Legal Research

Bar Codes

I was just reading Outsell's "Thinking Out Loud" blogs and came across this birthday:

"Amazing but true?the bar code turned 35 today. I discovered that fact in an interesting article in the New York Times that notes that the first bar codes were scanned on a pack of Juicy Fruit gum on June 26, 1974. Bar codes are now scanned 10 billion times a day?compare that to Google?s paltry 293 million searches/day as of March 2009. Clearly the lowly bar code has some serious mojo and I think that mojo is called ?elegant simplicity.?"

I missed the June 26th event but decided to notice it today anyway. I think it's amazing! Imagine just 35 years ago was the first bar code scanning. Today it's hard to go through a store, board a plane or buy a book without using a bar code. Most major libraries use bar codes for circulation. How would they have ever dealt with the increase in circulation over 35 years without them?! Quite a few have upgraded from the lowly bar code to RFID systems and some are even thinking about the use of QR codes like I see on my plane tickets.

When I come to think about it, I was born in twenty years before bar codes. I find it fun to think that I lived before the era where there was a bar code on every book.

I've been amazed seeing how some of our SirsiDynix clients are approaching a huge majority of their circulation with self check through bar codes or RFID. Some research shows that a majority of library patrons prefer the independence and speed, while some libraries are upgrading circulation staff to concierges when they are freed from simple circ activities. Either way, it shows that libraries are keeping up with the productivity gains of other retail-type consumer activities.

Stephen

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on July 21, 2009 (boomark / email).