April 14, 2014 at 4:00 p.m.
Rhinelander District Library adds new services
Rhinelander District Library adds new services
Color printing and faxing are hardly new technologies but they have not been available to library users until now. Some more modern advances include a new self-checkout station and Chromebooks that are available for use by the public.
"We've never had a color printer before but we always get requests for it. When we do, we send them to another business (that has that service)," library director Ed Hughes said. "We also get a lot of people asking about faxes.
"It's an older technology, but still heavily used," Hughes noted. "It's a service that makes sense for libraries to provide. We're getting our pricing to match the community entities that provide those services so we're not undercutting them."
The color printing and faxing services became available last week. The cost is $1 per page.
The library's new self-checkout station made its debut approximately three weeks ago, but Hughes said there were some software issues initially which have only recently been resolved.
With time, Hughes said he anticipates the self-checkout station will be heavily used.
"There are a certain number of people who like the privacy of checking out their own stuff without the librarian being the intermediary," Hughes said. "It's very simple. It's much easier to use than, for example, the grocery store ones. You don't have to weigh the book."
For the time being, he said he expects most people will still have their items checked out by a librarian at the circulation desk.
"People are using it," Hughes said. "People will try it out or sometimes, when there's a line at the circulation desk, they'll use it. It's usually gradual growth. I think eventually people will see that it's easy to use. You don't get to talk to someone while you check out, but sometimes you just want to get your stuff done."
For the next six months, Hughes said he anticipates approximately 10 to 20 percent of library patrons will regularly use the self-checkout station. Eventually, more than half of all patrons could be using it.
"There are other libraries where it can get as high as 80 percent. I think the downtown Wausau branch is coming up on 80 percent," Hughes said. "I don't think we'll ever be that high, but over time I think maybe 50 or 60 percent of people will use it."
Just because librarians' checkout responsibilities may be reduced as a result of the new machine, that doesn't mean there will be staffing cuts, Hughes said.
"If this does indeed free up staff time, it will just be directed toward other areas like our senior outreach program," Hughes said. "It won't replace staff."
He said the senior outreach program, which delivers library items to people who are housebound or in nursing homes, is likely the first area where extra staff time would be used.
"That's one of the areas where I think we have a shortage," Hughes said. "We could use more help."
Another area that could benefit from more staff support is the inter-library loan program, Hughes said. He said the library currently relies a lot on volunteers to sort those items that travel among the area's libraries.
"We would use staff for things like that if we had the time. It really is more of a staff job," Hughes said.
The library also now has three Chromebooks that patrons can check out. They were initially supposed to be used by library board members as part of a paperless initiative Hughes was introducing. Several board members already had their own devices and the three Chromebooks were purchased for the board members who didn't have a device.
"We bought the Chromebooks for them and then they didn't want to use them," Hughes said. "So now those three Chromebooks are for the public."
Hughes said they are now available for checkout and provide an alternative to patrons who come to the library to use the computers.
"The Chromebooks can be checked out, but we're not giving them the power cord," Hughes said. "So they could have it as long as the battery lasts. That could be up to five hours. That's longer than they can use one of the PCs. I think it's something libraries will be doing more now. The standalone PC might disappear one day."
Kyle Rogers may be reached at [email protected].
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