A new website, high-tech book-tracking devices and book vending machines are all on the list of projects the Pikes Peak Library District is tackling this year, which it has dubbed “the year of innovation.”

The improvements are among many the district has made to remain current as technology quickly moves beyond ink and paper, officials said.  

The district’s most recent project is a new website, which is set to go live in late July. The new version includes all the features of the current site along with more comprehensive research tools and new ways to find best-selling and award-winning books, said Jeremiah Walter, with the district’s community engagement and outreach office.   

“The main part was design,” he said. “We want to give people the quickest access to our resources as possible.”  

The website comes on the heels of a $1.8 million project completed in May that installed radio frequency identification tags in all of the items in the library collection. The tags speed up the checkout process and also help track the library’s inventory, Walter said.  The district also has a Facebook page and a Twitter account and a streams video on their website of children’s events, history symposiums, their world music series and BBB Eye, a program produced by the Better Business Bureau.   

By the end of summer, the district also is planning what it calls a Library Express to serve residents along the North Powers Boulevard corridor. Similar to a vending machine, it will allow patrons to view the library catalog and check out items such as new releases, best-sellers, romance novels and DVDs.

“As a library as a whole, to remain relevant we have to remain on cusp of technology,” Walter said. “We have to realize it can’t be just books anymore.”—Contact the writer at 636-0187.

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