Stop, Scan, And Shop At Bookstore
January 16, 2001
The days of pacing up and down rows of bookstore shelving, searching aimlessly for textbooks are over - at least for students at Penn State's University Park campus.

Finding the right books for class has been made easier due to collaboration between the Penn State Bookstore, Office of Administrative Systems (OAS) and the Registrar.

Students scan their student ID on one of the six computers in the bookstore and within seconds, a computer printout with their class schedule - including class times and room numbers - and the textbooks needed for each class, is in their hands. The printout also lists what aisle to go to and locate each book.

The service is very popular with the students. "On the first day of class, we average around 5,500 computer transactions, which is about 70 percent of our customer base," says Stephen Cady, information systems manager for the Penn State Bookstore.

The bookstore always had the capability to print a list of textbooks needed for each Penn State class, but did not have access to student information, such as class assignments. Cady worked with OAS and the Registrar to create computer programs allowing the entire student database to be converted into a text file which is then processed through a program, designed by Cady, for use in the bookstore. Student information is updated every 24 hours.

Should a student forget their ID card, they can access their class information by manually entering their student identification number and date of birth. Thomas Bauer, general manager of the Penn State Bookstore says they began offering this service 3 years ago and on going implementations and updates have brought the system to where "it now handles all the information students can use."

Bauer says there are no current plans to extend this service system wide. Visit the bookstore on the Web at http://www.bkstore.com/psu/.