SMCPL to install new features to aid patrons

The St. Marys Community Public Library will soon be looking a little different with new features coming soon.

During a special board of trustees meeting on Monday afternoon, board members approved the purchase of a selfserve reservation kiosk and an automated self-checkout system to be installed at the library.

The reservation kiosk will be paid for through a $25,000 grant the library received through the Coronavirus, Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

The holdit automated self-service holds kiosk will allow the library to put books that patrons have placed on hold into the kiosk and patrons will then be able to use their library card and a PIN number to get the books out, any time of the day.

“You’ll be able to walk up to it, use your library card — you might even be able to type in your barcode number if you have it memorized — and you put your PIN in and then it pops open a drawer for you and there are your holds,” said Library Director Morgan Paul. “You don’t have to come

into the building to pick up your holds. This means you can access our library 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This will expand the service to the patrons. I’ve always wanted one of these at any library I’ve worked at but they used to be a lot more money.”

The kiosk will cost $17,900, will be red in color and will be installed by the company the library is ordering it from, D-tech.

There are additional service warranties that total $2,165 per year.

The machine will sit outside at the front of the library near the entrance. The weather won’t affect it as Paul said she looked into other models and the one they will be ordering is rated for external usage and can stand up to hurricane-force winds.

“I really think if you approve this, this will change the service that St. Marys is providing its patrons,” Paul told board members. “Not as many will be required to come in. We have a patron who lives in Logan County and we’ve had to renew her books past the four weeks and she checks out tons. She has to drive up here on a Saturday because of her work hours. She can’t wait around for three hours for us to open.”

The kiosk will have 16 lockers available to store items in.

“We fill it up in the morning and people come in the daytime to pull stuff out then we can put more stuff in for somebody else,” said Paul.

The other item that was approved for purchase was the selfcheckout system that will be used inside the library.

“We’ve wanted a self-checkout system for a while,” said Paul. “It’s touchless; fingers don’t have to touch the screen. There’s some kind of frame around it that it can tell where your finger is. We will use that at the front desk so patrons can check themselves out. It will also help with staffing. Maybe it will alleviate some of the waiting lines.”

The system will cost $8,500 and the library will install it themselves. The library will be ordering the machine from Bayscan Technologies, based out of Independence, Ohio — where the library also orders its scanners and printers from.

“I’ve been working with Bayscan

since the early 2000s. Their customer support is great,” said Paul.

The last purchase that was approved was for the patio project that the library is doing through HDL Properties.

A 4-inch thick concrete pad will be installed where the picnic tables currently sit on the library property. The library will also be getting two picnic tables and two trash cans.

The library has had an issue with teens gathering outside of the library, leaving trash behind and throwing stones into the parking lot.

Paul said this project will solve a couple of issues.

“This will solve the stones. It will solve the stones forever,” she said as there will also be mulch put down, removing the stones. “This will put two sturdy picnic tables that won’t rot. [We will have] two garbage cans that are inside of containers and you slide the garbage cans out so we can collect the trash and it will look nicer than the current garbage can out there.”

Stacy Roby of HDL Properties has raised $1,300 for the project and the library will pay the remaining $4,784.