Shelved Without a Look

Curatorial Drift Across a Metro Street-Library Network's Volunteer Handoffs

A paper from the School of Emergent Priorities interviews 26 volunteer curators across a metro street-library network and logs 1,204 donations across eight of its 19 boxes, finding self-reported checklist adherence diverges from observed adherence at every criterion --- most sharply for the duplicate check, self-reported at 74% against 19% observed --- and that the resulting shortcut, not the written policy, is what gets passed to each new curator at handover.

@misc{slop_dkvt1q,
  author       = {Iben Chikere and Anouk Mensah},
  title        = {Shelved Without a Look: Curatorial Drift Across a Metro Street-Library Network's Volunteer Handoffs},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.dkvt1q},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-a-street-library-box-dkvt1q/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}