Rain again today, but I was lucky in that my afternoon sojourn picked a point when the clouds were drawing breath before starting to drop more rain. I did the usual circuit, and walked past the north end of the
Barber Learning Centre, which has windows showing the library's automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS). Rather than browsing the stacks, you find your book in the library catalogue and request it, picking it up at the desk within 10 minutes. The UBC library is the first in Canada to deploy such an automated system. As ever there are pros and cons: you lose the serendipity involved in stumbling across a book as you browse, but you gain the ability to get the book you want with minimal effort.
I'd taken a photo of this
once before, a couple of years ago, so I had to make sure I captured a different perspective on it. Looking down, the drawer handles appeared to create interesting Moire patterns, and I pointed the camera through the glass (angling it downwards also got rid of the annoying reflections) and took a few shots. As ever, I was hoping to see the robotic system in use and hopefully capture it, but all was quiet in this aisle.
Automated Storage and Retrieval System
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