Audio Cues, The Missing Element in Library Systems?

Earlier this month, Jessy at Library Shenanigans posted some charming onomatopetic instructions for circ workers performing checkins at a freshly-automated library in the 1990s. The “Doot-doot” and “Deedle-deedle-dee” are delightful. They may have been a little annoying. But what struck me about the post is that they solve a problem I’ve been aware of for a good 15+ years. And they did so a good decade before I first recall encountering it.

The Problem: Popups, Barcodes, and Returns

Many library systems use popups to indicate various important item-level conditions that should be addressed after checkin. Maybe a book should be routed to a new location. Maybe it needs to go to the bindery. Maybe it’s on hold for someone. You clear it by clicking a button or pressing the “Enter/Return” key.

But while in an ideal world you’d be giving the screen full attention when checking in, that just doesn’t happen. Circ desks are busy places. Library back rooms are busy places.

The act of scanning a barcode also triggers the “Return” keyboard action. Scanning a barcode isn’t just the equivalent of typing it in, it’s the equivalent of typing it in and pressing your Return/Enter key to submit it to the system.

Checkin enough materials with enough going on around you and the following scenario will happen:

You scan an item. A popup appears on your screen with important information. You are distracted by something. You scan the next item without checking. The system does not process the barcode. It processes the Return. It dismisses the message.

The result is: Your first item is checked in but you haven’t acted on the note. Your second item is not checked in because all it did was clear the popup. Issues with both items only show up later on when a supposedly-routed item never returns or a patron complains that they returned the second item.

I first recall becoming aware of this issue while working at Hyattsville’s public library 17 years ago, using Geac PLUS. I don’t know if I just didn’t do enough checkin at Newark (I was a page and did checkin only when they were backed up) or was just too young to notice it. Fortunately, some of the time you catch it by looking at the screen and noticing that the item in your hand isn’t in the list of checkins. Or the next thing it needs has triggered a print action and you hear the receipt printer spit out a routing slip.

The Solution

That printer noise is the one reliable notification I’ve ever experienced. But the mid-90s system whose documentation is shared in Library Shenanigans had it on lock:

• Deedle-deedle-dee? Holding shelf
• Beep-beep-beep? Belongs to another library
• Doot-doot? Temporary item, set aside to be handled.

Those aren’t the only reasons I’ve experienced popups, but that covers quite a few of them!

The Question: Where Did it Go?

The whole thing was on my mind because when I was doing my research interviews last year, several folks brought it up as a flaw in the system. It’s not my job during those interviews to explain something like “oh this is shared with much older GUI systems.” But while I know it’s not an Alma issue, they’re also not wrong that it’s a problem in the system!¹

So why don’t more of us have this?

Was it specific to a scanner vendor and system?

Was it too annoying? Did it disappear in the era of the GUI desktop client?

Are there still ways to set it up?

If I still had a site with comments, I’d ask people if their library has managed to do anything like this. If you have, hit me up via my contact page or on social media because I would love to hear about it!