Description

Opticon SE-290 — Digital Shelf Guides for Libraries and Archives

Every stack shift, reclassification and sequence change means reprinting shelf-end guides and range labels, then walking the stacks swapping them. The work is unskilled, slow, and has to be repeated the next time the collection moves. The SE-290 is a 2.9-inch e-paper display that takes new content over the air instead — so a shift becomes a data change rather than a printing job.

A stack shift without the printing

Extending a sequence, absorbing a donation, reclassifying from one scheme to another or simply rebalancing a crowded run all push labels out of date across dozens of bays at once. Updating centrally from the Opticon ESL Web Server Software means the entire affected range changes in one operation. The labels are correct the moment the shift is planned, rather than whenever someone gets to that floor with a fresh set of inserts.

Enough room for a classmark range

The fully graphical 296 x 128 pixel display at 112 dpi across a 66.9 x 29.1 mm face holds a classmark or call-number range, a subject heading, a bay or range number, and a 2D code. Templates are fully customisable, so the typography follows your existing shelf-guide conventions — readers navigate by pattern recognition, and a label that looks different from the rest of the run slows them down.

Finding a bay without walking the sequence

The RGB locator LED with adjustable brightness can light a specific bay on request. For staff retrieving from closed stacks or a repository, that turns a walk down a sequence into a direct approach. It’s also useful during shelf reading, inventory and audit work, where the task is systematically visiting known locations. Brightness dials down to suit a reading room.

Colour where the sequence needs care

The SE-290R shows black, white and red; the SE-290RY adds yellow. Useful for marking a sequence that continues on another floor, flagging oversized or reference-only material held apart from the main run, or highlighting a range that’s temporarily relocated during works. These are exactly the cases where a hand-written note gets taped to a shelf end and stays there for two years.

No cabling through the stacks

Battery powered and wireless, so mounting is a bracket in an existing shelf-end holder — no power, no containment, no works order, and nothing to negotiate in a listed or heritage building. One base station covers up to 1,500 displays over a typical 25-metre indoor range. E-paper is bistable, so content persists without power, and two CR2450 lithium primaries last approximately five years at five updates per day. Shelf guides update far less often than five times a day, so this application should comfortably reach or exceed the headline figure.