barry the book, library repo man

While I think it’s going overboard to sic collection agencies on people for overdue fines, having this man show up on your doorstep just to pick up the books you haven’t returned might not be all bad.

Avid reader Barry, who works 18 hours a week and holds his own library card, applied for the position of library stock recovery officer with Bury council when he was made redundant from a Manchester-based debt collection agency in 1999. He now collects up to 40 books a day for Bury’s seven public libraries on his rounds in his car. [thanks jen]