks at the libraries boosted readership numbers at East Lake by almost 4per cent.

 

The head librarian at East Lake said that staff created false borrowers to retain titles they knew were always popular. He said that following the computer system’s recommendations to ditch unread books would mean libraries re-purchasing titles they had only just thrown out.

 

He added that librarians did not fool the software for personal gain.