All change as libraries ‘stamp out stamping’

It’s the end of an era for Renfrewshire Libraries as they ‘stamped out stamping’ this week.

Library staff have begun to issue borrowers with receipts rather than ‘date stamp’ their books.

Renfrewshire Council’s Libraries Manager, Jenifer MacFarlane, explains: “Date-stamping equipment is messy and expensive to replace, and smudged dates on books are difficult to read – a receipt is so much more clean, swift and efficient.”

“One receipt can list all of the loans a person has at that time so it’s much easier to keep track.”

“We trialled this system in Lochwinnoch and it proved very popular, especially with parents – they want to keep track of library books their children have borrowed, which often sit stacked in with the ones they own!”

“All the library staff are looking forward to the switchover and it’s another sign of how the libraries service is modernising to match customer expectations.”

To help with the change, borrowers are being issued with free plastic wallets to hold membership cards and receipts.

Last year, adults borrowed over 420,000 books, CDs and DVDs from Renfrewshire Libraries with junior members taking out a further 120,000 items.

Crime fiction authors James Patterson and Lee Child were most popular with books on job-searching and interview techniques the most borrowed non-fiction titles.

Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown’s latest, Inferno, was hotly-anticipated here in Renfrewshire with the greatest number of reservations this year.

For more information about Renfrewshire Libraries, visit www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/libraries.

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