Self-Checkout at The Library?

The future could be now. Image via LibBest

Don’t you love going to the supermarket or hardware store and have the convenience of self-checkout? Shouldn’t a similar system be used in a library? RFID technology is nothing new for libraries. For years, anti-theft tags have been used to stop intentional and accidental removal of unchecked materials. RFID tags expand on this by enabling the following.

• Upon checkout the tag ID is listed as checked out in the database and bound to the patron.
• Books that pass through security are checked with the database dynamically to ensure they are checked out. This simplifies circulation overhead by no longer requiring a security stripe to be disabled or re-enabled upon checkout, collection, and shelving.
• The physical location of a book can be tracked using a Digital Library Assistant. Imagine an incorrectly shelved book, waiting on some forgotten shelf until discovered by weeding or chance observation. These systems are standard in warehouses.

When a library’s collection can be indexed and tracked by a computer, self-checkout kiosks become an obvious progression.

See some examples of similar systems all ready in use.

Video demonstration of an RFID self-checkout – Queens Library

Hamilton Library, University of Hawaii  - Self-checkout using 3M Self-Checkout stations..

Policies and procedures for Self-Checkout – At New York University

Kenyan Law Reports Wins IALL Website Award Competition

Kenyan Law Reports (KLR), a free Kenyan Law database, has been announced as the winner of the International Association of Law Libraries (IALL) 2011 Website Award Competition. With this award, Kenyan Law Reports joins the ranks of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law websites that claimed the 2010 and 2009 awards respectively.

KLR provides free access to primary sources of the laws of Kenya, namely case law and consolidated laws (Acts) including the subsidiary legislation for both of which it is the official source.  The field of contenders for the 2011 award included THOMAS, Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), Legifrance, as well as several other websites dedicated to international legal and jurisprudence matters.

Hat tip to In Custodia Legis, the blog of the Law Librarians of Congress, for reporting the good news. Read the full post here.

 

Final Exam Tips from the Circulation Staff

It’s during this time of the year that law students around the country are stressing out over finals, and for first year students it is the toughest. In your first year you have no clue what to expect or how to gauge how well you’ve done on an exam. At the library circulation desk we see all the stress and pressure that everyone is going through and here are some tips on handling it all:

1. Make sure to sleep! All the studying you do isn’t worth anything if your brain hasn’t had the time to sleep and digest it.
2. Eat healthy! During finals we all forget about nutrition and the value of getting daily vitamins (to prevent getting sick!)
3. Take a break! Exercise or take a walk. The breaks you take and breathe some fresh air or just study outdoors. You get to avoid clogging your body with all the germs in the air conditioned study spaces and it helps you digest all that knowledge.
4. When you don’t get something, just move on! Sitting and starring at a rule or concept that is just not clicking won’t help you get in everything you need to know for that final, keep going onto something new and then look at it again.
5. If the stressed out energy at the law school gets to you, leave. Constantly stressing out won’t help you learn what you need. If you find the energy at the law school too much just go to a local public library or coffee shop to actually study and stop stressing.
6. And lastly, don’t talk about the exam after the exam. Talking to everyone and wondering how you did will only stress you out more. Just let it be over and take a look at how you actually did after grades are out.

These are just a few tips to keep you going strong to conquer those finals! Good luck it’s almost half way over!

Lexis Advance debuts today!

The long-awaited Lexis Advance platform officially debuted today.  Bob Ambrogi gives a good review of the new interface at http://goo.gl/W6IbE while Greg Lambert provides a more technical review of the launch at http://goo.gl/p8ugR.

 

Life Without the Statistical Abstract

Published since 1878, the Statistical Abstract of the United States is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. Or should I say was…

For those who haven’t yet heard, the Statistical Compendium project ceased collecting data as of October 1, 2011.   This means that the Abstract, a remarkably compact yet comprehensive volume for statistical reference, will no longer be sent to Federal Depository Libraries which have received paper and CD-ROM versions of the Statistical Abstract each year at no charge.  Researchers will now have to track down individual sources of data that were collocated in the Abstract, including the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and many other Federal agencies and private organizations.

In Learning to Live Without a Statistical Abstract: Thinking about Future Access to Government Information, James T. Shaw discusses the detrimental impact that the demise of the Abstract will have on librarians and researchers who must now seek alternative sources for important information that has been relatively easy, convenient, and cost-effective to find.  Shaw describes how eliminating the products created by the Statistical Compendia (namely the Statistical Abstract of the United Statesand its supplemental products, the State and Metropolitan Area Data Book and the County and City Data Book) raises important issues regarding public access to government information, especially when you stop to consider how much we depend on that data to inform our understanding of our society, the economy, and public policy.

Furthermore, Shaw explains why there is no truly good alternative to the Statistical Abstract in terms of providing both convenience and breadth, either from other government or commercial sources.  He also helpfully provides descriptions of and links to other statistical sources and methods to mine available data moving forward.