UHF RFID transfers the traditional "Reserve Book" management into the intelligent service!

SANCHONG, Taiwan - Jan. 5, 2015 - PRLog -- UHF RFID transfers the traditional "Reserve Book" management into the intelligent service!

"Reserve book" section are frequently regarded as librarians' huge workload when books are assigned by classes or they are simply popular among patrons. Most of these books are in a shorter loan, therefore, the librarians need to manage the reserves more often. The process is like this, librarians have to pick those books from the bookshelf first and then place it in a certain area behind the circulation desk. When the patron come to the library for picking up the reserve book, the circulation librarian needs to spend some time on finding this reserve book and the patron needs to wait for the process.

What if we can make this process much easier and more convenient through the assistance of technology? Make the reserve book section as a self-service area! Recently Taiwan's Tam Kang University implemented RFID technology in their reserve book area. This area is an independent space inside the main library equipped with book searching Kiosk, RFID security gate and RFID self-service station.

Make a self-service area for reserve books

When the patron reserves book via WebPAC at home or outside the library, the librarians only need to place the reserve book on the RFID smart bookshelf inside the self-service area. The patron then directly goes to the area, swipes his/her Patron ID card on book searching Kiosk, follows the light indicator on the smart bookshelf for the book location. The patron can easily find the book and complete the book-borrowing process by self-service station. The security gate will alert to make sure the reserve books are not taken out the area without the borrowing. This area is not only for the patrons to pick up reserve books, but also for others who can immediately line up for the next reservation via the kiosk.

Phase-by-phase planning

Now you may think how to start the implementation. Do all the collection in the library need to be tagged RFID labels? Will the initial investment cost be too high? Now there is a cost-effective approach! The library can experience RFID performance first but with phase-by-phase RFID installation planning. This area is mainly for managing reserve books and the space is independent as a "small library" inside the library. Instead of tagging all the collection, only when the books are put into reserve book area, the RFID tagging for those books will be needed.

The benefits

librarians can spend more time on patron services instead of doing circulation for reserve books.

The library can calculate the turnover rate of each reserve book and the statistics from the smart bookshelf can be the reference for book purchase decision.

Patrons do not have to wait for librarians to find books. They easily look for reserve books and can pick them up by themselves using self-service station.

The independent area for reserve books is easy for librarians to manage all the reserve books and they will not mix up with other genre of books.

Future expansion

After the first phase to implement RFID on reserve books, now the library can think about the following implementation plans. Since the final goal for the library mostly is to install RFID to the whole library, eventually all the books will be tagged on RFID labels. In the first phase, the library may do tagging for the rest of books in the library. In the second phase, the library can use RFID features of security, effective inventory and automation to purchase related equipments such as gates, stock-taking mobile devices, and self-service stations. Finally, for the patrons to return books without time limit, self-return station is good for patron services. If the budget is allowed, then plan a space for book auto-sorter to classify returned books! Reserve books can be as a type of classification, the librarians can easily know what reserve books are and place it on the smart bookshelf randomly without much effort.

Costly plan? Break the myth by a different thinking!

This case study shows that it is not necessarily for libraries to apply RFID to the whole library collection at one time. Starting from reserve books, the library builds an independent area to manage all the reserve books with RFID, yet outside the area, the library do not need to implement RFID into other sections at the same time. The library can choose the RFID completion step by step based on their pace and budget condition. Patrons can freely visit the area for knowing the current popular book type and making reservation anytime, more easier and handy to access the knowledge!

Contact window: Ling Chang
Email:lchang@claridy.com