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Or why not release the data so that we can run queries on it ourselves? I doubt the entire dataset would be larger than a gig. Then we can run queries on top 10 by genres, by authors, by decades, by age group, gender, etc. Whatever we want.

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Librarians are almost-universally hardline privacy advocates. They would be very unlikely to release a dataset that could be deanonymized.

I wonder if they computerized check out history from pre-computer era. i.e. using paper cards for check outs

Im not certain, but I vaguely remember a punch-card type checkout in the Brooklyn Public Library when I was a child in the 80s. That would suggest the data is hopefully around and ingestable into a modern system (prob already done)

Library data could easily be anonymized, especially for what we are doing looking to do here. We wouldn't even need account info, just information on books ( category, author, etc ) and the dates it was checked out.

I can't see how, can you explain that.

You know Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone was checked out on 20-01-12, from my city's library .. how do you know who in my city checked it out?

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