Our local library has a automated check-in/out machine. We thought it was very advanced. You can slide a whole stack of books onto the sensor and it automatically detects all the barcodes at once.
Still, there was that niggling feeling of "not-rightness." I always chalked it up to my feeling of loyalty to the idea of an actual honest-to-God librarian being around. Having worked in libraries for about six years, the idea of a machine replacing a person never sat right with me.
A few days ago, I was... well, semi-vindicated.
Bruno placed his book onto the sensor, pressed the requisite buttons, and the machine obediently spat out the receipt.
Banana, said the receipt.
Bruno looked at the book, which was not only unpeelable and non-yellow, but also had nothing whatsoever to do with bananas.
Banana? He wound up going to the front desk... to the human librarian... to inquire about the oddity.
Three cheers for real librarians!
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