New Technology in Libraries

     Well, it's been already been two years since I've had the chance to work in a library, I can't believe how time flies. At the library that I previously worked at back in high school, I'll be perfectly honest here, the staff there didn't exactly focus on updating technology as much as they should have. I'm not sure if it was just the library that I worked at, but it took them a number of years to clean up their website, it was a mess of HTML when I first started working there, and I'm not even sure if there are self checkouts there today. However, where I'm currently living in the Grand Rapids area, there recently was a new form of technology implemented to the Grand Rapids Public Library in the Fall of 2012. During this time, self checkouts were finally installed in the circulation part of the library where people checkout their books, which happens to be at the main entrance.
     The purpose of the self-checkouts were to reduce lines. Normally on a weekend the entrance would be incredibly crowded. I as well as other library patrons, were surprised at first to see the information desk having been moved to a different location of the library and in it's place a series of computers and scanners, however this did not affect library operations too much. There was a librarian there to specifically aid patrons with the self-checkouts, and to answer any of their questions about why the information desk had been moved to a different location.
     Usually a lot of college students, including myself, will come to this library, sometimes in between classes. Before they would be in a time crunch, and waiting in a line didn't help anything. Now they can find and check out a book in a matter of minutes and still have time to make it to their next class.