Open-Source Library Self-Checkout

If you have a public library, you can have automation even if you don’t have a budget, thanks to this open-source, web-based self-checkout system.

This open source self-check is a GNU licensed web application written in php. It uses John Wohler’s SIP2 php class to communicate with a library’s integrated library system (ILS), jquery for ajax calls and other javascript tricks, and mysql for (optional) transaction logging. It was designed to run on the Windows edition of Firefox Portable included in the download, which is set up with add-ons that start the self-check in fullscreen and trigger sounds on button clicks and is configured to suppress the printer dialog box (Firefox for OSX or Linux could likely be set up in the same way).

Here’s a demo video.