Copenhagen’s libraries have relatively few books in relation to the number of citizens they serve, and now management has decided to throw out almost half a million of them, DR reports.

Jakob Heide Petersen, the head of Copenhagen libraries, said the object was to create more space on the shelves and that he didn’t think users would be left with a lack of choice.

“The point of the exercise is to sort out the books that people don’t borrow and create more space to present the literature we want to disseminate,” he said.

“We can take advantage of our book collection much better. When we’re finished with this round of discarding, we will still have about a million items.”

Librarians concerned
But Tage Sørensen, the union representative for librarians in the capital region, said he and his colleagues are concerned about the initiative.

“It means the capital’s libraries will be less attractive,” he said.

“The users have been involved in very little about how their libraries will look in the future.”