DoomsdaysCW#Seattle #PublicLibrary goes low-tech after #cyberattack
Clare McGrane
June 07, 2024
"Creative solutions
While the attack crippled key systems, the library's 27 branches are still open, hosting events and checking out physical materials.
"For 10 days after the attack, checkouts were done manually with a #PencilAndPaper. Librarians wrote down patrons' library card numbers and cataloged each item borrowed on stacks of forms. One joked that they were back in 1990.
"Now staff have cobbled together a temporary solution that relies on Microsoft Excel, moving forward in time to 1995.
"'I just scan your card into the spreadsheet,' said Spenser Hoyt, demonstrating the check-out process. Hoyt is the borrower services operations manager at the library's central branch.
"'We are able to use our fancy RFID tag technology, so all I have to do is set [the book] on the pad... and it is 'checked out' to you," Hoyt said.
"Hoyt puts air quotes around the phrase "checked out" because the item isn't technically logged in the library's cataloging system. For now, the spreadsheet acts as a record of checkouts that will be uploaded into that system when it's back online.
"One wrinkle in this work-around: There's no way to check materials back into the library's collection. (SPL is asking patrons to hold on any books or other materials until they can process them again. The system doesn't charge late fees.)"
