Type
Lightning Talk
Session Description
Successfully implementing RFID technology for collection circulation, inventory, and stacks management requires more than expected. Hear the strategies we retroactively realized for anticipating and troubleshooting, as well as tactics for building an RFID implementation team, skills, and useful tools.
Type of Library
University Library
Keywords
RFID
RFID-saster
Wampanoag Room
At a large university library, RFID tags were incorporated into all materials, in anticipation of using RFID as multi-purpose tool for circulation, theft protection, and stacks management. The incorporation of these tags as substitutes for barcodes and security tape worked smoothly, as the circulation workflows were adapted to include newly necessary tasks such as applying and re-writing the tags themselves. However, the second phase of this project created unforeseen challenges, some of which remain problematic and unsolved.
Despite being hailed as the up-and-coming, all-encompassing solution for library circulation, security, and stacks management, the implementation of RFID technology into the daily workflows of stacks management and inventory projects required a great deal of technical expertise and support, coming as a surprise for the library team. In this talk, the project’s attempted timeline and workflow will be described and evaluated. Strategies that we could have adopted for anticipating and troubleshooting these scenarios will be discussed, as well as tactics for building an RFID implementation team, skills, and useful tools.