Computers replacing staff at South Florida libraries
If it works for chips and dip at the supermarket, it’ll probably work for War and Peace at the library.
Broward and Palm Beach counties are stepping up additions of do-it-yourself checkout machines to their libraries.
This isn’t just about convenience for patrons — it’s about money. Broward is doing it to cut staff positions and, in Palm Beach, more machines means fewer new workers.
Broward libraries have already installed 35 computers that allow patrons to check out their own books and DVDs that come in new plastic cases. They’re at the Main library and Tyrone Bryant branch in Fort Lauderdale Is your Fort Lauderdale restaurant clean? – Click Here. and a Miramar branch.
Northwest Regional in Coral Springs hooked up last month. The county’s library division is planning to install another 100 self-checkout computers within two years, starting with Lauderdale Lakes this summer.In Palm Beach County, 11 of the check-out machines have gone to branches including Wellington, Boca Raton Click here for restaurant inspection reports, Delray Beach and Boynton Beach. The library system plans to add another 20, sending them to Lantana in April and to Royal Palm Beach and Greenacres in 2010, said Assistant Library Director Sharon Hill.
In Broward, the machines cost $3,000 apiece but save much more in staff salaries and benefits. In the past two years, 220 library staff positions have been cut, and there could be more cuts in this year’s budget, said Bob Cannon, director of the Broward County Click here for restaurant inspection reports li?รจ brary division. The outlook for avoiding more cuts “doesn’t appear to be very positive,” he said.
Source: Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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