Checkout themes for the ITG Xpress Check
The themes won the 2010 Chester Pismo Snavely award. This award recognizes a library, other organization, or person's out-of-the-ordinary nifty library activity or service. The South Central Library System has been giving out this award annually since 1989. Thanks to Molly from Madison's Central branch for the nomination.
A presentation called, "Pirates, Patrons, and You: Themes for Self-Checkout" was given at the 2010 Wisconsin Library Association Annual meeting. Thanks to Katharine from Sequoya and the WLA organizers for accepting the talk.
The themes made the front page of the Wisconsin State Journal on Monday, April 18th, 2011. The article focused on Haiku and April being National Poetry Month. It also touched on Biscuit, mentioning the "Julia" version.
MadisonPublicLibrary.org talked about National Poetry Month, and mentioned Haiku being used at Sequoya.
The Post Punk Kitchen noticed the Wisconsin State Journal article, and asked whether anyone had seen something like it.
Stoughton has a video about the various wonderful things in their library. One story in the video, beginning at 22:07, interviews Patricia who says, "What I like about the library is that when I take my grandson there, he gets to use the pirate voice to check out the books." The video then shows the Pirate-Andy theme in action.
Clay started a discussion on thedailypage.com in the hopes of finding voices for the themes, and one person said, "[Clay] does a great job making the self-checkout voiceovers at Sequoya . Hoist the Jolly Roger!"
Alex, a Sequoya patron, was asked what she thought about the theme. The video is in MP4. There's also an AVI conversion.
"We save the receipts and keep them in an album because they're so funny." - as heard by Clay
"I was printing out a receipt with Silent Ninja, and I was just cracking up -- it was awesome." - Lori
"I very much enjoy the voices when I'm here" - Jacki
"I love Ninja Gregg. I couldn't figure it out [at first], but then I thought, 'how fun!'" - Judy
"I like them because you actually have to know what you're doing" - Alex
"They're interesting" "The pig latin was great" - child with Alex
FYI, had several people mention to me that "game show" is their favorite yet. One guy got annoyed that the intercom interrupted his checkout listening - so he logged out and started over so he wouldn't miss anything:) - Gretel
Gameshow does seem popular, but people still talk about Zombie. On the first day of Gameshow, two (unrelated, strangers) people were cking out next to each other, both tried gameshow, and at some point glanced at each other & one said that the new theme was good but was no zombie, the other said "yeah," and then together they moaned "braaaaaiiiinnnnsss.". - Amy
Since there's no tracking involved with installing themes, this list is likely incomplete. Please get in contact if you have a library to add.
McMillan Memorial Library in Wisconsin Rapids - "We are now using the guided meditation, haiku and ninja themes as well as the pirate." (August 2011)