[Michlib-l] Neat endcap card catalogs idea to share

[Andrea Estelle]

Hi Everyone!

 

Just sharing an idea..

 

Wanted to share with you our latest tech project here at Otsego District
Library in case it might be helpful to other folks in library land - I know
some of you already have done this too but some might be interested in the
idea - We created touchscreen card catalogs. I did this at my former library
also about 4 years ago and the touch screen technology has come a long way
since then. They are working really great.

 

I was inspired by the digital endcaps at the Nashville Public Library but we
could not afford the product they used. 

We created our own version of this at 1/20th the cost. 

I am pretty excited how they turned out and they are working great so far
with our catalog!

 

We used 27 inch ACER monitors and flipped and mounted them vertically. 
We used a very small processor - The Dell Micro PC 3000 Series - and put it
on the bottom shelf behind the endcap. 

We drilled a hole through the endcap for the cords. 

Verso/Auto-graphics is our card catalog.

We added 3 widgets to the bottom of our Verso homepage to make scrolling
covers of New Books, New Movies, and New Audiobooks.

We set up the computers to have a screensaver showing slides that advertise
our programs when people are not using the catalog.

They work just like a smart phone - you can shrink and enlarge the text the
same way as on an IPhone, and a keyboard pops up when you click in the text
bars.

Nick Heimler, Heimler Consulting, does our technology and he helped me find
just what I was looking for - I wanted something large and thin. He
installed them for us and set them up to display vertically.

When we removed our old catalog stands, our maintenance man put trim pieces
to match the endcaps up to cover where they had been screwed to the endcaps,
and built a fence to match the other endcaps in our children's area. It
turned out really nice.

 

We have been getting a lot of positive patron comments on them and the kids
and teens especially like using them. Thought it was a cool idea to share.

 

Before and after pictures attached!

 

Have a great day,

Andrea

 

Andrea Estelle, MLIS

Library Director

Otsego District Library

 

Brighten the Corner Where You Are

 



Every Great Community Deserves a Great Library

www.otsegolibrary.org <http://www.otsegolibrary.org/>    

 

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