I think librarians take care of books and other items they have in a library (DVD’s, CD’s, audio books, magazines). They make sure the items are clean, undamaged, and in proper working order. They do this by making sure they are returned on time, shelved correctly according to the system the library uses (Dewey decimal, alphabetical etc.), charging patrons for late or damaged books, fixing books if necessary. They also need to know where the items for rent are and how to do research using books and other sources like the internet. Librarians have to help people in the library and they must be very knowledgeable about books, research, and such in order to help people. I think it would be cool if librarians used a system like airport baggage systems to sort and shelve books. The system would run inside the walls and ceilings and drop down into the correct shelf. I think this is what libraries could be like in the future. Also people could tell a librarian exactly what they are looking foe and the librarian directs them to an elevator-type machine that whisks the person to exactly the right section. With this system, libraries could be absolutely massive with millions upon millions of books. Then, once you find whatever you’re looking for and there would be a memory scanner that commits the entire book to memory without even reading it. Except people would still need to read; so the book would be inside your head in a document file (sort of) and could pull it up and reread the text any time you need!
Good post, Melissa! Did you know that some libraries DO use an automatic system to check in and sort books? They don’t go as far as shelving them, but they do sort books out according to call number so that the employee simply has to grab a cart of books and take them to shelve. If you ever get a chance to do this, go visit the main branch of the Denver Public Library on 13th and Broadway. They have a glass wall in one part of the 1st floor where you return your books, and you can watch them go along a conveyor belt, get scanned (checked in), then sorted, then dropped into the appropriate bin for reshelving. Douglas County’s Philip S. Miller library in Castlerock has the same system. Both uses RFID technology to do this. There is a YouTube video that shows how this works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUz0RKyCPos
ReplyDeleteTina M. Moser, MLIS
Access Services Librarian
Health Sciences Library
University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus