When it comes to paying fines at the NU library, Brian Sullivan doesn’t like to go by the book.

The Weinberg senior is using the new self-service checkout stations on the third, fourth and fifth floors of the library to avoid the Circulation Desk’s rules.

“I have a fine of more than $100, so I figure if I just use (the self-checkout), they’ll never catch me,” he said. “I’ll just be totally anonymous, and I’ll graduate without paying the fine.”

Hoping to write a new chapter in library convenience, University Library installed the self-service checkout stations this quarter.

“We try to use technology in every way possible,” said Laurel Minott, assistant university librarian for public services.

Patrons no longer have to take the elevator down a few floors to check out books at the circulation desk. Instead they stop a few feet away from the elevators to check their books out by themselves.

“Before we had the checkout stations, people using the study carrels had to bring their books down to the first floor,” said Suzette Radford, head of circulation services for University Library.

And with the new checkout stations in place, patrons aren’t just avoiding fines – they’re also avoiding lines.

“It provides a level of convenience for our users,” Radford said. “They don’t have to wait in line. Sometimes we have lines at the circulation desk.”

These days, lines are forming at the self-service checkouts instead.

“Most of the time when I’ve been using it, I’ve been the first person in a line waiting to use it,” said Caille Sugarman-Banaszak, a Weinberg senior.

“It was much easier than trying to lug my four massive research journals all the way down and all the way back up, ” Sugarman-Banaszak said.

Although a planned ribbon-cutting ceremony was canceled, library personnel remain enthusiastic about the convenient new machines.

“It’s a pretty fantastic new service,” said Kate Walden, director of library public relations.