Self check out

A couple of weeks ago, my local branch of the public library started aggressively promoting their self check out machines.  I've used self check out before, but when there are library staff around, I prefer going to the counter to check out my books.  It's not like I have big conversations with the staff or anything.  I just give them my book, then they ask for my library card, they scan everything, ask me if I need anything else, I say no, they give me my receipt and my books and I say thank you and go.  That's it. 

During their self check out promotion blitz, staff directed all patrons to check the books out themselves using self check out.  Out of habit, I still went to the counter.  They had a self check out machine set up there too.  When I got to the front of the line, the librarian directed me step by step on how to use the machine to check my books out myself.  I got the message.

So at my most recent trip to the library, I used self check out.  It's very simple.  It's quick.  But I didn't like it.  I missed the little dialog with the staff. the little thank you and good bye, the acknowledgement of my presence and patronage of their library.  With self check out, I just go in and out.  No one acknowledges that I came, nor do I acknowledge anyone else.  It's almost like I wasn't there.

It just doesn't sit right with me.  There we are, all these people, sharing a common space and a common interest in books but everyone is in their own world.  And one of the few points of contact between individual worlds, i.e. the check out counter, has been removed.

I can see the benefit of self-serve options in situations when it's not practical to employ someone to serve customers.  For example, vending machines allow us to buy things at odd hours and in locations where it wouldn't pay to have an employee at the cashier.  Zipcar makes renting cars from many different locations at any time of day possible through their self-serve model.  But in a library, the staff have to be there anyways.  And the patrons are there too.  If everyone is in the same place at the same time, what does it hurt to have them interact a bit?

I just miss getting my books checked out at the counter.