Library Offers Self-Checkout With New Equipment

Patrons will be able skip the circulation desk beginning next week when they use the "self-checkout" equipment recently installed at Warsaw Community Public Library.

Assistant director Joni Brookins said at Monday's board meeting that one more piece of equipment is needed before the machine is fully operational. Cardholders will be able to check out books and other periodicals themselves.

Because certain items, like CDs and DVDs, are locked, they will still have to go through the checkout process at the circulation desk.

The board of trustees watched Brookins demonstrate the machine, which scanned a library card and a book and printed out a receipt. Instructions are provided on a screen in either English or Spanish.

Brookins said another self-checkout machine may be purchased for the children's area. "That way parents can check out materials while the children are occupied," Brookins said.

The board welcomed Wendy Kovach, the Warsaw Community Schools' representative. She replaced Larry Chamberlain, who resigned at the end of March.

Kovach is a school media specialist at Churubusco Middle School and high school and oversees the school library and media center.

The board also:

• Heard the third year of the Dekko Foundation-sponsored Arts @ Library is drawing to an end. An event for northeast Indiana library patrons is scheduled at the Botanical Gardens in Fort Wayne from 6 to 8 p.m. April 22. Admission is free with a library card. Storytellers and storybook characters are planned for the evening.

• Heard from business manager Renee Sweeny that a $3,000 gift from the Pfleiderer Trust was received.

• Reviewed goals for 2006 as presented by department heads.

Library board members are: Tony Etienne, John Yingling, Ruth Jones, Mark Morrison, Paulette Sauders and Wendy Kovach. Joel Curry was absent.