Dear Pavan, Your point is valid and I appreciate this ! While planning for the Kiosk we had the following things in our mind, hence we thought that Kiosk would be better than keeping a normal PC. · To make circulation activities library staff independent- Unmanned · To save the time of Library staff & users (waiting at the circulation counter). · To provide a solution which is cost effective or at least a reasonable one. · To avoid errors in the entries that may occur when done manually (Users/staff)- This Kiosk has RFID reader for reading user’s card and barcode reader for reading book barcode labels. · To provide the finest user experience-similar to what we can see with Bank ATMs or kiosks in shopping malls etc · To provide proof of issue/return of books: While users taking the book out of the library this Kiosk generates a small check-out slip similar to what we get in ATMs. Further users show/submit this to the security at the gate/exit as a proof of issue out book – Kiosk has POS printer. · To make the transactions at kiosk secure, especially for the books which are returned- If you don’t have a Kiosk with drop-in box, then there is a chance of missing of returned books. This also make users to feel confident that the book they returned is safe in the Kiosk till the library staff takes it out & confirms. Other advantages are: · Kiosk has two separate drop-in slots for books & CDs · This Kiosk has a touch screen monitor. · This Kiosk has a metallic trackball with keyboard and also has virtual Keypad. · This Kiosk also comes with the speaker for user’s instruction/information. · On this NewGenLib Touch application provides options like , check-out, check-in, renew, search OPAC, reserve etc. Also provide secure login either through user cards or with login ID & password. Though keeping a single computer helps but will not provide the same advantages/benefits and user experience what we get from the “User Self service Kiosk”. However I feel that this “Kiosk” is not an ultimate solution, it should be continuously improved/upgraded. We all (LIS community) need to work together, influence the manufacturers and software developers to make more useful and effective technologies or tools available at the low/affordable cost for all type of libraries. Regards Emmanuel Deputy Manager K-Centre & Information Services, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business solutions Ltd, #123, Industrial Layout, Hosur Road, Koramanagala, Bangalore-560095, INDIA Tel: 918061013229 / Mobile: 09886677094 From: Pawan Agrawal [mailto:pawanagrawal4u4u@gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, August 09, 2014 2:18 PM To: Emmanuel E (RBEI/ETI) Subject: Re: [LIS-Forum] Library Automation- User Self Service Kiosk Sir, Why kiosk is used.. what if we use a simple computer for the same... HOW kiosk is more useful than a pc.... On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 4:06 PM, Emmanuel E (RBEI/ETI) mailto:Emmanuel.EC@in.bosch.com> wrote: Dear All, Electronic media is omnipresent & omnipotent now and there is no escape from this, we can only ignore this at our own peril. Libraries have to work on a strategy to be competitive, relevant in this electronic/information age. As internet, mobiles, e-book readers, tabs have given more content in users hand. This leading to change in user's reading habits and user experience(rich content) and taking away some library users from the libraries. While welcoming the electronic media as our future, some of us may ask ourselves a question as to what to do with our print media that we already have ? as the good number of users (Gen X) still demand printed books. And the younger generation (Gen Y) /tech savvy users prefers electronic resources. The best solution could be to balance both, the printed collection & electronic media. If so, how to achieve this with the same limited staff ? There could be several approaches to handle this situation, but I am sharing what we tried at our corporate library. We decided to retain and continue with the print media & its related services and also to add electronic media (e-books to start with)/electronic media based information services. This we had to do with the limited staff or with no additional staff. We had to save the time of our team from the mundane activities and utilize the saved time in handling e-resources. We achieved this through complete library automation, in simple words: 1. We put barcode labels to the library resources 2. Installed a barcode based "User self service Kiosk" (with book drop-in box) 3. Installed "NewGenLib Touch application" on this Kiosk. It is less expensive as each label costs less than a rupee and the approx cost of a Kiosk is less than Rs. 1.5 lacs- cost may increase based on the features that you want to have in kiosk and the "NewGenLib Touch Application" is open source( free of cost). Now user themselves check-in & check-out the books, search OPAC on Kiosk and our team free from routine activities and is involving themselves in electronic newsletter designing, information/database search, e-books procurement and related activities. RFID based kiosk is also one option but it is expensive and not affordable for the large number of libraries in India. If you have similar experience or better ideas on this, then please share with all (LIS community) so that we can learn from each other's best practices. Thank you ! Regards Emmanuel Deputy Manager K-Centre & Information Services, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business solutions Ltd, #123, Industrial Layout, Hosur Road, Koramanagala, Bangalore-560095, INDIA Tel: 918061013229 / Mobile: 09886677094 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/pipermail/lis-forum/attachments/20140808/3bfa40c4/... _______________________________________________ LIS-Forum mailing list LIS-Forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.inmailto:LIS-Forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in http://ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/mailman/listinfo/lis-forum -- Thanks and Regards ------- Join hands, Join eLibrarian https://sites.google.com/site/theelibrarians/ ------- Pawan R. Agrawal Registered freelancer: NewGenLib Academic Councellor: IGNOU and BAOU Assistant Librarian Learning Resource Centre (Library) Silvassa College Govt. Arts, Commerce and Science College Naroli-Silvassa U.T. of Dadra and Nagar Haveli INDIA- 396235 Ph. 9376135580, 9904828387 http://www.pragrawal.wordpress.com Skype ID: pawanagrawal4u4u -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.