Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Nostalgia for the Future: Book? Check! Library card? Check! Checkout Desk? Nope – Self Check!

As a Brooklyn native, I am a sucker for how some terribly familiar things in our communities change and how they remain the same. A few years back, I literally got all misty at the reopening of the new Brooklyn Museum lobby space, in all its contemporary beauty. I remembered walking to the Museum since I was a kid, pushing open the heavy entrance doors, and exploring the mysteries of ancient Egypt and the delight of artistic discovery. It was still the fantastic Brooklyn Museum, but had also morphed into a modern, welcoming and amazingly creative public space, with fountains, post-modern entrance, and outdoor public spaces.

I had the similar vibe visiting the newly renovated digs of the Kings Highway Brooklyn Public Library branch at Ocean Avenue. Not so much the library itself, although it has a bright and open feel. I don't think I had visited this branch before.* But when I had picked up a book (Lincoln as Writer) and looked around for the check out desk. There wasn’t one. There was a table at which sat two librarians and the security officer. I sheepishly asked “How do you check out?” The branch security officer smiled and said “you need to use the scanner!” clearly relishing the opportunity to teach an old dog a new trick.

Sure enough, a table held several scanners. It is much easier than checking out yourself at Lowe’s or Home Depot. Basically, you put the book down on the scanner. When prompted, you remove that, and then you put your BPL library card on the scanner. It records the book and issues a receipt. That’s it!

“This is the sixth branch using the new technology, and the Fort Hamilton Branch will be the eighth when it reopens following renovations,” said Malika Granville, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn Public Library. In addition to Kings Highway, Highlawn was the first branch, it was renovated with “Self-check machines” in 2006. After its successful piloting at Highlawn, it expanded to other branches, including Mapleton, Canarsie, Macon, Bay Ridge, and Mill Basin. Ms. Granville also confirmed that the Park Slope branch will be outfitted with the new check out technology after it reopens. (The Park Slope branch closed in the fall of 2009, with a projected two year renovation period.)
Despite the complications experienced by some agencies with the introduction of new technologies the Board of Election's new e-voting system comes to mind), the Brooklyn Public Library reports that the piloted program so far has been a great success. And the staff members at the branches, as always, make an art of serving the customer (or patrons, which I recall was the BPL euphemism for cardholding library members) -- another great thing that has never changed.
The new self-check technology system is funded with a combination of State and City capital dollars. BPL anticipates that the new system, manufactured by the 3M Company, will be rolled out to all branches in approximately two years.

*I guess can list on 10 fingers the BPL branches which I've visited:
  • Central - bGrand Army Plaza - one of my first jobs; where I worked as a high school kid in the what was then the audio visual department with Mr. Ken Axthelm and Joe Schera. I lived in Windsor Terrace, so walking to and visiting the Central Branch in all of its wonder, was an intrinsic part of my education.
  • Park Slope Branch -Again, in walking distance as a kid. A cozy, somewhat gothic feeling branch. Currently under renovation.
  • Windsor Terrace - Walking distance, although smaller, but always a fun destination.
  • Clinton Hill - When we lived in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill; I remember the Harvest Festival and Book Sale at this branch just around this time of the year.
  • Mapleton - When I worked in Staten Island, this became a frequent stop on my way home from work.
  • Midwood - Our current local branch.
  • Cortelyou - Nearby, but not as convenient to us as Midwood.
  • Fort Hamilton - Occasional visits. Currently under renovation. Originally scheduled for spring 2010 reopening, additional construction requirements have delayed the reopening.
  • Pacific and Brooklyn Heights - Both are near my office, and near our previous home in Clinton Hill and Fort Greene, but I don't get out to visit them often enough.
Thanks to Malika L. Granville, Marketing & Communications Associate at BPL.

Current Reading

  • Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War- Tony Horwitz
  • A Sultan in Palermo - Tariq Ali
  • Hitch-22: A Memoir - Christopher Hitchens
  • Negropedia- Patrice Evans
  • Dead Funny: Humor in Nazi Germany - Rudolph Herzog
  • Exile on Main Street - Robert Greenfield
  • Among the Truthers - A Journey Among America's Growing Conspiracist Underworld - Jonathan Kay
  • Paradise Lost - John Milton
  • What Is Your Dangerous Idea? Thinking the Unthinkable - John Brockman
  • Notes from the Edge Times - Daniel Pinchbeck
  • Fringe-ology: How I Can't Explain Away the Unexplainable- Steve Volk
  • Un Juif pour l'exemple (translated as A Jew Must Die )- Jacques Cheesex
  • The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
  • Pale King - David Foster Wallce
  • David Bowie: Starman bio - Paul Trynka
  • Tobacco Stained Mountain Goat - Andrez Bergen
  • The Future of Nostalgia -Svetlana Boym
  • Living in the End Times - Slavoj ZIzek
  • FIrst as Tragedy Next as Farce - Slavoj Zizek
  • How to Survive a Robot Uprising - Daniel Wilson
  • Where is My Jet Pack? -Daniel Wilson
  • Day of the Oprichniks - Vladimir Sorokin
  • Ice Trilogy - Vladimir Sorokin
  • First Civilizations
  • Oscar Wilde -Andre Maurois
  • The Beats - Harvey Pekar, et al
  • SDS - Harvey Pekar, et al
  • The Unfinished Animal - Theodore Roszak
  • Friends of Eddy Coyle
  • Brooklands -Emily Barton
  • Abraham Lincoln - Vampire Hunter - Seth Grahme-Smith - Entertaining and historical
  • Dictionary of the Khazars - Pavic
  • Sloth-Gilbert Hernandez
  • War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy
  • Charles Addams: An Evilution
  • Life in Ancient Greece
  • Time - Eva Hoffmann
  • Violence - S. Zizek
  • Luba - a graphic novel by Gilbert Hernandez
  • Life in Ancient Egypt
  • Great Apes - Will Self - riveting and disturbing
  • Lost Honor of Katherina Blum - Heinrich Boll - could not put it down
  • Yellow Back Radio Brokedown - Ishmael Reed (author deserving of new wide readership)
  • Living in Ancient Mesopotomia
  • Landscape in Concrete - Jakov Lind - surreal
  • 'There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor's Baby'-Ludmilla Petrushevskaya - creepy stories - translation feels literarily "thin"
  • Mythologies - William Butler Yeats (re-read again & again)
  • How German Is It ? - Walter Abish
  • The Book of Genesis - illustrated by R. Crumb - visionary
  • "Flags" - an illustrated encyclopedia - wish I could remember all of these. Flag culture
  • Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut
  • Ubik - Philip K. Dick
  • Nobody's Fool - Richard Russo
  • Hitler's Empire - Mark Mazower
  • Nazi Culture - various authors
  • Master Plan: Himmler 's Scholars and the Holocaust - Heather Pringle
  • Eichmann in Jerusalem - Hannah Arendt
  • Living in Ancient Rome
  • Traveling with Herodotus -R. Kapuszynsky
  • Oblivion - David Foster Wallace - Some of his greatest work
  • Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace - still wrestling with this great book
  • Netherland - Joseph O'Neill - staggeringly great read
  • Renegade - The Obama Campaign - Richard Wolffe
  • Mount Analogue - Rene Daumal
  • John Brown
  • Anathem - Neal Stephenson - love Stephenson but tough slogging first few chapters
  • 7 Deadly Sins
  • ALEX COX - Alex Cox
  • FIASCO by Thomas Ricks
  • I, Fellini - Charlotte Chandler & Federico Fellini
  • Best of 20th century alternative history fiction
  • Judah P. Benjamin - Eli Evans - Confederacy's Secretary of State & source of the W.C. Field's exclamation
  • Moscow 2042 - Vladimir Voinovich - Pre-1989 curiosity & entertaining sci fi read; love his portrayal of Solzhenitsyn-like character
  • Gomorrah - Roberto Saviano - Mafia without the It-Am sugar coating. Brutal & disturbing
  • The Sack of Rome - Celebrity+Media+Money=Silvio Berlusconi - Alexander Stille
  • Reporting - David Remnick - terrific journalism
  • Fassbinder
  • Indignation - Philip Roth
  • Rome
  • Let's Go Italy! 2008
  • Italian Phrases for Dummies
  • How to Pack
  • Violence - Slavoj Zizek
  • Dali: Painting & Film
  • The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight - Jimmy Breslin
  • The Good Rat - Jimmy Breslin
  • Spook Country - William Gibson
  • A Blue Hand - The Beats in India - Deborah Baker
  • The Metaphysical Club - Louis Menard
  • Coast of Utopia - Tom Stoppard
  • Physics of the Impossible - Dr. Michio Kaku
  • Managing the Unexpected - Weick & Sutcliffe
  • Wait Til The Midnight Hour - Writings on Black Power
  • Yellow Back Radio Brokedown - Ishmael Reed
  • Burning Down the Masters' House - Jayson Blair
  • Howl - Allen Ginsberg
  • Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
  • The Palace Thief - Ethan Canin
  • John Adams - David McCullough
  • The Wooden Sea - Jonathan Carroll
  • American Gangster - Mark Jacobson
  • Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien
  • Gawker Guide to Becoming King of All Media
  • Jews and Power - Ruth Wisse
  • Youth Without Youth - Mircea Eliade
  • A Team of Rivals - Doris Goodwin
  • Ghost Hunters -William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death - Deborah Blum
  • Dream -Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy - Stephen Duncombe
  • Love & Theft - Eric Lott
  • Exit Ghost - Philip Roth
  • Studio A - The Bob Dylan Reader

Current Listening

  • Alexi Murdoch Wait
  • Wilco Summer Teeth
  • Wilco The Album
  • Carmina Burana - Ray Manzarek (& Michael Riesmann)
  • Polyrock - Polyrock
  • 96 Tears - Garland Jeffries
  • Ghost of a Chance Garland Jeffries
  • Yellow Magic Orchestra
  • Mustang Sally Buddy Guy
  • John Lee Hooker
  • Black and White Years
  • Together Through Life - B. Dylan
  • 100 Days 100 Nites - Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
  • DYLAN: 3 disc Greatest...
  • Glassworks - Philip Glass
  • Wild Palms - Soundtrack -Ryuichi Sakamoto
  • Dinah Washington - Best of..
  • Commander Cody& His Lost Planet Airmen Live at Armadillo