Beyond Open Source Software: Solving Common Library Problems Using the Open Source Hardware Arduino Platform

Using open source hardware platforms like the Arduino, libraries have the ability to quickly and inexpensively prototype custom hardware solutions to common library problems. The authors present the Arduino environment, what it is, what it does, and how it was used at the James A. Gibson Library at Brock University to create a production portable barcode-scanning utility for in-house use statistics collection as well as a prototype for a service desk statistics tabulation program’s hardware interface.