or, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Fear and Loathing at a Public Library Reference Desk


Using Carbon Paper for Warning Slips

   November 6th, 2014 Brian Herzog

carbon signSo, social media, wireless printing, circulating telescopes, blah blah blah - you know what else we've got? Carbon paper!

To go along with our public typewriter and public fax machine, my library has recently started using carbon paper again (well, actually, carbonless paper).

We got the idea while revamping our behavior warning slip - when a noteworthy incident occurred, staff would fill out a warning slip, and then have to go in the back room to make a photocopy for the patron to take with them. To streamline the process, we thought we'd redesign the form with carbon paper technology in mind, and now we're rolling out the result.

Our new form is three "pages" - really it's one, but with Admin, Desk, and Patron copies for the white, yellow, and pink paper. That way, staff can fill it out on the spot and have all the copies they need right there. One for the patron, one on file in the Admin office, and one to keep at the desk so other staff will know what's going on.

Hopefully, this will make things easier. It took some trial and error to make sure we were printing the pages correctly so the writing would transfer, but once we got it right, the forms seem to work very well. We shall see.



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