Libraries launch new card system

Updated check out method will make things easier

Photos: 1. Connie Kuhlmann, supervisor of the Moses Lake Public Library, uses the new library card system to check out materials for Micah McCandless Friday morning.

2. Connie Kuhlmann, supervisor of the Moses Lake Public Library, uses the new library card system to check out materials for Micah McCandless Friday morning.

3. Micah McCandless holds up the new North Central Regional Library card at the Moses Lake Public Library Friday morning.

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They're finally checking out books and other materials like it's the year 2004 in the North Central Regional Library system.

By June, goers to any library in the system — 28 branches in Grant, Okanogan, Ferry, Chelan and Douglas counties — will get their materials from the library using a card, rather than having to write out the titles of everything they're checking out.

The Moses Lake Public Library started checking out on the new system about three weeks ago.

"The library industry has just gone to that, so we were real antiquated and didn't mesh very well with the rest of the systems," said Connie Kuhlmann, supervisor for the Moses Lake library. "Also it gives us a little better control over inventory. Overdues and that kind of thing, we have a little more accurate accounting of where our returners are."

Kuhlmann took over supervising duties at the library March 1. While she's not new to the overall library system, the new location and the new check out method has been hectic, she said.

"But it's going well," Kuhlmann said. "The staff here is just great. They're real flexible and they're really doing well."

The new system is expected to be easier for everyone involved, once the bugs get worked out of the computers, Kuhlmann said.

"It's going well, it's pretty usable," she said. "We did have everything crash on us Wednesday night, but the staff was able to get it up and going within about 45 minutes, and there are safeguards in place so that we have alternate ways to check things out."

Other libraries within the NCRL system are in the process of switching over, Kuhlmann said.

"They're switching one or two branches a week, or maybe up to three a week, but they're doing them a day apart so that if there's a problem, they can tell which branch has the problem," she said.

Becky Kerns, librarian, said that the Grand Coulee Community Library started the new cards March 25.

"I like it," she said. "It's convenient, a lot less paperwork and so far we haven't had any real problems. A little glitch here and there, but nothing major. And our people like it; they don't have to write out a bunch of papers."

Sandra Sweetman is librarian at the Republic Public Library in Republic, Wash., which isn't scheduled to receive the new system until around May 14. Sweetman, a librarian for 17 years, said she hadn't been trained for the new system yet.

"It'll be fine for the patrons because they will be able to check out more books more easily," Sweetman said, noting that younger children are eligible to check out books, but sometimes have some problems writing out the titles.

"We help them, but now they'll just have to scan it, like at the grocery store," she said. "I think it will be fine."

Kuhlmann said that reaction from the community has been positive.

"They're delighted not to have to write every title down," she said. "There's been some concern about what we do with the information, but they're not giving us any more information now than they ever did."

Barbara Gallaway, library clerk at the Moses Lake library, said the new system will make things easier for library staff and library patrons alike.

"They won't have to fill out the check out forms; they won't be hassling the T-slips — the little date-due slips that we had before," Gallaway said. "They'll just get their card, we scan their card, scan their books and it should keep an accurate record."

Just as it was under the previous check out method, a person who possesses a card can use it at any of the branches in the NCRL system and return materials to any library in the system, Kuhlmann said.