Mercury Bay Area School
RFID is saving time, opening up the library and reducing costly book loss
The start of 2016 brought exciting changes to the Mercury Bay Area School library as Library Plus installed a brand new D-Tech RFID library circulation and security system. The existing 3M security gates were unreliable and the school was keen to invest in a future proof technology that could benefit the library in more ways, for the long term.
The staff are enjoying the simplicity and time saved by using RFID instead of constantly opening books and scanning with the barcode scanner. Compared to the previous system the security is now reliable and effective, saving the costs and time associated with replacing lost items. The school has future plans for more RFID add-ons as time and budgets allow.
What did we do?
Security Gates
Previously the library was only able to have the front doors open as that was where the previous security gates were located. Thanks to the cost effectiveness of our M180 RFID security gates we were able to located a set of gates at the front and rear entrances. The frees up the flow of students to the library and provides much improved ventilation during the hot summer months.
Staff Pad
A single RFID staffpad was installed on the issues / return computer along with D-Tech conversion and circulation software. This software was integrated with Softlink Oliver v5 via a SIP2 connection.
RFID Tags
A volunteer team from the school was trained in the conversion process and proceeded to tag the entire collection during the summer school holidays. It took the team only 3 days to tag the entire collection of 9000x items. Existing security strips on books did not need to be removed. Tags were easily dispensed from the roll using the D-Tech tag dispenser.
Mercury Bay Area School Library
We recently converted our school Library over to a full D-Tech RFID system through Library Plus. We are a large Area School in the Coromandel.
Steve from Library Plus was fantastic; he spent several days on-site, setting up two sets of security gates, and ensuring the RFID system communicated correctly with our Library Management System. Steve also made sure staff were adequately trained for the RFID conversion process, and that we were confident using the technology.
During the school holidays it took a team of five Library Assistants three days to convert the library stock – nearly 9,000 items – to RFID. The conversion procedure is straight forward: the RFID labels are easy to apply, and it only takes seconds to impart item information and a security status onto the labels.
As a result of the move to RFID, the issuing and returning of Library materials is faster and more accurate, with fewer physical actions required than the previous system of scanning barcodes and (de)sensitising the security tattletap. Subsequently, the Library has less circulation and Security Gate errors, even when multiple item transactions have been performed at the same time.
Our school is impressed with the professional and ongoing support provided by Library Plus. Steve is happy to answer any queries, and has come back on-site to do minor adjustments to the security gates and offer additional training.
From the school's perspective the move to RFID has meant better economy of the librarian's time, and has ensured the school has technology that is future proof.
Stewart Pedley, Librarian
Mercury Bay Area School, Whitianga
