Infopeople webinar highlighting the trends in materials handling including:
Lots of info about automated check-in systems, small sorters, advancements in sefl-check-in technology, kiosks and dispensers and new AMH products entering the market.
Presentation at Tampa Bay Library Consortium (TBLC) as part of their workshop entitled Any Means Necessary: Beyond Interlibrary Loans. Tampa, Florida.
(slides)
Mini-demo at California Library Association 2006 Annual Conference, Sacramento, CA.
(slides)
Half-day workshop at Metropolitan New York Library Council, New York City.
Presentation at Moving Mountains: Exploring Library Courier Services Symposium, Denver, CO.
If you have ever wondered how materials handling automation could fit into your library environment, you might enjoy this study I did for a client.
This is a slightly redacted version of a study I did (with Melissa Stockton of Quipu Group) on the library delivery system in Massachusetts. We evaluated delivery, sorting, and in-library practices and everything in between.
I'm one of the contributing authors for a new book titled Moving Materials: Physical Delivery in Libraries available from ALA Editions.
Valerie Horton and Bruce Smith are the editors. It's $70 (crazy high ALA prices) and is available for preorder now.
Here's how they describe the book:
Picking, packing, delivering, and returning library materials can be very time consuming and expensive; yet, it is one of the most important and least understood functions within a library.
Attached is the result of a study I did for King County Library System comparing materials handling operations at two very similar libraries: one with automated self check-in and library sorter, and the other using manual materials handling. The report (PDF) demonstrates significant savings at the library with automated check-in. It's short and sweet. Give it a read!
I recently undertook an analysis of the cost savings (if any) of a client's use of automated checkin. This was an interesting project for me because I wasn't sure how it would turn out. Although I'm a big fan of automated checkin for many reasons, I wasn't sure that it would result in clear cost savings for this particular client because they were already using automation in their central sort operation. The automated central sort system included a tote checkin feature -- this means the receiving library only had to scan a tote (or bin) to checkin all the items in the tote.