All the more reason for robot rabbits—they can replace staff!
Tim
On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 11:41 AM, Jonathan Rochkind <rochkind_at_jhu.edu> wrote:
> At libraries I'm familiar with, it's not neccesarily the technology that
> would be the resource barrier. They would say "Okay, you've told us what
> books are missing, now we're supposed to DO something about that? We don't
> have the staff for that!"
>
> Sad but true.
>
> Jonathan
>
> M Yazan wrote:
>>
>> I like this idea of waving the rabbit over the shelves to see what's
>> missing
>> or even mis-shelved. As a former Wal-Mart assistant manager often stuck
>> with the layaway department during Christmas (now longer available), we
>> would use Telxon scanners to quickly locate items in "bins" (shelves), and
>> conduct periodic bin inventories.
>>
>> Are there any libraries that scan periodically their shelves for missing
>> or
>> misplaced books using such technology? It seems like it would be simple
>> to
>> implement (provided of course your library had the endless supply of money
>> that most corporations have=). We would first scan a barcode at the top
>> of
>> the shelf, for example the range might be 300-398, so you scan two codes,
>> one indicating that the books on this shelf should be between 300-398, and
>> the second, the first book scanned should be 300. Then the librarian
>> would
>> start scanning the books beginning with the first book on the shelf and
>> upon
>> reaching the end of the shelf scan the last book and a barcode on the
>> shelf
>> to indicate that the scanner has completed scanning that particular stack.
>> At the end a report would indicate what books are missing, of those which
>> ones are checked out, and which ones are lost. It's an easy way to locate
>> misshelved books as well since the Telxon would indictae whether or not
>> the
>> book scanned is actually cataloged between 300-398.
>>
>> It seems like a pilot could easily be conducted if a corporation like
>> Telxon
>> offered to lend a library refurbushed units. I do realize there are some
>> opportunities with my suggestion that individual libraries may face
>> (trying
>> to get tiny little barcodes on the spine of a book for exampe), but I
>> believe librarians have unique problem solving skills and can find
>> creative
>> cost-effective solutions to meet their needs.
>>
>> One last point, I really like the talking rabbit!
>>
>> Murat
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 10:57 PM, Bernd T. Wunsch
>> <Bernd.T.Wunsch_at_nias.ku.dk
>>
>>>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>
>>
>>>>
>>>> The key question is if it reads RFIDs that aren't its own. If you have
>>>> to use theirs it would be very expensive. Although I was hoping to
>>>> make an "inventory" system by which you pass your rabbit over your
>>>> shelves and it tells you what is missing. You could of course do a
>>>> check-in/check-out system too, for a small library. Indeed, sans
>>>> computer.
>>>>
>>>
>>> One Nabaztag of Checkin, the other for Checkout.. Would be nice.
>>>
>>> But No I have to admit that I haven't looked at the nabaztag RFID
>>> capabilities at all. Although there has been some work to reverse
>>> engineer
>>> it's message protocols. There's even a proxy, that will allow you to
>>> interface directly with it, instead of going through the violet servers.
>>> So
>>> perhaps the answer is already out there, on the big wide internets...
>>>
>>> -b.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries on behalf of Tim Spalding
>>> Sent: Wed 3/25/2009 3:51 AM
>>> To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>>> Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] A Rabbit, a webcam, a Library and a webservice...
>>>
>>> I'm waiting for mine so I can play. I ordered a bunch of their
>>> colorful RFIDs. I didn't really understand the mini-rabbit.
>>>
>>> The key question is if it reads RFIDs that aren't its own. If you have
>>> to use theirs it would be very expensive. Although I was hoping to
>>> make an "inventory" system by which you pass your rabbit over your
>>> shelves and it tells you what is missing. You could of course do a
>>> check-in/check-out system too, for a small library. Indeed, sans
>>> computer.
>>>
>>> Tim
>>>
>>> On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 10:42 PM, Bernd T. Wunsch
>>> <Bernd.T.Wunsch_at_nias.ku.dk> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Well I wish I could, but the stamp that we got (the little grey rabbit
>>>> in
>>>>
>>>
>>> background on the video) doesn't seem to set the rabbit of. Now I'm not
>>> sure
>>> if it's the tag or the Rabbit. But currently it doesn't work :-/
>>>
>>>>
>>>> But yeah, this would be much more fun using rfids. I guess violet
>>>>
>>>
>>> already does something like this with the French Childrens books that
>>> they
>>> sell, which the rabbit can read aloud.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> -b.
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries on behalf of Tim Spalding
>>>> Sent: Wed 3/25/2009 3:40 AM
>>>> To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>>>> Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] A Rabbit, a webcam, a Library and a webservice...
>>>>
>>>> Bernd,
>>>>
>>>> Did you look into the RFID "sniffer" in the Nabaztag? If a library has
>>>> RFID in its books, that could moot the need for a barcode scanner.
>>>>
>>>> Tim
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 10:33 PM, Edward M. Corrado
>>>> <ecorrado_at_ecorrado.us> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> OK, I'm not sure how useful this is for an academic library (though I
>>>>> imagine it being a hit in the children's dept of a public library),
>>>>> but this is pretty neat. Is your code available? I'm almost willing to
>>>>> fork out $99 for one of these just to try it out.
>>>>>
>>>>> Edward
>>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 9:36 PM, Bernd T. Wunsch
>>>>> <Bernd.T.Wunsch_at_nias.ku.dk> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hello NGC4Lib,
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I have been doing some serious mash-up work, and have created a
>>>>>> "book-rating-reading-rabbit" for our library. Oh and he twitters
>>>>>> too...
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> You can see him in action at:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://blip.tv/file/1915639
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The techy bit:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The Rabbit if of course a nabaztag/tag from Violet.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I used the Amazon AWS to go from the UPC to the desired info.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The barcode scanning comes from barcodepedia.com (I used a slightly
>>>>>> changed edition of their flash-thingy).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The glue that keeps it together runs on our webserver, and is all
>>>>>>
>>>
>>> simple
>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> php, curl, and the above mentioned flashfile.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> You can try it for yourself at: www.niaslinc.dk/kalle although I you
>>>>>> won't get to see or hear the rabbit spring into action, he will post
>>>>>> what he read aloud to his twitter stream at:
>>>>>> http://twitter.com/kalle_kanin. He also logs any visitors to our
>>>>>> website: http://www.asiaportal.info
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I've always wanted a small "magical amazon review box" in my library,
>>>>>> where you could get extra info just by scanning a book. But I guess I
>>>>>> had to build one myself before I got it :-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> - Bernd.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Check out my library at http://www.librarything.com/profile/timspalding
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Check out my library at http://www.librarything.com/profile/timspalding
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
--
Check out my library at http://www.librarything.com/profile/timspalding
Received on Wed Mar 25 2009 - 11:54:28 EDT