Brooklyn wins 4th annual ‘Battle of the Book Sorters’
The New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library joined forces to take on Washington state’s King County Public Library for the fourth annual Book Sorting CompetitionWednesday morning. The combined NYPL/BPL’s “BookOps” defeated returning champion Washington, with 12,570 items sorted to King County’s 11,868. The win evens the standings to two wins apiece.
“King County Library beating us this year? Fuhgeddaboutit,” said Salvatore Magaddino, Deputy Director of BookOps, before the competition began. “We are ready, and the Empire State will tower over Mt. Rainer!”
The systems competed to see who can sort the most books in one hour. New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library share a state-of-the-art, automated book sorter (as well as all book delivery operations), so they formed a single team. The defeated returning champion King County in Washington State has its own sorter, and had been leading the annual contest with two wins to New York’s one.