Librarian builds self-checkout machine. Costs $1500 instead of $23000

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100202/NEWS/2020311/-1/AMES/Enterprising-Ankeny-librarian-builds-money-saving-kiosk

by ippisl • 16 years ago

122 50 16 years ago

desmoinesregister.com

ippisl6• 16 years ago

I wonder if there's similar opportunities for cost reduction in other self-service kiosks ?

ggruschow• 16 years ago

There's a similar opportunity almost everywhere something is sold at a massive premium to material costs.

bensummers3• 16 years ago

$1500 + 15 to 20 days work. However wonderful librarians are, they don't get paid $1000/day, so it's still a good deal. But not quite as good a deal as the headline suggests.

patio113• 16 years ago

When universities ask us to whip up one of these babies we quote a number much closer to $25k than to $1.5k. One reason is that the fully loaded cost of the cheapest engineer capable of doing this is probably about $10k for a man-month. (I don't know what librarians make in Iowa but if it was less than $8k fully loaded I'm going to be surprised).

Also, after you install it you have to support it, and these are not the easiest customers in the world to deal with. (Not the worst, either, but an intermediate engineer answer the phone and walk you through how to clear a print jam -- not that any of our customers would ever call four times in a year about a print jam, mind you, this is totally hypothetical -- is not the cheapest endeavor in the world.)

ippisl6• 16 years ago

It took him 15-20 days of work for one unit. won't it take him much less time for each unit if he would build them in quantity ?

BCM43• 16 years ago

Unless they make more than one.

rgoddard• 16 years ago

But it only cost $1500 extra. His salary is already in the budget. No need to do a fund raiser to pay him. At which point, since that money was going to be spent anyways, the only real cost from his time is the opportunity cost for what else he could have been doing.

bensummers3• 16 years ago

If he had stuff he was doing, then someone else had to do it, and therefore there was a cost. Even if this cost was someone going unpaid overtime.

If he is employed to do such work, then his salary should definitely be counted!

hyperbovine• 16 years ago

the only real cost from his time is the opportunity cost for what else he could have been doing

Exactly--and since you're bringing economics into picture, the opportunity cost should exactly equal the wages expended on developing this. OP makes a valid point.

OTOH if the marginal cost of production is really 1/20th of the next-best solution, then his employer should easily be able to recoup that by rolling out a bunch of these.

MicahWedemeyer• 16 years ago

Yeah, HN folks should be well aware of this.

"I can start a startup for the cost of renting a server...that's like $50/mo!"

Oh yeah, there's also the 1000s of hours of your previously free time that also goes in.

teeja• 16 years ago

He said: "I like to mess around with things like that on my own."

He donated his expertise to the community, and had a good time. I'm having a hard time finding the downside.

jdietrich2• 16 years ago

It's not so much a cost saving, more an indication that this particular librarian is underemployed. With those skills, he shouldn't be stamping books and clearing print jams.

mbrubeck2• 16 years ago

The people you see stamping books are probably clerks or pages. "Librarian" is a professional job that requires at least a master's degree. Librarians these days increasingly have degrees in "information science" which includes a wide variety of technologies from books to the internet.

The librarian in this news story "handles technical support for the library." Apparently this isn't just clearing print jams, either: "I had done some Web-application development for the library..."

jdietrich2• 16 years ago

My mistake - I must have made a wrongful assumption based on practice in the UK. While public librarians in Britain are also expected to have a postgraduate qualification, that doesn't mean very much here and librarians aren't particularly well paid unless they are heads of service. An experienced librarian would expect to earn about half what an experienced software developer or systems administrator would - indeed, they would be fortunate to earn more than a junior developer on their first year in the job.

As an indication of their status here, a study published by the British Psychological Society in 2006 suggested that librarians are amongst the most stressed and frustrated workers. In the study, librarians themselves described feelings of severe boredom, a lack of control over their careers and insufficient opportunities to exercise their skills. As a heavy library user myself, this news story gelled strongly with the perception I have of librarians - intelligent people with very little to do, shuffling about the place with the demeanour of a lackadaisical hound, looking for something to puncture their tedious routine.

leftnode• 16 years ago

Or, maybe he just likes being a librarian. It's probably a lower stress job than engineering.

asmithmd12• 16 years ago

Typical engineer, they just want to solve problems and don't care about making money. Why did he tell them the fixed machine cost? He could have started a nice side business providings these kiosks for $5k or $10k. I know O'Reilly preaches creating more value than you capture but shouldn't he captutre some value?

nfnaaron2• 16 years ago

"shouldn't he captutre some value?"

I think he captured a pile of spiritual value.

asmithmd12• 16 years ago

I assume you are not joking. He could have done more "good" by investing $1500 of his own money and given them the first one for free. Each one after that is - say - $7500. The library would be thrilled with the free one AND the dramatically lower cost. Say the library from the next town over wants one now, what should he tell them? They know it only costs $1500 and will balk at paying more yet he won't want to build them for free.

lsb• 16 years ago

And, remember, job security isn't free, and he has an even more secure job now.

ippisl6• 16 years ago

He captured great job security value.

Steve_Baker2• 16 years ago

I know that a lot of people would think that, but I can tell you from personal experience that that is likely not the case. One offs, impressive or not, rarely, if ever, factor into an administrators budgetary decisions. Killing the goose that laid the golden egg is a quite common occurrence.

Dbug• 16 years ago

From the sound of it, everyone loves him so much it might even help him to get laid!

mquander• 16 years ago

Because he wants to solve problems, and doesn't care about making money. You say that like it's a bad thing!

megamark163• 16 years ago

"He got it up and running quickly, too. He's a hero around here; talk about job security."

He'll have job security because he sounds like the type of guy who looks for ways to make improvements wherever he's at, which is a trait that a large part of the workforce seems to be missing. I'd hire this guy (and guys like him) and find a place for him in my company (if I had a company) because they look for ways to make things better, faster, cheaper, without it being in their job description.

Hubbert• 16 years ago

The spirit of volunteerism and innovation that you admire is impractical when managers define the employee's primary responsibilities in a way that requires unpaid overtime every week.

megamark163• 16 years ago

You're absolutely right, I've even heard of people receiving negative performance reviews because they spent a little unauthorized time at work creating something that improved the productivity of the entire staff by a measurable dollar amount. There will always be companies that shoot themselves in the foot.

jodrellblank2• 16 years ago

He'll have job security because he hacked together a public use kiosk which everyone loves and nobody else can support.

megamark163• 16 years ago

My real point wasn't necessarily that he'll have job security at the library, which of course he will, but that this type of self motivated, driven, and creative person should have little trouble finding work with any company that is able to recognize the worth of those traits.

Steve_Baker2• 16 years ago

If only the average administrator were so forward thinking. Too often they can think no further than the next quarter. Still, there are always consulting fees for him to look forward to.

gcheong• 16 years ago

So why not just put it in the job description?

rgrieselhuber• 16 years ago

Anyone know what software, tools he used? I'm sure other libraries would like to do the same.

BjornW• 16 years ago

Wonderful story and it made my day. I really like it when people are fixing problems and go above and beyond their job description.

Groxx• 16 years ago

The library in Appleton had a decent self-checkout several years ago, and it was ridiculously simple: a fixed barcode scanner, de-magnetizing bar, card swipe, and an off-the-shelf computer + monitor. Likely cost a lot more than $1500, but there's no reason it wouldn't have been fairly cheap, and I've never heard of anyone having trouble with it. It also only took up about 3 square feet of ground space.

Grocery store checkouts need to learn something from that design. Swipe card, slide books through & listen for the beep, and walk away. Some are that simple, but most have you click through several layers of buttons just to frickin' pay.

Librarian builds self-checkout machine. Costs $1500 instead of $23000

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