New technology to improve library check-out experience

Source: Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.儲存Jan. 04--Within a couple of years, a book checked out at the Rochester Public Library will carry a radio frequency identification tag much like the ones found in today's DVD and Blu-ray packages.Staffers have begun installing the little RFID stickers in the library's DVDs and will move on to books and other circulation items, with the goal to tag all 430,000 items by late 2015 or early 2106, said Circulation Services Manager Andy Stehr.At a total cost of about $201,000 for the tags and reader equipment, the project aims to improve the self-checkout and self-check-in experience for patrons, Stehr said. The library has received many complaints about the current bar code system because the reader machines that scan the codes on books and other items sometimes miss codes and fail to count items as checked in.That makes library patrons worry about fines because books they checked in still show up on their accounts. Actually, it's unlikely they would be fined since library staff go through all items missed by the bar code readers and check them in manually, Stehr said. However, that costs the library in time and labor."With the RFID system, our read rate is going to be much higher," he said. "Right now it's about 80 percent; with RFID, it should be about 99.7 percent."Improved efficiencyRFID tags, used in many different industries for tracking and theft deterrence, combine microchip and radio frequency technology. Each tag contains an antenna so that equipment can read the information on the microchip. Unlike with bar codes, with RFID technology items don't have to placed onto reader equipment in a certain way and one at a time."You can put a stack of books all together and check it all out at once," said Rashed Ferdous, president of the Rochester Library Board, which approved the investment in the迷你倉technology.It speeds up the checkout and check-in process and is much more efficient. For example, currently, patrons returning books to the library's drive-up shoot often find it awkward, having to place each item on the machine in a certain way."With RFID, you just toss them in there and it scans," Ferdous said.Considering that the library circulates 1.6 million items per year at an average of 5,000 per day, speed and efficiency is important, Stehr said. A half million people visit the library per year, or an average of 1,750 per day, he said.In addition to checkout and check-in advantages, RFIDs will allow staff to do rapid inventories simply by waving a handheld reader along shelves to read the books that are there."Also, you can put in a list of lost items and go through your stacks and wand things and try to find those lost items," Stehr said.Privacy concerns?As the technology has spread to libraries around the country, some have said it presents a privacy concern because anybody with a reader could find out what patrons are checking out."In that case, let's say you had a book in a backpack or something, someone could scan the backpack and see that you were reading "Fifty Shades of Grey," and that could be embarrassing to people," Stehr said.But, unlike some libraries, the Rochester Public Library includes only a number on its RFID tags, and the number will mean nothing to anybody but library staff, he said.The library began tagging items about six months ago, spending approximately $12,900 for the RFID tags and the reader equipment. There is $78,000 in the 2014 budget to further the project, and the library is anticipating about $110,000 in the 2015 and 2016 budgets to complete it, he said.Copyright: ___ (c)2014 the Post-Bulletin Visit the Post-Bulletin at .postbulletin.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesself storage