Something is missing from Alameda County libaries lately.
The books.
Librarians in the East Bay have been steadily "discarding" library books, according to the East Bay Express, tossing older copies into garbage bins "in bulk."
"Managers are making room for newer books and as a result have been trashing older ones in mass quantities," the newspaper reported.
Librarians who agreed to speak with the newspaper on condition of anonymity say that the process of removing books has been haphazard: "quality" titles that could have been donated or resold have been dumped in the garbage.
About 12,000 books -- out of a total collection of 80,000 -- have been discarded recently, the newspaper reported. Of those, 70 percent were thrown away.
Some librarians-in-charge defended the practice, saying that books that are too old or too inaccurate for modern readers' needs are removed from collections.
