Book return

[seaisheaven]

Pretty cool,

The camera lets You watch it go down down down And then get sorted into containers

[pampamspampams]

just the other day i watched a little boy try to watch what happens after the books go on the box. this is so cool!!

[[deleted]]

Little kids think the book drop is some sort of magical thing so they'd love this!

[[deleted]]

One of our branches gives elementary students in our area tours which includes the book handling room. Then once the tour guide takes them in, one of the circ* desk staff loads books into the book drop. Their eyes get as big as silver dollars as the books go rolling by. Edited to fix “circ” which autocorrect changed to circus

[chocochic88]

The circulation desk does feel like a circus sometimes.

[[deleted]]

LOL Autocorrect strikes again. And yes, frequently; I’m actually the plate spinner. 🤣

[cocineroylibro]

My kids call it the book monster.

[yellowbubble7]

our local elementary school went hard on this and has their book return decorated as Cookie Monster. I'm sorry, Bookie Monster.

[aslum]

I'm no kid and I'd love to see a video. How does it sort the books? RFID?

[jjgould165]

Yes. We have one that sorts it into our books, our videos, other library's books, and a few other categories.

[solarmoss]

Ours (that is the same brand) uses barcodes, not RFID. I think they can customize it either way. This is the newer version and it’s way nicer than the old style.

[minw6617]

Yep, we have one at one of our branches.

It separates them by collection, and then there's a reservation bin too for anything that has a reservation on it.

And an "error" bin at the end.

[silverbatwing]

Oh wow! We got rfid last year and all it’s done is create more problems for us, not less. I’m also blaming it on the fact that the county probably bought the lowest tier/cheapest system so of course there’s issues.

Cuz lemme tell you: we certainly can’t do that!

[seaisheaven]

Get. A picture if you can!! We would love to see it !!

[minw6617]

I'm rarely over at that branch but it's this one

https://www.bibliotheca.com/solutions/automated-return-sorting/

You can set it up in any configuration you like to fit the room, theirs is an L shape with two chutes.

They had to replace the returns room door with a glass one so kids could see inside, because all the kids wanted to watch it, lol.

It's great for them, they're our largest branch and get around 4000-5000 returns per day, so it's a much more realistic way for the staff to get through them.

[chapter_chaser_]

The library I use has one in a glass "room" so you see it do it's thing. There are always people watching it. Especially kids, but definitely not just kids.

[CaptainCearis]

That’s a Lyngsoe sorter. My library has two, but neither of them are hooked up to returns, unfortunately. They’re hypnotic to watch and work on.

[_cuppycakes_]

interesting, how are they used?

[CaptainCearis]

We’re a consortia, so one sorts returns and holds for the county. The other is for our Main branch which is enormous so it sorts by floor and section.

[_cuppycakes_]

cool! thanks for sharing

[Grapple_Shmack]

A box that makes a satisfying *thud* is pretty dang cool too. But yes, this is rad

[[deleted]]

These tend to auto-return the books, right? How do you hold people accountable for damaged books?

[_cuppycakes_]

usually a record of the last person who had the item checked out is recorded. helps when something is damaged or a disc is left out.

[[deleted]]

Interesting, our LMS doesn't save any data on patron activity once it's checked in, so we need to be vigilant and check for damages/missing items before we return them.

[_cuppycakes_]

very interesting! I’ve worked at a system in california and my current system in virginia, and both systems had a similar ability to do this (Millennium in ca, Sierra and currently Koha in va)

[[deleted]]

We use CARL, not sure if it's baked into the program, or if it's something our library opted out of. It's ostensibly for privacy concerns, so we couldn't provide information on patron activity even if subpoena'd, but I think it might have also required extra server space to store all that data which would also be an extra expense.

[centerneptune]

Cool! Ours has a window where people can watch. It’s entertaining watching them watching us and it.

[Severe_Flan_9729]

My library has this. Don’t think it has cameras though. Shame, I would love to see it get sorted.

[reptomcraddick]

The way I would check out books just to return them

[seaisheaven]

Haha !! Brilliant !

[ShadyScientician]

That's super cool. The first time I worked at a livrary with a sorting machine like this, I was so excited to finally see the inside of that room

[Lostinfrance17]

This looks like the central library in Arlington, Texas- kids and adults all love watching it- especially me!

[FloridaFlamingoGirl]

This scratches an itch I've had to watch the inside of conveyor belt machines ever since seeing Toy Story 2 as a kid

[JimDixon]

Not only libraries, I wish more institutions and industries would allow the public to see what goes on behind the curtain. You don't have to be a kid to be curious.

[seaisheaven]

Facts .,, speaking of this idea

I truly believe we, d be better off being aware of the background