Mentat
May 12, 2008
NISO RFID Guidelines Helpful but not yet "Standards"
RFID technology for libraries still suffers from a lack of standards. Early adopters bought tags that aren't necessarily usable with today's RFID systems. RFID readers, security systems and materials handling systems are often purchased from a single vendor in order to ensure that all the components and tags work together. Tags that any library buys today will not necessarily work with all the circulation or security components a library might like to use in the future. One of the big standards hurdles is a data model standard. The data model specifies what information can be stored on a tag and where it will be located on the tag. This is an important first step toward interoperability.
In December of 2007, the NISO RFID Working Group published a Best Practices document that included a data model. Note that this is not a standard but a recommendation. The goals of the NISO RFID Working Group are:
1. To review existing RFID standards, assess the applicability of this technology in U.S. libraries and across the book publishing supply chain, and promote the use of RFID where appropriate.
2. To examine and assess privacy concerns associated with the adoption of RFID technologies in libraries
3. To investigate the way RFID may be used for the circulation or sale of books and other media in the United States and make recommendations.
4. To focus on security and data models for RFID tags, along with issues of interoperability and privacy.
5. To create a set of recommendations for libraries with regard to a tag data model and other issues.
Ultimately, the NISO RFID Working Group seeks a future where library RFID technology is truly interoperable (nationally as well as internationally) and personal privacy is protected. Ideally, tags will support advanced functionality and security, and can be used the entire lifecycle of the library material. The availability of Best Practices Guidelines and the data model recommendations are an important start to achieving interoperability but it still doesn't provide a standard that binds vendors. Even if vendors choose to meet the current data model guidelines, there are barriers to interoperability including issues related to encrypting and encoding of the data, proprietary security functions, and firmware that is system dependent.
Still.....libraries considering implementing RFID should follow the guidelines provided by the NISO RFID Working Group which include selecting a vendor that is compliant with the current NISO data model recommendation and a vendor with a published migration path for ensuring ongoing compatibility with new standards (per the NISO recommendations). Compliance with the guidelines provides the best protection that the library's choice of vendor and product will be interoperable with existing and future technology, and will preserve the library's investment.
Posted by at 2:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
May 3, 2008
LibBook - Facebook for Libraries
I've been enjoying playing around with Facebook the last few weeks and one of the things I really like about it is the control I have over who I connect with, information I share with different groups of people, what applications I can install and how I organize them on my public site and my internal site.
And those applications - there are tons of them because anyone can write one. Facebook provides great tools for potential Facebook developers. And each app is a breeze to install. I can click to install it, then play around with it to see what it does. If I don't like it, I just delete it and poof its gone. It's sooooper easy to experiment...and play!
So, I thought to myself, wouldn't it be cool if the library website worked like this? I could make connections with other library people, share book lists, install and play silly games, send little notes and pokes to people, publish my own personal news feed that others who thought I was interesting could subscribe to. I could share pictures and videos and poetry and excerpts from my favorite books and perhaps even create my own applications to share.
I encourage you to get on Facebook if you aren't already using it and while you're playing around, networking, and doing whatever you end up doing with your Facebook account....imagine it being provided by your local library --- LibBook. LibBook would have a focus on local events and bookish things rather than dating, and gossip. Instead of being fans of musical groups and TV shows, users might be be fans of books and authors. Instead of finding long lost classmates, users would be finding people with shared interests who are just across town or up the road.
Any LibBook developers out there?
Posted by at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
April 18, 2008
Sarah Long and Lori Ayre talk about Library Delivery
I recently did a delivery evaluation for the North Suburban Library System and had the opportunity to meet Sarah Long, Director of NSLS. I admire Sarah and the work she's done for libraries so it was especially rewarding to have her request an interview.
In case you find library delivery and materials handling as fascinating as I do, now you can get in on the action by listening to this little chat between Sarah and me for her Longshots Podcast series.
Posted by at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
April 15, 2008
Obama: Insighful, Analytical Response of Bitter Elitist?
This whole kerfuffle over Obama's "bitter" statement demonstrates what is so wrong with the so-called journalists of today and politics in general. Here's another situation where we can only say....thank god for bloggers. Here's how David Coleman (a Huffington Post blogger) described what Obama was doing at the time the statement was made. Evidently the statement was made in response to a campaign volunteer volunteer who was going to go out and talk to Pennsylvanians on Obama's behalf. The question was "What should we be telling the voters we encounter?"
According to Coleman "Obama's response to the questioner was that there are many, many different sections in Pennsylvania comprised of a range of racial, geographic, class, and economic groupings from Appalachia to Philadelphia....he urged the volunteer to tell Pennsylvania voters he encountered that Obama's campaign is about something more than programs and talking points."
Here's what Coleman wrote that really drove it all home for me:
"The response that followed sounded unscripted, in the moment, as if he were really trying to answer a question with intelligent conversation that explained more about what was going on in the Pennsylvania communities than what was germane to his political agenda. I had never heard him or any politician ever give such insightful, analytical responses. The statements were neither didactic nor contrived to convince. They were simply hypotheses (not unlike the kind made by de Tocqueville three centuries ago ) offered by an observer familiar with American communities. And that kind of thoughtfulness was quite unexpected in the middle of a political event. In my view, the way he answered the question was more important than the sociological accuracy or the cause and effect hypotheses contained in the answer. It was a moment of authenticity demonstrating informed intelligence, and the speaker's desire to have the audience join him in a deeper understanding of American politics."
Meanwhile, all you see is the little clip that leaves all the intelligent context out and creates an impression of Obama that is diametrically opposed to what really happened.
Here's the whole Coleman post if you are interested in more.
Posted by at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)