Pickens County Library Now Has iPhone Library Card Scanning

A few weeks ago I corresponded with Sashont Crisp-Grieser, creator of CardStar for the iPhone.

Cardstar is an application that can hold the barcode of all your "member cards" and "rewards cards" - it works perfectly at Ingles in Liberty using it for my Ingles Advantage Card. I have 8 other cards including other grocery club cards, frequent flyer, and various office store rewards.

Here is the correspondence with the programmer of CardStar so you set up your Pickens County Library Card properly:

Hi Philip,

Thank you for the sample image. I was able to verify the barcode and will be adding it into the CardStar database within the next 2 weeks. After this time you can find them listed the All Merchants category or under the merchants relevant category (i.e. gym, library, retail, etc). Also, when entering in your cards it does not matter if you enter in your spaces. CardStar will treat it the same. However, make sure you include all the digits associated with a barcode including any in front of or after your barcode and fir simplicity you can always leave out any spaces or dashes. Hope that helps!
Also, when scanning at your local merchants please be sure you are following all our Tips for Scanning Success, including:

1) Make sure the screen is free of dust and fingerprints. The screen MUST be clean in order to scan properly.

2) Keep the screen just shy of perpendicular to the scanner and hold the barcode image steady (don't wave around).

3) Hold the screen approximately 5-7 inches from the scanning device.

4) Keep the screen in a vertical (portrait) orientation. Only use horizontal (landscape) orientation when the barcode is too wide to display otherwise.

5) Set your screen brightness to 80% or higher for best scanning results.

6) Avoid screen protector covers which can hinder the laser from reading the barcode off the screen. Some screen protectors can work fine and not hinder the scanning process. If you are looking for alternative screen protectors try types that are listed as "clear", such as PowerSupport Crystal from apple.com, ScreenGuardz Ultra-Slim, and Ultra clear full from HDAccessory.com. All of which were tested in our lab for scanning compatibility.

7) Avoid flatbed scanners which can be problematic for scanning off of phones. Instead stick to handheld scanners which allow the laser scanner to read effectively off the phone screen. NOTE: some users have reported successful scanning off of flatbeds but only under very specific circumstances so its easiest to stick to handhelds.

Hope this information helps and please let me know if there is anything further I can assist you with!

-Sashont

CardStar Support
*******@mycardstar.com

Just to note - the Liberty Ingles self checkout flatbed scanners work perfectly almost every time for me.

Also, while the Liberty Branch has made an exception for me to use this - the Pickens County Library System does not yet sanction the use of CardStar. I am working with them to get it approved - although I was told in a very "red tape manner" - it could be a few months before approval.