GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — There is a new employee at the Kent District Library and it’s helping get new and on-hold books out on shelves faster.
The new sorter was installed in May at the Kent District Library’s Service Center. Jill Essenburg, a collection services assistant at the district library, said the new machine helps them save time when putting new books on shelves.
“This is a complete game changer. It literally cuts the time doing that task in half,” Essenburg said. “It frees us up to spend more time getting out the new materials to the patrons.”
The sorter is mostly used for the district library’s floating collection which is books that are placed on hold or in demand at a certain branch.
Essenburg said in the past, they would have to sort the books all by hand. They used to be able to manually sort 3,500 to 4,000 books a day and place them in canvas bags. It would take them around four to five hours to complete. Now with the sorter and new technology they can process more than 5,000 books in two and a half hours.