[Publib] Self-Service Holds

[Daniel Messer - LIBRARY]

Well, you have to realize that when you move the holds to a self-service
scheme, you are necessarily sacrificing patron privacy. If your ILS
automatically generates hold pick up slips to put in the books, then
make sure what's on that is what you ACTUALLY want on that!

We store our items on their sides with the spines down and the slips
sticking out of them and really, in all the time I've worked with this
system, I've never seen anyone leafing through the holds trying to find
out what someone else is reading. They're too busy trying to find their
holds to look through someone else's.

However there is something to be said for storing thing with the spines
facing up because it makes it easy to find a mis-shelved hold if you
know what item you're looking for.

The only complaint I ever got was a teacher who didn't want his students
knowing what he read. We politely let him know that we didn't have the
area available to store his holds separately and that he should pick
them up as quickly as possible to avoid "eavesdropping."

Then we also talked about how he was vastly overrating how much his
students probably cared about him anyway. :)

Yours,
~Dr. Gonzo!


---
Daniel Messer
Circulation Supervisor
Queen Creek Library
21802 S Ellsworth Rd
Queen Creek, AZ 85242
danielmesser at mcldaz.org
602-652-3362
Simplicibus itaque verbis gaudet Mathematica veritas, cum etiam per se
simplex sit Veritas oratio. ~Tycho Brahe

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32)
iD8DBQFJj6qXGD+i0Cs9rsIRAhmTAJ4p4gsu5wPH3uTLlYA2yt9UYf1+/wCdHiLp
H+8sg3sgJpbOkO1p1Thug5Q=
=pGzn
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----


-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Jennifer Worley
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 10:48 AM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] Self-Service Holds


We are moving to a self-service holds system in a few months to coincide
with new express check-out stations.  Can anyone tell me if they do this
at their library and how they handle patron privacy?  I am looking for a
solution that protects the patron but does not require alot of staff
time and effort.  Also, have you had patron complaints about the system?
What are they?

Thanks for your help,
Jenny



Jenny Worley
Circulation Manager
East Shore Area Library
Dauphin County Library System
717-652-9380, ext. 127
jworley at dcls.org




_______________________________________________
Publib mailing list
Publib at webjunction.org
http://lists.webjunction.org/mailman/listinfo/publib