We're thinking of replacing our existing public scanners. Typically patrons use these to scan books, loose leaf documents, and pretty often things like ID cards when filling out assorted paperwork.
The ones we've got have worked pretty well, but they're definitely showing their age. They're all flatbed bookedge scanners with an attached PC running a touch-screen based program walking people through the steps of doing a scan. We've got four of them. One works fine, two no longer have operational touch screens and thus are back to mouse-and-keyboard control, and the last one spends a lot of the time broken for one reason or another (user error, bum hardware, once a power surge). So I'm curious: what are you using for public scanners? Are you and your patrons happy with them? How would you rate them in terms of usability, reliability and expense? Is the scanner a separate part sitting on a desktop nearby, or do you have self-contained kiosks, or a mix of those? If you have overhead document-camera style scanners, how well do those work with loose documents and smaller items like ID cards? What sort of problems have you encountered with your scanners, if any? Will Martin Head of Digital Initiatives, Systems and Services Chester Fritz Library University of North Dakota he/his/him 701.777.4638
