Found out my town's library is run by a robot now

I was at the public library in Dayton, Ohio yesterday and noticed the front desk has this automated check-in kiosk that also sorts returns. The librarian told me it handles about 1,200 returns a day, which used to take two part time workers. She seemed happy about it, but I couldn't stop thinking about those two folks. Has anyone else seen libraries or other public services quietly swapping humans for machines without a big announcement?

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barbara_grant42mo ago

Them being happy about it is exactly what happened at our post office with the new sorting machine. At first it seemed great, but then I found out three clerks got moved to night shifts and one quit.

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brianreed2mo ago

Man, that's too familiar! My buddy's hardware store got a new inventory scanner and the owner was bragging about how fast checkout was, but then the two cashiers who'd been there for years got moved to the stockroom, and one of them just quit the next week. It's like the machine saves money on paper but loses the people who actually kept the place running, you know?

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