(no subject)

[lady_t_220]

Went to Sarah's for lunch today, and took a quick trip to the library while I was up that end of town. They have new self-serve machines with shiny scanny things, and you just put all the books in a big pile in the box and it detects the chips in them and tells you what you've put in it without having to scan all the barcodes individually. It was highly exciting.

(OK, not THAT exciting really, but semi-exciting in an 'ooooh, that's clever...' kind of way. Still, at least now I have some books to tide me over til my next 'yey, gift vouchers!' amazon order comes through.)


That aside, done a big fat nothing today. Stuck home all tomorrow waiting for the boiler man so if I get really bored I may write something. On the other hand, I may get incredibly excited about the return of functioning heat and taps with warm water in and spend all day in the bath. You never can tell.

Comments

[deke.livejournal.com]

The thing about those scanners is you have to be careful. If they're not shielded properly and anyone else has a book in their vicinity (on the same table off to the side, sometimes even at the check out next to yours) you could wind up checking out THEIR books, too. This has happened with our library. I scanned a book for Mom on her card, then set it off to the side to check mine out. Her book wound up on MY account, as did one from the gal next to me who was doing the same thing. The one she set off to the side on her machine was close enough to be recorded by mine. Good thing she turned it in on time!

I explained my concerns to the manufacturer when I was at ALA Midwinter last year (lucky break!) and they said it was FCPL's fault because they didn't shield them right. It wasn't THEIR fault at all! (whatever, Mr. Buck Passer!)

[lady-t-220.livejournal.com]

Yeah, see the little touch screens are handy for that, it tells you what it's got in the box and you have to confirm they're yours before they go on your account. So I guess if it's reading extra books you can delete them from the list before you confirm.

[deke.livejournal.com]

I suppose it helps if your stack is small enough that all your books fit on one screen. :P

[lady-t-220.livejournal.com]

Yeah, yeah, there is that... I find it easier to go there more often and just get a few at a time....