Dispensing With the DVD Circulation DILEMMA.

RICHMOND (B.C.); BRITISH Columbia

This article describes the use of the Mediabank dispenser at the Richmond Public Library (RPL) to reliably handle an entire circulation cycle for DVD discs. RPL is a four-branch library with the highest per capita circulation of any comparable library in Canada. Circulation growth has consistently outpaced the growth in their budgetary resources. While DVD discs fit into the RPL emphasis on popular material, circulating them using the standard model proved problematic due to thieves. The most important change required to create a library application of the system was adding a session initiation protocol (SIP) software interface so that the system would appear to be a generic self-check device to any integrated library system (ILS).