In Ireland, librarians are protesting plans to fully automate a library. The only paid human staff in the library on a recent test run were on the security team. A library solely staffed by security guards is an incredibly depressing thought.

In other depressing library news: Linda Jacobson at the School Library Journal reports that more librarians are self-censoring their collections these days:

School libraries at all levels are more likely than they were eight years ago to place content labels on books or to have restricted sections for books containing mature content, a data comparison to a 2008 SLJ survey on collection development and self-censorship revealed. The practice of using content labels has increased the most at the elementary level, from 18 to 33 percent. At the middle school level, 27 percent of respondents say they currently use labels, compared to 10 percent in 2008, and in high school, the number has increased from six to 11 percent.

Go hug a librarian today, okay?