r/Libraries

I’m trying to understand whether book scanning is a real library workflow problem or just a niche hobbyist problem.

I’ve seen libraries use overhead scanners for local history, special collections, interlibrary loan, patrons scanning personal material, and staff digitization projects. But I don’t know what the day-to-day pain actually looks like.

I’m working on an early non-destructive scanner prototype that turns one page at a time and captures automatically. The goal would be to reduce staff/patron babysitting, not to replace review or preservation judgment.

For librarians or library staff:

1. Do patrons ask for book/document scanning often?
2. Is staff time the bottleneck, or is equipment quality/software/review the bigger issue?
3. Would automatic page turning be helpful, or would it be too risky for public/patron use?
4. Would privacy/offline processing be a requirement?
5. What would make a scanner practical for a public library: durability, easy training, low maintenance, accessibility, export formats, price?

I’m not trying to sell anything here. I’m trying to understand whether this belongs in libraries at all, and what would make it useful rather than another device staff have to babysit.

Can customers please, please stop licking their fingers to get their library cards out, especially right in front of the staff, before handing them over??

I don't want other people's spit on my fingers thank you.

I am retiring from my IT job and looking to help out more with my synagogue library. A little history: In the 80's, the Rabbi at the time categorized the books using the Jewish Library system which appears to be a modification of the Dewey Decimal system. I typed up the card catalog entries and put the tags on the books and added them. I continued for a few years after he died, but the Sisterhood eventually gave me different responsibilities.

Here I am many years later, trying to return to the same library and clean up some of the confusion that has resulted from years of neglect. I have no way to know how to catalog books. I've logged into the library of congress website and used the Dewey number given there, but they don't have every book that gets donated to our library (think regional or speciality Jewish books).

I think it is safe to "junk" the card catalog. Many of the people under 40 are more accustomed to the electronic card catalog used by the public library. So I also need an app or system that I can install on a laptop in the library. I've started looking at the ones mentioned on here. I'm glad that I searched first!

I am still reviewing the information that I found here from people who asked similar questions. It is intimidating to find professionals with the same questions. How will I ever manage?

Like the title says, just curious!

With Playstation games going discless in 2028, how will libraries be able to lend out video games when they aren’t physical. This is very important to me because I rent a lot of Xbox series x and Switch games from my library cause it’s great to save money when I’m only going to play a particular game once, and when Xbox and Nintendo follow suit, how will this still be possible?

I keep getting people who walk in wanting a library card. Thing is, this is an almost-mid-size tourist town and while we have a respectable PLS, we can't afford to give everyone passing through in an ABnB for the weekend free Libby for the rest of their lives.

When I tell people from out-of-state that I'm sorry but they aren't elegible, I often get the miffed response, "Well, in [blank] they offer guest cards." To which I can only shrug and say sorry.

(Of course in my head I'm thinking, "Yeah, that city also has 4 more branches than we do, a better bus system, more homeless shelters, an airport, etc. All of it funded by about 6 times our population.")

So I just wanted to ask around here if these people are correct, or just blowing smoke. What are the prerequisites for patronage at your library? Are there any? Do you offer a guest card, and if so, what does that entail?

Hey, Edit! Thanks for all the responses; I'm really enjoying reading them all. As well as being informative regarding membersip policy elsewhere, it's also wonderful to read about your libraries all around the world. Salut!

I did want to make clear that our libraries consider anyone who walks in a patron; everyone can use our public computers and internet, sit and read our books from open to close, attend any events (although for the purpose of limited seating we may require registration) or book available rooms for their own meetings.

A membership card is required to check items out from our library or access our digital resources, for which we require a photo ID and proof of residence, school attendance, or employment within the county (this includes 2nd-home-owners who live elsewhere most of the year, since they pay taxes on that property). We have reciprocal arrangements with all other counties in state; presenting a photo ID and library card from there gets you a card here. We also offer a restricted card geared toward patrons without permanent residence that allows them to check out up to five books. People passing through (usually library workers from elsewhere) occasionally come in and ask for a souvinier library card, and we give them a blank (with no number or barcode) We offer all of this for free.

If anyone knows, how is that handled? Do staff get paid double time? Are librarians told they are exempt and make them staff? Or, are they staffless? Really curious, TIA

We got an anonymous call at our library giving us a heads up that the 1st Amendment Auditors are coming sometime next week. Any advice? Has anyone gone through this?

I’m not a librarian but I am a patron. Attending the regular monthly meetings, one of the issues my library has been mentioning has been difficulty updating the website in a timely fashion. There isn’t a designated position for that and I can’t imagine there’s much in the budget to hire someone, instead the library basically takes all the updates they need to make and send it to an outside vendor, and there tends to be a really big delay on that. It has caused issues with the monthly meetings where minutes and meeting notes have not been updated in months.

I guess I’d ask for any advice or recommendations on a good website builder that

A. Is easy to setup quickly

B. Is very easy for librarians that don’t have the technological experience to easily plug in information without difficulty

I’m hoping to gather any recs for our next meeting on Thursday, so any help is greatly appreciated!

Every so often our branch will get a call from an out of state number from someone asking for half a dozen title checks without any real consistency: some titles are YA or children's books, some are fiction, some are nonfiction. They'll give the title, author if you ask for it, and ask us to confirm the title in full and whether we have it or not. Normally I wouldn't think anything of it, but I had a possibly paranoid shower thought because none of these people take me up on my offer to put the titles we do have on hold (and some of it's genuinely weird stuff that doesn't make sense for a rural collection in an ag community), and now I'm wondering if mine and my coworker's voices are being used to train the orphan crushing machines someone's LLM.

Do any of you get these calls?

I and 2 of my staff have gotten out of state calls for "fraternal twin growth restruction." I have advised everyone to hang up on them but I was wondering if any other system had this or something similar. We are a very small system in the south.

I wouldn't doubt if this is just the beginning of getting rid of all physical media which has been a great resource at libraries.

I don’t know if other librarians are having this issue with this particular title. Patrons have been taking the Mylar cover off the books because there are pictures of paintings that are related to the story in the cover. This is becoming an issue because we keep having to recover our copies. Has anyone done anything with their copies to make it so the patrons can see the paintings? One of our staff was suggesting we make copies of the cover and tuck it in the book. What are you all doing to handle this?