Monday, March 11, 2013

Monday Muse Looks at bookBot

Robots have replaced zombies and have taken over the James B. Hunt Jr. Library at North Carolina State University. (The library had its grand opening on January 2.) Well, at least in a manner of speaking.

The video below explains the library's installation of the bookBot Automated Book Delivery System that employs four robots to speed the delivery of books requested through a Virtual Browse interface. The system makes it possible to track the location of some 1.5 million books and many other items at all times. It also brings to an end, perhaps, that well-worn student excuse about the book being "lost in the stacks".



"The Library of the Future"

Among the library's highlights are videoconferencing and multimedia production facilities and video display walls.


(My thanks to The Bigger Picture Smithsonian blog for the link to the video.)

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