I've recently started self-checkout in my two elementary libraries (just not for Pre-K and Kindergarten) and the students love it. It didn't take them long at all to catch on. Maybe you could focus on educating your young patrons and getting them to self-checkout in order to encourage the adults around them.

I don't know if this would be possible for your library, but one library near me has the self-checkouts sort of circled around the circulation desk, so you can't checkout anything without first walking past them. This seems to catch a lot of people who don't want to bother walking the extra few feet to the desk, or waiting in the line.

Another library has completely eliminated the traditional checkout, and just has one or two people in the area to assist with the process. It's a recent change, and they kept the line in the same place, so some first time users don't even realize something is new until they get to the front of the line, and then a librarian helps them through the process. It seems to work fine.

The Buffalo public library, when they started self-checkout (about 3 years ago) put Wendy's coupons on the printed out receipt. Fast food restaurants, it seems, love to give away coupons.

My public library does it one of two ways. At the main branch and the big branches (I live in Queens NY) they use self checkout as a kind of express lane. Since those branches can have 10-15 minutes lines it is a heck of an incentive. Or you could do what they have done at my local branch which was eliminate the full service checkout. You must use self checkout. They always have a page there to help people who do not know how to do it.

Two ideas that occur to me (and that I'll probably put in a strip soon):

1) Put a sign up that says "Check Out Your Books, Keep Your Secrets." or something to that effect. Bonus: position a few staff nearby to talk about what they've seen people check out.

2) Hook self check-out stations up to candy dispensers. If you've ever been beaten by a chicken at tic-tac-toe at a county fair, that's what I'm thinking, but instead of a handful of corn the person who has successfully checked out books gets a handful of M&Ms or the like.

Reduce your staff until the point where everyone is incredibly overworked. Lines will be long and everyone will be grumpy. Patrons will be thrilled to use self-service.

The library system locally has self-checkout. The line is usually shorter than the manned checkout line--but it takes FOREVER. The computer is slow moving from screen to screen (poor wi-fi?) It reads RFID chips, and the self-checkout only reads one at a time, and each read takes a noticeable amount of time.

The manned checkout usually does 3 at a time, so is a lot faster and if you've got even more than just one book, it takes significantly less time. Their computer also doesn't have the intense lag that the self-checkout does.

I'd think making self-checkout appealing would involve making it appealing--you know, finding reasons that people would WANT to use it. I often do anyway because the library staff look so busy, but it leaves me frustrated and irritated. And I see a lot of people walk right by it and ignore it (it's a large station you must pass to get to the manned checkout)--I'm betting they've tried it and got so frustrated that they're not interested in using it any more.

We are pushing self check at my library branch right now with three shiny new machines that actually work very well (not RFID yet, though). For the first few months with them we did the soft sell and that got us to about 45% of all circulation. But as of late we have been using the hard sell--we have placed a staff member on the floor to direct people there. Some techniques we have found that work are calling it "the checkout station", not asking if they want to use it but just saying "I can help you over here at the checkout station.", and when people get a new library card we show them the self-checks as the location for check out. In conjunction with this we have reduced the number of staff on desk so that if they don't use the self service option they are going to have to wait. After about 8 weeks of hard sell we are up over 62% of circulation and the numbers are only going up. We're now watching more and more people head directly to them instead of needing to be guided.
It took us a while to get to the successful techniques. We initially tried offering candy or pens. Patrons did not respond well to that, giving us odd looks and one woman told me, "I have enough pens." We still get some folks who rant and rave at us about machines stealing jobs. We try to answer that by telling them that by using self check they are helping us do our jobs, freeing us up to do other things, like checking in the reserves faster. We never force anyone to use them, but emphasize that they might wish to learn "in case of an emergency"! I think the key here is to not lose the personal service aspect of their library experience. Even though staff won't be interacting with them at the desk, they can still greet them as they walk through the doors and browse the stacks. Good luck!

We have full self service at about 50% of our libraries now (25 of them). No incentives needed for use - it's the only option! Staff "floorwalk" in the area, and approach anyone who seems hesitant. Some people don't like it and probably never will, but most are either happy or not bothered. Their main concern when we started the programme was that staff didn't lose their jobs as a result.

I don't exactly remember when my library system started using them, late 2005 or early 2006, but they took a while to catch on- and some patrons will definitely need hand-holding / hand-selling. When a patron comes up to the circ desk, here are a few easy-to-implement approaches:

1. "Have you tried the self checkout yet? It's pretty easy and a time saver, let me show you how it works." Then walk patron to self CKO and take them thru the steps.

2. To a patron who has waited in line several minutes to check out: "Have you tried the self checkout yet? It's just like at the grocery store and you won't have to wait in line!" And show 'em how to do it.

3. Child/teen patrons: generally they like it- feeling of independence, doing something that grownups do at the grocery store. Again, walk them thru it.

4. Basically, if folks don't know what the self checkout stations are, they won't stray from their routine of checking out at the circ desk. Encourage them to try it and many will like the ease, convenience, and quickness. some won't. That's ok, the grocery store has both kinds of checkout lanes, too!

5. If the LA or clerk or whomever is usually at the circ desk has to step away for whatever reason, put up a sign that says something like "We have stepped away from the desk to assist another patron. If you need to check out library materials please step to the self checkout kiosk."

In terms of actual incentives, I don't really know- how quick and easy they are to use should be incentive enough :o) but some folks like to visit when they come to the library and some are all business. Good luck!

One possibility is finding a pleasant little noise that almost everyone will like to play every time a book is checked out with self-service.

Second possibility, get ridiculously cool looking self-checkout machines

Third, pull an Unshelved, and have a record system to see from how far away people can check out books.

In terms of treats/benefits for using self-checkout, depending on your budget you could offer reusable bags as an incentive, those are very popular these days and go along with the idea of self cko and self-bagging. Again, depending on your system's rules, you could waive a nickel or dime's worth of fines, kinda like using a reusable bag at the store and getting ten cents off.

I'm envisioning those reusable grocery-type bags with a catchy slogan, maybe "I checked myself out- did you?" :o)

There are two suggestions I have both about placement and direction

1. Children's area Have you thought of putting it in the children's area, specially if you have children's area staff? Kids LOVE doing it for themselves and being independant Harrassed parents like having the option of skipping queues. We find if you show them a couple of times kids will have a whale of a time doing it for themselves.

2. Near an enquiry point I think it also helps that it is near the enquiry point (the place where you can ask questions but not check out) as people who accidentally ask you to check out can be immediately redirected and also get help without having a special person standing by to help with confusion over self service - multitasking it's the librarian way.

After reading about the hard sell approach, it is clear why library usage is going down. The library is becoming just a service oriented as the Post Office.