Robot Nation

Recently my local public library
installed drop boxes for returned books.
So the public no long had to stop
a member of staff to leave off
the books that they were finished with.

The library said 'It is an efficiency saving'
designed to free up the time of the staff,
so they can engage more with the public.

But returning books that had been borrowed
was one of the easiest ways the public had
of engaging with staff, and this came after
much else has been computerised before that.

Soon robots will be reinventing 'public service values'
by borrowing books from automated public libraries
where human beings are no longer involved.