D.O.P.-T.

[weofodthignen]

The return machines at the library haven't been working for a week. Some software disimprovement, probably. Everybody has to come into the library and dump their books, videos, etc. into a big canvas-sided bin.

Comments

[captainsblog]

Is this a Thing there? Our town has four libraries, and three of them, like virtually every one I've ever used in every other city and town, just have a slot in a wall or door like on the end of drive-up mailboxes that you just drop your returns in but can't reach in to steal shit. Only the main library has one of those machines that barcodes the return on the way in. We've never gotten a fine or lost book notice on anything we used this "honor system" for, and I've avoided the machine at Audubon because it takes twice as long to return a book as just slotting it (they have a slot at the circulation desk).

[weofodthignen]

Very much the thing here, but then it is Silly Valley ... apart from the local library, we use the San Jose system, where the main library is shared with San Jose State. All the other branches of the San Jose library system have similar barcode-scanning book return machines to the local library; the main library has those drive-up slots, and old-fashioned slots in the wall inside, too, because the university library is on a different computer system. The local library still also has the old after-hours chute, which can be used to return interlibrary loan books, non-book materials, and books where the barcode is refusing to scan, but I've had stuff deposited there fail to get recorded, so I try hard to get my interlibrary loan books back to the library during open hours so I can demand a receipt. For ordinary books, the receipt is the biggest advantage of using the machines; at least 3 times I've returned something at the San Jose main library and they've claimed I still have it. Usually it was back on the shelf; once it had slipped down behind the hopper. (I've also jammed a return machine horribly with a huge coffee-table book.)