In reply to Rick Ralston:

Here at the University of Waterloo we have been using portable scanners
since 1982, to do inventory, Use Studies, and other Circulation dept.
tasks, like moving items into storage, and grouping items for rebinding,
so that we can produce a binding slip that shows usage of the item.

We have always used light pens, so I can't tell you of the relative merits
of laser scanners. The light pens are a little hard to get used to, but
once mastered, they are quite fast at picking up the bar-code.

Last year we did an in-house and circulating use study of our Government
Documents collection.  This year we are doing a year-long stratified sample
use study of our serials collection. Since our current issues are not
bar-coded, we record current issues by hand on a Lotus file of current
journals arranged by call number. All other in house use that is bar-coded
we scan with the portable scanners.

We used till this year, Telexon scanners, and this year we have started
using the Psion Organizer II. These machines have been programmed to
down-load and be compatible with our GEAC 9000 mainframe. The Geac then
produces reports of the use figures.

If there is anything else you would like to know about our experience with
portable scanners or use studies please ask. Our journals circulate.

Best wishes,

Stuart MacKinnon
Collections Management Coordinator
Dana Porter Library
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario
Canada
N2L 3G1
tel:519-885-1211 ex.2450