Libaries get automated in Edinburgh
Geberlunzie, struggling with 4-pin bank security numbers (at least two that keep getting used for the wrong card) phone banking security numbers (another couple) to say nothing of email passwords (alpha-numeric) about three, was rather less than thrilled to fall into the comfort of the local Edinburgh library and discover the bar code plastic library card is now scanned and needs another memorable pin!
'We'll make it easy for you to remember" said the rather condescending helper, forcibly supplying a year of birth, which Gaberlunzie is trying hard to forget, for more reasons that simply every security expert in the last decade had been deriding birth dates as secure pin numbers!
But little point in disagreeing, as there are quite a few glitches in this painless seeming system, now running for several weeks and still requiring quite a lot of transaction time. One snafu appears to be If the book hasn't been 'labelled' - too new or overlooked, it isn't recognised on the scan/weigh device.
The result is sadly people who might have chatted books with you, have now become quite preoccupied helpers, not stamping the books out, but busy persuading the machines to comply. The rest are nowhere to be seen, but are believed 'very busy."
Having once accompanied an American into the British Museum Library, Gaberlunzie was a bit aghast at being informed that such stacks for browsing didn't exist in US Universities. You have to know the book and ask for it and the librarians call it down from hidden stacks that are not for human access, with all the asssociated serendipity that this entails.
Well at least my library still lets me browse.