Two automated bookcases at the Davis Library are fascinating library users.
When the Chronicle visited, a family spent several minutes observing the new auto-return shelves and screen as they returned their books. Frontline services manager Nicholas Keene said it was typical of the interest the new bookcases were generating, with Whanganui District Library one of only three New Zealand libraries to install the system.
"There have been a range of reactions and we've had a lot of conversations with people about how it works," Mr Keene said.
"It's a new piece of technology and people who have seen it at the Feilding Library think it's cool that we've got it here. The bookcase scans the returned book when people put it on the shelf and the screen shows them that the book has been taken off their library card.
"It's been a huge process to set up and people will have seen us working through the library aisle by aisle to tag our 75,000 books with radio frequency identification (RFID) for the bookcase to scan.