Automation of the Sweet Home Public Library was scheduled to begin in earnest this week following a volunteer blitz to prepare the books.
For the past couple of weeks 15 to 20 volunteers, along with library staff, have been affixing barcodes to each of the approximately 40,000 items in the library’s collection. That pile of work was disappearing rapidly by Friday.
The library was scheduled to close on Tuesday, and staff members were planning to be at work on Wednesday for training.
The library has four days worth of training included in the price of the system, approximately $40,000.
The new system, being installed by the Library Corporation, includes a variety of features and reports that staff members need to understand so they can instruct patrons, said Library Director Leona McCann.
Among the features will be a computerized card catalog, digital checkout and on-line access to the library’s database. Patrons will be able to reserve books online.
Library cards are being entered into the database now by the Library Corporation, McCann said. In the future, patrons will carry cards.
The library may need to close for a couple of additional days for additional training, said librarian Sandi Leonard. Volunteers and librarians will need to scan the barcode on each book along with the barcode already printed on the books to record specific information about each book in the library database. Older books will require manual data entry to match the new barcode.
“The volunteers have been just wonderful,” Leonard said.
McCann said the work has progressed “in small sections in order to feel we’re making progress.
“It feels really good. You get a section done, you go write it down.
Among the volunteers was Lynn Ellis, a retired high school teacher, who put barcodes on the history section last week. He uses the library frequently for books on tape.
“I believe in the library, and I believe in it a lot,” he said. “I read a lot of history. When I found no one was doing this, I jumped back here.”
The job was tedious, he said, and it won’t stress the brain, but “it’s worthwhile. It’ll be kind of neat for them when they get this done.”
He also came across a few interesting titles in the process.
Jennine Lane, Friends of the Library president, has put in a couple of hours, she said. She hadn’t been able to do more because she has been busy at the Friends’ bookstore.
“I am an elementary librarian by trade, so I went through this in the ’90s.”
Before she moved to Sweet Home in 2007, she was a reference librarian at the Florence Library, she said. That library is all automated, and she’s looking forward to it here.
Prior to attaching barcodes, McCann said, she weeded out some volumes that hadn’t seen much use. Even so, she said, the library was close to running out of barcodes by the end of last week.
“It’s been hard to weed the fiction as there’s so many good books,” McCann said. But when they haven’t been read in 10 to 15 years, it’s time to get rid of some of them.
Among them are some of the classics, but the library retains many of those in anthologies, she said.
The project is funded by a $40,000 grant from an anonymous patron, McCann said. The Friends have saved some $30,000 that may be accessed as needed for the project.
The automation should be complete by May, McCann said. A celebration is planned for May 22, with author signings and artists, with games for children; door prizes; and cake, coffee and punch.