Robotic Librarian

Posted 18 Feb 2004 at 03:25 UTC by The Swirling Brain

The new Librarian at the Valparaiso University in Valparaiso Indiana will be a Robotic Librarian. The books will put in specially designed metal bins and the students can select any of the obscure books from the internet that they want then the robotic crane device goes fetches selections and drop them to an accessible location for the students to pick up at their convenience. The school hopes to eventually have about 600,000 books in their system for check out. (Other colleges also have installed simlar devices.) The high tech library building will cost about $33 million. I don't think they have such a cool robotic librarian at my old alma matter. :-/

Just a note about the article reference., posted 18 Feb 2004 at 05:13 UTC by roschler » (Master)

That site requires registration [name/address/e-mail] before viewing articles. The registration is free but I figured others might like to know first.

Or you can try this non-registration link, posted 18 Feb 2004 at 10:16 UTC by Timster » (Master)

http://www.post-trib.com/cgi-bin/pto-story/news/z1/02-16-04_z1_news_03. html

Blank page with non-registration link, posted 18 Feb 2004 at 14:56 UTC by roschler » (Master)

I get a blank page in both Mozilla and Intenet explorer with that link Timster. Anybody else have better luck with it?

I've got a million of 'em., posted 18 Feb 2004 at 15:02 UTC by The Swirling Brain » (Master)

Sorry about that. If I knew it was registration only, I would not have used them. It wasn't last night when I posted from work. Perhaps I registered with them in the past or something.
Anyway, You can find zillions of similar articles on it... here.
Try the Yahoo site too.

What the heck for?, posted 18 Feb 2004 at 15:03 UTC by earlwb » (Master)

Why are they doing this? 33 million dollars? A few low wage librarians, plus the bunch of unpaid volunteers they get to run the library, is a great magnatude cheaper.
It's sort of a bummer, I have many fond memories of browsing through the books at the library, discovering long lost books in the far corners of the library to peruse. I remember looking for a certain book for research, only to discover better ones right next to it. Those index catalogues are still almost useless. many books aren't even in them.

Earlwb, posted 19 Feb 2004 at 01:14 UTC by Timster » (Master)

actually you have to read the article. The 33 million dollars is for the entire building price and it has other special features such as lighting/windows as well.