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SEFLIN- Energize V Conference
11:17 AM EDT 7/26/05
Recently I spoke about RFID at the SEFLIN (Southeastern Florida Information Network) annual conference in Miami. There were 162 participants so I thought for a regional conference it was well-attended! The opening speaker was Dr. Richard Madaus who some of you may have heard speak before. He is at CCLA in Tallahassee (College Center for Library Automation) and he spoke on the future of technology. He also did a similar presentation for SOLINET's SAMM conference in May - but as technology seems to change in the blink of an eye- this was even more current. He kept on discussing new technologies and implications for libraries like 100 GB ipods, memory sticks at a terabyte, things like that but what I wanted to know more about was how did he expect the WORKSTATIONS to keep up - yes it's inexpensive (in a sense) to buy a memory stick, but if your computer is 5 years old, you won't' get the transfer speeds to make it worth it. Anyone have any comments on that?
Max
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Re: SEFLIN- Energize V Conference
3:43 PM EDT 8/2/05
as a reply to Max Anderson.
This is a good question --wish I had an answer. It is so true that all the new computing gizmos on the horizon, especially the hand-helds and 'wearable computing devices', are all the buzz, and the less glamorous challenge of how to get these to interface with the desktop machines gets overlooked. There has been [url http://webjunction.org/forums/click.jspa?searchID=1539&messageID=8256 ]more[/url] [url http://webjunction.org/forums/click.jspa?searchID=1539&messageID=11645 ]than[/url] [url http://webjunction.org/forums/click.jspa?searchID=1539&messageID=5455]one[/url] question about that problem here on all Aboard.
What was your presentation on RFID? That seems to be a radical new technology which hasn't been a particularly hot topic in libraryland. Tell us more ...
Betha
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Re: SEFLIN- Energize V Conference
12:48 PM EDT 8/10/05
as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
Betha asked so here it is! I was asked by SEFLIN to speak to that group of libraries about RFID. Basically I did a one-hour session in the morning and one in the afternoon - and concentrated on what is the technology, how does it interact with your exisiting systems, what are the privacy concerns, and what other parts of the technolgy should libraries be thinking of... i.e. Is this technolust or technomust? Will it allow your staff to perform functions they weren't able to in the past? Can you offer new services by introducing the technolgy? Etc. That kind of thing. It was fun and ALWAYS elicits a lot of discussion.
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Re: SEFLIN- Energize V Conference
1:15 PM EDT 8/15/05
as a reply to Max Anderson.
Thanks Max!
I'm interested that it "ALWAYS elicits a lot of discussion." Are there a lot of concerns about the privacy issues?
What are the new services that RFID enables, aside from self-checkout?
If you gave one of these sessions in Seattle, I wouldn't have to ask so many questions here. ....always curious. ;)
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Re: SEFLIN- Energize V Conference
4:30 PM EDT 8/23/05
as a reply to Max Anderson.
Our library is preparing to go online with our RFID system from 3M. We will be closed most of next week for staff to 'tag' most of our items. We haven't drunk the karaf of Kook-Aid, just yet anyway. We will be using the checkin/checkout pads and the PAMS (Public Access Management System) for our computers. Since the patrons will not have an RFID library card (at this time anyway) privacy is not the conern it could be at a later time when we convert to that type of card. Since not all the libraries in our consorium have RFID, we will have a dual input system for checkins and outs - bar code reader and RFID. There is an issue with the 3M software that I am trying to solve at this time having to do with domain user permissions. In order to access the pad and software the 3M RFID is comfortable with all user having administrative rights. I am not.
David E. Johnson
Nampa Public Library
Tech Support
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Re: SEFLIN- Energize V Conference
12:26 PM EDT 8/26/05
as a reply to David E. Johnson.
Hey David,
Thanks for posting - it's an interesting topic and almost everyone has an opinion on it! Most libraries that I have spoken with aren't planning on putting RFID tags on patron cards - one reason is that the perception of privacy issues by the public when putting tags on items... on the patrons cards? Most would not be happy with that I don't think (at least initially) - though they don't tend to realize that they put their personal information at a much higher level of jeopardy just by using their cell phones, by paying for items with a credit card, by buying things online (occasionally) etc. I'll be interested to hear more about how your conversion went - see if you can clock an average time to convert an item, once your staff gets the hang of it... most say about 22 seconds.
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Re: SEFLIN- Energize V Conference
12:27 PM EDT 8/26/05
as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
New services - well some of the best benefits I can see is incredibly fast inventory control - you can "wand" across a stack of books rather than scanning each barcode. Also, the option for a book drop with readers- so that when the books come in, if you have the conveyor belt option - it can put the items in the correct bins for you and shelving would end up being faster...some of the benefits I think. (unfortunately expensive benefits to implement)
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Re: Conversion Update
8:35 PM EDT 9/19/05
as a reply to Max Anderson.
Our public computers are on 3M Public Access Management System (PAMS) and most of our inventory has been 'tagged', I had heard that conversions rates of 800-1000 items per hour were possible. We did not achieve that rate. One of the main holdups turned out to jams on the portable conversion machines. When they were working, things went very quickly, however, if the tags jammed then the rate per hour suffered when factoring in 'fix-it-time'. Over all it went/is going well. WE were able to tag just over 1/4 (40K) of our items the week we were closed and it has been steady going since then. There have been several schools of thought when it comes to tagging: 1) work in pairs; one person pulls books from the shelf, hands the book to the scanner who scans the bar code, tags the book and hands it back to the shelfer, 2) work alone doing both jobs and 3) two people working independently on the same conversion machine tagging different shelves. Frankly, it didn't seem to matter. It is cotton picking. There is a long row of items, everything has to be tagged. It takes a long time. It is very dull. iPods, books on tape, music help the time go by. Conversation slows things up. (Options 2) or 3) were my preference)
After tagging, the checkout/checkin process goes noticeably faster. Most patrons are interested in using the Self-Checkout, however, their cards must be cleared on notices and messages before the machine will process them through (usually it fines or a book on hold).
Hope that helps,
David E. Johnson
Computer Tech Support
Nampa Public Library
101 11th Ave. S.
Nampa, ID 83651
208-468-5810
djohnson@nampalibrary.org
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Re: Conversion Update
4:26 PM EDT 9/20/05
as a reply to David E. Johnson.
Thanks for the update David, always interesting to hear what other institutions are doing with their RFID systems.
Max
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Re: Conversion Update
7:16 PM EDT 9/22/05
as a reply to David E. Johnson.
"Cotton picking" is an apt description. I volunteered a half day at a library of materials for the blind/vision-impaired to help the library through its tagging process. We had a team of four --two book pullers/reshelvers and two taggers. We got into a fast-paced rhythym between the roles, with us shelvers lagging a wee bit behind at times, even though the taggers had to remove the old barcode tags before inserting the RFIDs. At the end of four hours (with no breaks), we had only done both sides of one floor-to-ceiling stack of books-on-tape. It felt like just a drop in the huge bucket.
I assume that this labor gets factored into the cost of going RFID.
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Re: Conversion Update
12:02 PM EDT 10/2/05
as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
You know what? Most libraries forget to consider overhead - personnel costs - they just look at the technology side and say... ok - 100,000 tags will cost this much, a reader will cost this much but tend to forget about the rest of it. When I do presentations about RFID I mention the OTHER costs and I see lightbulbs go off in the room - like 'OH YEAH! I forgot about that part." I remember ALA-CIPA had a great excel sheet that someone had created which was more or less a ROI and cost comparision among filtering products. I wonder if anyone has created a similar tool to try to calculate ROI for RFID?
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