District Library board approves $33,863.60 for cutting-edge services

The new library now under construction next to the present library will have a variety of new ways to help the public with cutting-edge services.
At the Aug. 13 meeting of the Belleville Area District Library Board, an agreement with Envisionware for a total of $33,863.60 — which includes payment to The Library Network — will provide library patrons with high-tech printing, scanning, faxing, and copying.
The touch-screens on these kiosks will look the same throughout the library, so it will not be necessary to learn different systems.
A kiosk for PC Time Management, Print Management, Mobile Printing, and Payment Management will be located next to the color copier near the second floor computer/internet work stations. Payment options will include credit card, coin, bill, and library card / visitor card.
The Library Document Station (LDS) will be located near the copy machine by the entrance on the first floor. Patrons can fax their documents or scan them to a mobile phone, email, or USB drive. From the LDS screen, patrons may also pick up their mobile print jobs or any other print jobs they did in the building that day. Payment options include credit card, coin, bill, and library card/visitor card.
The Coin/Bill Acceptor and Credit Card Readers will work with the LDS as well as the copier. The credit card reader will work with the LDS.
The Ecommerce Services Staff Register (and software) will feature two staff registers at the circulation desk which will interface with the automation system. Staff can accept cash, checks, and credit cards for printing, copying, lost materials, Friends of the Library merchandise, etc. Staff register software provides auditing and reporting controls.
Library Director Mary Jo Suchy said since the library is no longer charging late fees, it will redeploy the two credit card readers previously purchased for the first-floor self-check kiosks. They will, instead, be used with the staff cash registers.
A four-year subscription to MobilePrint for the Main Library and the branch in Sumpter will enable people to print from their mobile devices or from home and retrieve their documents from one of the library’s print release stations.
Various software licenses including two site licenses (for the main library and the branch) and 45 client licenses (34 at the main library and 11 at the branch) are necessary.
This PC Time/Reservation Management software from Envisionware will be purchased through the Library Network which has negotiated a group rate. The price includes installation.
The Envisionware total is $29,055.90 and the Library Network total is $4,807.70 for a total of $33,863.60 for the services.
Envisionware originally was selected for the self-checkout for the new library and that decision was partly because of its suite of other products that would seamlessly interface with the original purchase.
In other business at the Aug. 13 meeting, the board:
• Approved accepting the Centennial Quilt, that now hangs in the present library, to hang in the new library, as recommended by Michele Montour of the art committee. The other quilt that also hangs in the present library, the History of Belleville Quilt, will be hung outside the Belleville High School Auditorium;
• Heard Director Suchy report that she and Cichewicz have been attending weekly meetings with Sumpter’s Construction Manager in the soon-to-be-opened Sumpter Media Center. She said they met there the other week with George Kelley, the library’s technology manager, and representatives from The Library Network and AT&T in order to coordinate telecommunications for the branch;
• Commented on the recent passing of longtime library patrol and architect of the library’s 1992 addition, George Craven. Director Suchy said her favorite memory of Craven was when he performed with his swing band at a library courtyard garden party many, many summers ago. Mary Jane Dawson said she last saw Craven when he went to dinner at the BYC a week before he died. Later that night he said he didn’t feel well and went to bed, dying a week later, she said. Cichewicz said Craven was in favor of a new library and didn’t want to keep the old library “cobbled together and stuck together with bubble gum.” Barbara Gates, one on the board who didn’t know Craven, volunteered to write a resolution for the board to pass in his memory. Gates will work with Suchy on a plaque for Craven at the new library; and
• Learned $22,000 worth of readers’ chairs have been ordered, since there are 18 weeks of lead time necessary for the order.