ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 30, 1996 TAG: 9605300046
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
When the Pulaski and Dublin branches of the Pulaski County Public Library reopen Monday morning, they will be equipped with a new automated circulation system that could save them from losing thousands of dollars in unreturned books each year.
"It will help us keep better track of what we have, where it is," explained library Director Duncan Parsons. "Right now, we're able to do it, but we have to do it by hand."
That has not proved adequate in the past. A staff member at the circulation desk simply does not have time to check the boxes of cards each time a patron checks out materials to see if that patron has something already overdue.
When overdue materials are pinpointed, the patron gets a call and eventually a certified letter. Some have even been taken to court for not returning books. "It pretty much is a misdemeanor. You're stealing," Parsons said. But that is not a step that library officials like to take.
"We consistently have been losing ... about 350 books a year for the past four or five years," Parsons said. With one book's cost averaging $25 to $30 these days, that means losses exceeding $8,750 each year, more than 20 percent of the library's total budget for new books.
"Which means we have to replace it, or just eat the loss," Parsons said. "I'm not saying this will solve all the problems ... but this will help us keep track of things."
Wiring, new outlets and other preparations were already complete before the library closed today for installation of the system's hardware and software.
Previously, patrons presented their library cards to check out materials and a machine stamped the date they were due back.
Now, they will keep their existing cards but, as they come in, they will reregister and have bar codes added to those cards. Then each patron's card will be entered into the computer linking the Pulaski and Dublin libraries.
The computer can be programmed to send out its own alert when a book is past due. It will no longer require that an employee spend time going through hundreds of cards by hand.
"The system's going to flash and say the patron has something overdue," Parsons said. "That will make a difference, a very big difference. ... Not only will it be convenient, but it will be a much more accurate way of taking care of things."
The system will end up costing about $45,000 altogether, but will probably pay for itself over time even if it salvages only a fraction of the lost materials each year. "It won't do it in a few years, but in the long run it will," Parsons said.
The county is lending the library about $40,000 with the state providing the balance. Repayment of the loan is another reason the book-fund money will be lower than usual next year. Most libraries in surrounding localities already have such systems, so Pulaski County will be catching up.
The library has tried several ways to regain nonreturned books. It periodically offers a "food for fines" program, in which offending patrons pay their fines with food which is donated to the Daily Bread food program. Sometimes the library offers outright amnesty, and Parsons had found that surprisingly successful, sometimes netting books that have been missing as far back as 1992.
Parsons believes that people are sometimes hesitant to pay up because, if they have had a book for several years, they are afraid the fine will stack up to an exorbitant amount. But in no case would a fine ever exceed the actual cost of a book, he said.
Besides helping keep track of materials, the new system has the potential of tying in with county school libraries for a greater pool of materials for patrons to choose from. "And at some point it might help with research sharing," Parsons said.
Services such as word-processing and spreadsheets might be made available to patrons through the computer system, he said. No decision has been made on what databases to try first.
"At some point in the future - I know it's going to happen, I just don't know when - we'll be offering Internet access to library patrons," Parsons said. "So it's taken a while, but we're finally getting to where we should be."
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