You may want to take a look at: http://librarysupportstaff.com/4automate.html There are several free and low cost solutions but I don't know if there is one that will be a viable solution for you. Sounds like you need a self checkout system like the 3m unit that connects to III although that particular system would be priced way outside your budget. But the idea is a patron scans there card, mag stripe or bar code and then scans bar code from book/books. Still it would be the honor system. You may want to check other links from the Google I used: Linux personal library software with bar code Thomas On Friday 23 September 2011 18:27:33 you wrote: > Apologies if this is the wrong forum, but if anyone can point me in the > right direction... > > We have an unstaffed library and can't leave a computer in it. Is there a > way to automate > > 1) with no computer - do circulation and catalog in the cloud. Volunteers > bring in laptops to do circulation and clients access catalog with iphones > 2) that doesn't cost a fortune > > Thanks so much > > Rowan > -- ========================================== Thomas McMillan Grant Bennett Appalachian State University Operations & Systems Analyst P O Box 32026 University Library Boone, North Carolina 28608 (828) 262 6587 Library Systems Help Desk: https://www.library.appstate.edu/help/ ==========================================