New Mexico: Two Overdue Items Land Public Library User in Jail, Materials Valued at $35.98

Now that's the way to enforce lending policies :)

Read the full article here

Why Automate - Because there is no other choice!

Doing More (much more) with Le$$ !  

When Technology in the Library Sucks

Isn't if funny how the library is always defending its mistakes in front of the Board.  We see this often, but now someone actually wrote about it. 

The basic technology just doesn't work - they [library] wasted money and it still doesn't perform as needed, so instead of fixing the situation, they just ignore the entire thing and move on :)

Read more about it here.

"We have no money", so lets spend $22,600 for a router

Would you spend $22,600 for a router??

This is exactly what happens when people allocate money for a "purpose" without understanding the true needs.  Here we are, delivering a truly needed value to libraries with the critical technology to keep the operations flowing, fighting to save every penny, while some bureaucrats decide where the real money flows.

Read on, how some libraries in Virginia spend over $22,600 for routers in this economy ??!!@@??## 

Libraries just love our allCIRC-Cube

Take a look at an awesome write-up one of our allCIRC-Cube customers received about the system.  This not only saves them money in security expenses, but also eliminates theft.

Read more

Who needs libraries? WE DO !!

Libraries are much needed resources.  The worst the economy gets, the more libraries serve as a focal point of the community, providing much needed resources.  Read more.

Awesome Book Shelf for Libraries

Is this cool or what?  Instead of spending thousands of dollars on Meganite surface circulation desk tops, libraries should spend on stuff like this, I think.  Will certainly encourage people to come to the library :)  Don't you think?

We resell this.  Just call us.

Library Discuss DVD Thefts

We all know it, we all see it, but few want to admit to it - its going on everyday. With tools like Craigslist and Ebay, there are countless of these small "enterprises" that use the library DVD collection as a free supplier of content to sell.  Ingenuity or theft, in either case, the library looses ... and we sell more Cubes :)

Read more...

RFID, really?

I had a conversation with someone from NY area library at the recent PLA show, and these are her exact words:

"Our customers still find ways of stealing. They tear out the RFID tags and walk out with our material. We loose many of our DVDs that way. "

Is this really true? Is it this easy to tear those things off, or do they just simply break them? We know from experience that many have quite a few "choice words" to say about the disappointment with RFID especially when it comes to security, but I just didn't think people would actually remove the tags (its just as easy to shield it with foil).

What are your thoughts and experiences?

Rebooting Library Privacy in the Age of the Network

As makers of self check equipment we are acutely aware of patron privacy needs. THIS ARTICLE from HYPER PUBLIC, A SYMPOSIUM ON DESIGNING PRIVACY AND PUBLIC SPACE IN THE CONNECTED WORLD HARVARD UNIVERSITY is quite interesting.

Library Postcards

Talk about niche! A nice collection, of a single subject. Wow.

ALLCIRC: A REVOLUTION IN MEDIA SECURITY AND SELF-SERVICE IN LIBRARIES

SOMERDALE, NJ, March 12, 2010: Library Automation Technologies, Inc. (LAT), a leader in library automation products, is pleased to announce the release into production of the next generation model of its popular allCIRC™ system, the allCIRC-X™, that combines 100% media theft security with complete load / unload patron self-service and a full-featured book self-check in a smaller portable footprint with greater capacity, significantly faster throughput, higher value and new features.

Building on knowledge and feedback of a number of existing installations throughout the country, allCIRC-X™ redefines the self-service concept by creating a one-stop self-service station for all materials in the library – “It’s a circ-desk in a box.” commented Mandi Bottle, a Circulation Desk Manager.

Fully ADA Compliant, the allCIRC-X™ provides a secure CD/DVD/BluRay dispensing and book self-check as well as patron media loading capability all in one ultra compact, fast system. Staff involvement is minimized as patrons themselves can now also easily and securely load the checked out items directly into allCIRC-X™ upon their return back into the library.

“From the ground-up, we have fully redesigned our approach to self service to create a fully ADA compliant system that not only eliminates the need for libraries to spend money on security, but also allows patrons to load items back in, thereby fully eliminating extra staff involvement in self-service process. Simply drop the disk into the machine and that’s all – anyone can do it.” commented Oleg Boyarsky, President and CEO of LAT. “In today’s hard economy allCIRC-X provides an unprecedented value proposition for libraries, because it eliminates the need to spend already limited resources for media security and handling, while simultaneously providing 100% theft protection for most prized media collections.”

The size of a small desk, allCIRC-X measures 33”x20”x34” and offers a totally “fluid” component placement, so that the library can position the machine in any orinentation and still have a completely ergonomically pleasing environment. With an included Meganite® top and Apple®-like translucent plastic sides, the machine loads and dispenses disks through a single slot, thereby allowing anyone to simply “take” or “drop-in” media.

Costing less than a typical book self-check, allCIRC-X will be exhibited at the PLA Conference in Portland, Oregon at the LAT’s booth #: 1400 Additional features and capabilities are described at: www.allCIRC.com

For more information about all of LAT's technologies and products, jump to: www.LATcorp.com

DOJ & ADA Mandate Ebook Readers Be Accessible to All

... Shouldn't we do that for all equipment that is designed for public use? At LAT we have spent $1000s to make sure that all of our products, and especially the upcoming allCIRC, fully comply to ADA standards and don't discriminate against users with disabilities; others, would rather spend more on an extra RFID tag :)

Now that DOJ is in the loop, things will start to happen.

Read About It Here

Seen On Tumblr

Review: A Far Cry From Kensington

A Far Cry from Kensington New Directions (2000), Paperback, 192 pages

I was handed this fictional memoir, by someone I trust to provide quality literary experiences- he assured me of its solid storytelling, and richness of content.

For me, prior to being handed this book, Muriel Spark really brought two things to mind: lighting cigars, (get it?) and books like Please Don't Eat the Daisies , which in reality share nothing with her.
I had no idea.

In his book, Rotten: No Irish No Blacks No Dogs, one finds out just how literary minded John Lydon is and how he was a fan of lots of great literature (Graham Greene's work springs to mind)... I was shocked when preparing to write this that Muriel Spark's Book The Public Image was where Lydon got the name for PiL. Had I not read his book I never would've guessed it but my suspicions were piqued when reviewing Spark's body of work.

In A Far Cry From Kensington, one gets an accurate portrait of post-war London life, with cramped and damp, recession and thrift, and during the progression of the book it's subsequent awakening from its 6 year nightmare.

Being an Anglophile I might've been satisfied with that and would have been polite about it, but disappointed with its lack of plot arrow.

The plot arrow is large and sharp and accurate: An overweight widow in a boarding house and works at a publisher, insults a literary world hanger-on, which in subsequent years, leads to adverse circumstances over and over again for her, all the while reaffirming her belief that the pisseur de copie "pisser or copy" is just what he is, an opportunistic second banana with no moral compunction about exploitation of personal relationships, and it being a small world, capable of infecting more than just the working world of Spark's protagonist, Mrs. Hawkins.

As A Far Cry From Kensington progresses, Mrs. Hawkins loses the insulation she grew during the war; both emotionally and physically- it falls away in the form of weight loss, the loss as allegory for her maturation, as evidenced by her questioning her faith, learning to stand firm when challenged about her interpersonal convictions and rising to the occasion when called upon by her neighbors who have revealed formerly private crises, that stemmed from character flaws that Mrs Hawkins shows us without a word of avarice, only predictive empathy, from someone who by virtue of being a war-widow, feels it necessary to conduct oneself with more maturity than others of her age.

I've hit the spoiler wall; let me just say within all the wool and teacups and rugs and wallpaper there's crazies, death, fist-fighting, insults, medical emergencies, injustice, karma, foreigners, revenge, hoodoo and more. A perfect mix of atmosphere and activity for anyone looking to read outside of genre.

It was also surprising for me, because I thought she was a 1940's & 50's writer (like I said I didn't know anything about her - just the name) - her style in this book doesn't give away that it was written 1988. Her arc runs from Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 1961 to 2004's The Finishing School.

I suppose that since I'm a PiL fan I'll read The Public Image next and see what more she has to offer.

Final words: read A Far Cry From Kensington, already.


1st ed cover

O Canada!

Photos of Prince George, BC allCIRCs - a beautiful library with smart people working there!
More on this later!

First Round of Broadband Stimulus Funds Announced, Three Awards to Libraries

From Library Journal:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6712811.html?nid=2671&rid=#reg_visitor_id&source=title

Punk Ass Book Jockeys!

This is hysterical. Please enjoy, those of you forced to wend their way through local politics.

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

Bookstores Are Dead...Long Live the Library

Check It Out Here

SELF CHECK OF A DIFFERENT KIND…….

LAT’s keywords are Flexibility – Innovation – Collaboration. But without the outer two, we can’t get to the inner one – innovation. So while we are always saying that “Librarians design our equipment!” by virtue of the fact that their observation of technology in that real-world environment cannot be replicated in our labs (and boy, do we try!), we still tend to be amazed what does present itself in the real world some time.

Phone boxes are being decommissioned all over the UK and a library in Somerset, Westbury-sub-Mendip, has decided to turn one into a 24/7/365 self service lending library! Come in, all one of you, take a book, and return it whenever you like.

Wait a minute…. Did we say “real world? When you think about it, it'd be a great way to sort of float your weeds for a while.....

.....but we don't have cool phone booths here in the US!

Full story here and/or here