[Publib] The Cashless Library

[Emily Horner]

The large urban library system where I work has been cashless for  
almost two years now.

Essentially, patrons use their library cards as ATM cards. We have a  
kiosk that patrons can use to add money to their library cards to pay  
fines, and pay for printing and photocopies. The kiosk accepts  
payment from credit/debit cards, bills, and coins.

The biggest disadvantage to this is that sometimes the kiosk goes out  
of order. It's finicky about accepting paper money, and although it  
seems to generally work now, we had a period a few months ago when  
the kiosk at our branch was breaking down every couple of weeks. And  
patrons were very angry that they wouldn't be able to check out a  
book if it wasn't *their* fault they couldn't pay their fines.  
(Ideally, of course, circulation staff should override fines when the  
kiosk is out of order).

The other disadvantage is that we can't refund someone's money for a  
print job that went wrong, or a bad photocopy, without going through  
a whole procedure of paperwork. I don't want to say "Tough luck, you  
should have used print preview," but that's what it comes down to,  
and it's not great customer service.

Also, if you pay with cash, the kiosk doesn't give back any change.  
If you want to pay a $6 fine, and all you have on you are $20 bills,  
you have to pay the entire $20 and the rest stays on your card.  
Patrons don't like this much either.

Patrons sometimes need a lot of hand-holding with making their way  
through the touch screen interface, inputting their PIN number,  
forgetting their PIN number, figuring out how to scan their card  
right, figuring out how to put their cash in. It's probably not as  
time-consuming as cash once you have your patrons trained.

Handling cash has a lot of problems to. When I worked at a branch  
that used cash I didn't like having to spend fifteen minutes every  
night counting pennies, and since the library where I work now is a  
somewhat high-crime area, it makes me feel better to know that we  
don't have a cash register. But I have some mixed feelings about it.

On Oct 1, 2009, at 3:50 PM, Lise Chlebanowski wrote:

> Good Afternoon everyone,
>
> My boss is very interested in having both of our branches become  
> "cashless". He wants all transactions to be with plastic or through  
> funds placed on library cards. Has anyone done this?
>
> Pros & cons would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
>
> Lisë Chlebanowski
> Library Manager
> Sam Garcia Western Avenue Library
> 495 E. Western Ave.
> Avondale, AZ   85323
> 623-333-2611 D
> 623-333-0260 F
> lchlebanowski at avondale.org
>
> Now Reading on my Kindle: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
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>
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