Bird Library is now allowing students to check out books late at night
Courtesy of Steve Sartori
Bird Library on SU's campus is the home to new self-checkout machines, which allow students to check out books after the desk staff has left for the night.
Syracuse University’s Bird Library has recently introduced new self-checkout machines that can be used after the desk staff has left for the night.
Bird is the largest library on the SU campus, housing materials from the humanities and social sciences. Monday through Thursday the main floor of the library is open 24 hours a day with the service desk open from 8 a.m. until midnight, according to the SU Libraries website. This leaves an eight-hour period without any desk staff.
The self-checkout machines were introduced so that students could still check out books during this time gap.
“The desk is only staffed until midnight, so if they are in the library and the desk closes they could checkout their own books,” said Laura Benjamin, the access and resource sharing office supervisor for SU Libraries.
Benjamin said she has also seen a lot of people using the machines because they don’t want to wait in line or because they want to be self-sufficient.
The checkout machine was installed the week before classes started for the spring semester. During that time, Benjamin said the library was transferring over to a new radio frequency identification system (RFID), which combats theft of library materials.
Benjamin said there used to be a self-checkout machine before Bird Library was renovated last year. But, she said, a lot of students missed the machine and were asking for its return.
There is currently one machine in Bird and one in Carnegie Library. The machines are located in front of the circulation desks inside each of the respective libraries.
To use the machines, students simply follow the instructions on the screen, Benjamin said. Since the machine has RFID technology, users can put their whole stack of books inside of it and they will be read all at once, she added.
The machine allows for students to check out and renew books as well as review their accounts to see when books are due or if they have any fines. Fines cannot be paid at the machine, though, Benjamin said. Students need to go to the circulation desk to pay the fine.
There have been no problems with the machine so far, Benjamin said, but there are currently no plans to get more machines.
Published on January 31, 2016 at 9:45 pm
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