Sing with me Andrea BOCacelli!

Andrea is singing his way to success and performing to standing ovations on a daily basis at the West Boca Branch.   Andrea is a nine bin sorter with an outside Library Mate.  In his spare time, he enjoys listening to opera, reading Italian travel books, and eating lots and lots of pasta!

GlaDOS is online to rule Glades Road

GlaDOS has come online at Glades Road (pronounced with a short "a" and long "o").  GlaDOS is very helpful and dreams of overseeing all operations in the Circulation Department before long.  In her spare time, she likes to play video games, experiment with extra-dimensional travel, and eat potatoes.

Lucy! You're home!

Lucy is working hard over at the Main Library.  Lucy is a nine bins sorter with an outside library mate.  In her spare time, she enjoys watching old television sit-coms, listening to Latin music, and getting into zany, madcap escapades.

Ask Geeves

Geeves shows remarkable grace under pressure, a stiff upper lip, is totally trustworthy and completely unflappable!  As all good butlers are, he serves the public in rain and shine with his outside library mate.   He went into service on September 16th.

Annex Sorter now has a Name!

Annex staff had a Sorter naming ceremony on August 25, 2011.  They welcomed Annie All Star to the family. She comes with an AAA+ credit rating due to her high organizational skills. Annie is quick and know the best places to go.  Her passion is for filling up crates.

The Force is with you Obi-Wan

Obi-Wan of Okeechobee Blvd. Branch is now using his mystical ways to amuse and delight patrons.  He is the first seven bin sorter in the system and has an outside Library Mate.  In his spare time Obi-Wan likes to watch Science Fiction films and practice meditation.

Welcome Garbo

This cute new addition to the family has nine bins like her cousin Lana and is showing a hearty appetite for working with the public. In spare time, Grabo enjoys gardening in her Florida Certified Yard.

New Sorter Troubleshooting Guide Online

A new sorter troubleshooting guide is now available online.  It is designed to allow users to diagnose problems with their sorter and library mate.  You can find it at: http://staff.pbclibrary.org/rfid/sorter/index.htm

This is still in a beta version, so please forward any comments or corrections to: craned@pbclibrary.org

Sensor Issues - Clean them Away

Troubleshooting Tip!

Be sure to clean all the sensors on the sorting machine with the microfiber clothes.  This includes the sensors that are in the Library Mate tunnel.  There are three rows of sensors inside the tunnel.  Lightly dust each one from inside to clean them.  You will need to remove the cover plate from the back side of the Library Mate to clean the second and third rows.  The first row can be cleaned from the front of the machine.

Cleaning is important because if a sensor gets dirty, it will think it is detecting items that are not there!  This can cause the belt to engage when nothing is there or kick back items that the patrons insert.

So use that microfiber to clean your problems away!

Here comes Trapper

Trapper (Sorter) Nelson is now hunting for books at the Jupiter Branch.  He is working to get rid of a few bugs that followed him in out of the Everglades, but with a bit of mosquito repellent he should be as good soon.

April Check It Out Article

Have You Ever Had to Work with a Diva?
By Jennifer Gallagher, Circulation (Main/LAN)

Have you ever had to work with a diva? Or maybe you’ve encountered a rock legend? They have many demanding ways, expect you to adapt to suit them, and naturally they know they are something special.

Working here at the Lantana Road Branch has given me insight into what it must be like to work alongside a ‘star.’ In the last two months the staff members here have been getting to know the newest member in our workroom, affectionately named Lana. No doubts about it either, she definitely is a star. Lana is only one of a handful of sorting machines from Lyngsoe already installed at their permanent locations. Naturally, many people from around the System have stopped in to get a peek and see her in action. Visitors walk into the workroom and stop immediately in their tracks, fascinated with the mechanical diva. And don’t think that all this attention is going unnoticed by Lana herself.

Since Lana’s installation, she somehow learned how to command and make demands of staff. I blame it on all the attention she has been getting going to her head. Well … maybe her processor anyway. I suspect her highhanded ways won’t last much longer.

Her constant antics have staff running at her beck and call, trying to determine what may have upset her delicate sensibilities. Just because she is a machine doesn’t mean that she doesn’t believe she deserves a break once and a while either. When Lana wants her fifteen, she will take it and there is no stopping her.

Even with her antics, I must admit she is definitely something to behold, with her nine bins lined up along her length and the nearly constant sounds of the belts running and materials dropping into their designated bins. Patrons and staff alike are kept busy feeding materials through her scanners, attempting to sate her relentless appetite for work. Since her arrival we have been constantly attempting to test her in new ways to see how she can make our jobs faster and more efficient.

Lana assists us in the morning to process our items being sent out to other locations for holds. After we open she keeps up with the steady influx of returned items, neatly taking them off patron records and dumping them into bins to be shelved, or handled by staff in the case of unusual items she isn’t quite sure what to do with. When our route-ins arrive, we have found that she takes the laborious and time-consuming nature of  processing the incoming materials to an almost light speed process in comparison. Doing route-ins by hand is quickly becoming passé.

Even the public is thrilled to have Lana here to serve them. Patrons are very enthusiastic about her wonderful customer service in giving them a receipt for their returned items; giving them peace of mind. Other patrons are equally thrilled to discover that returning their materials through the Library Mate means their items come off their records almost instantly. This means less waiting for them to check out another stack of DVDs or other materials.

Lana and the LAN staff are still adjusting to each other and finding new ways to work together in order to provide a better overall experience for the public. If you haven’t yet met Lana or one of her siblings, Wally (WEL) and Tex (HRR), I can assure you that one of their relatives will soon be gracing your branch and bringing the delight of working with a sorter to you.

Sorter Instructional Video

Steve Langerholc - Librarian I (WEL) - has produced an instructional video for the Induction Station and Library Mate. Click on the picture below to watch.

If the video does not load properly due to a Flash update error, you can view it on the WAN drive at: H:\WEL\SORTER VIDEO FOLDER

Meet Lana

Lana is online at the Lantana Road Branch. She has nine bins and a healthy appetite for books, movies, and music.

Meet Tex

Tex is now in the house at Hagen Ranch Road. Tex has a rugged side to him as he is the first sorter with an outside Library Mate. This means he his not afraid of a little sun or rain. Tex has ten bins and is otherwise a near twin to his brother Wally at Wellington.

User Manuals

If you are experiencing a problem with your sorter you can contact
Lyngsoe Systems at:

877-763-1911 (24/7)
Links to Adobe PDF downloadable user manuals:


Staff Induction Maintenance Schedule

Induction Conveyor Maintenance Schedule

Sort Mate Maintenance Schedule

Staff Induction How To

Induction Conveyor How To

Sort Mate How To

Wellington Installation

The Wellington sorter was installed in early January.

Here is what the staff had to say about its installation:

 

"The Wellington Branch is pleased to announce the birth of Wallace (Wally) Duke Wellington. Wally came to life at 11:55 a.m. on Saturday January 22, 2011, weighing in at over 900 lbs and measuring 19 feet in length. His 30 eyes are red and he has ten strong bins.

Despite his young age, Wally has a great appetite for books and loves working with the public. He still has a lot to learn, but his patient family is eager to teach him all he needs to know to do great library sorting."

Here is an image of the patron induction station:

Pre-Installation at the Library Annex

Here are a few images of the Library Annex as it looked November 4th, 2010.

Library Annex Sorter In Action (recorded January 2011):