Obi-Wan Follette

Who has seen a Star Wars movie and not wanted to be a Jedi Knight or play with a light saber? Well, I came close to it today.

Maddie's library operates on a split schedule--three days fixed and two days flexible. It just so happened that today, there were no scheduled classes in the library. A rare opportunity to catch up on paperwork. She's been explaining to me the year end forms she needs to complete, both for the county and for NCDPI. The big deal now is getting an inventory done and reconciling differences between the shelf list and the catalog.

My job today was to play with the Follette Bar Code Reader. You can see in the picture how she's positioned barcodes on the back of her books. With the flip of a finger, the barcode label is exposed, the Jedi throws back his cape, grasps his weapon. Light erupts from his saber as he wields it with aplomb towards his intended target . . . Oops. I meant, you can aim the targeted red light of the barcode reader at the barcode label, and in a literal flash, have a record of the selected item for inventory.

Maddie's collection contains about 19,000 items, all of which have to be inventoried by the end of the year. I did her entire fiction section today--I'm guessing between 3 and 4000 books. It was fun. (I'm sure it wouldn't be if it were my responsibility for the whole job every year!) After reading several hundred barcodes, I'd take the reader to her computer. She'd download the results into Destiny and any discrepancies would come out in report form. I'd go back and bring her the books in question and she'd set the records straight. What an amazing tool!

Besides having fun, I did learn a few things. At our new library, we'll have a different vendor, but we are supposed to get a similar barcode reader. Placement of the labels is everything. Maddie uses duplicates--one inside the front cover and one strategically placed on the back. Previous librarians have labelled some books in other places. And books that are heavily used often have the back label obscured or torn. Having to use the inside label really slows the process. And labels placed too close to ISBN barcodes can cause misreadings. So we'll talk about this when I get back to my real job.

Another thing I learned today was a whole new meaning for the term "boxed sets". While I played Jedi, Maddie was hard at work cataloging "boxed sets". Certain titles are purchased in sets of 30 or more for classroom use. They are kept in lidded plastic tubs for easy transport to the classroom. But they still have to be barcoded, inventoried and cataloged like everything else. Between new purchases, and correcting a previous staff member's mistakes, there was considerable muttering from behind her desk. I tried not to make like I was having too much fun, but . . . Oh, and did I mention I had a chair on wheels for doing the job? Yippee!!