Blog posts tagged with RFID

Yesterday the Exhibit Hall opened and I spent some time with vendors learning what's new.  Here's what I found out.

Envisionware has a new(ish) kiosk along the lines of Evanced BranchAnywhere.  It was debuted at PLA but I guess I missed it.  It's a nice looking product.  Three models available in varying capacities:  200, 400, 800.  The one on display is the 400 item model.  What I like about this product is its simplicity.  No giant cranes for putting the items that are returned back in the slots.  Instead returns are sorted into one of 5-6 bins inside so staff can quickly grab the right bin to do whatever needs to be done (e.g. reload the items in one bin, take this bin back to the library to fill holds, etc).

The objective of the new U.S. Data Model for RFID (NISO Document RP-6-2012) is to create an environment where every library can use every other library’s RFID tag regardless of the supplier. In addition, hardware from any RFID vendor should be interoperable and the systems should be free from proprietary interfaces that make the hardware work with any given ILS. If libraries adopt the U.S.

NISO has finalized their recommendation and the U.S. Data Profile is finally resolved.  They've settled on ISO 28560-2 which was the same recommendation in the version they released for public comment.  I haven't had a chance to see if there are any changes but will keep you posted.

Having a U.S. Data Profile for Library RFID is fantastic for libraries.  Now...all you have to do is put pressure on your vendors to transition your library to the new standard.  Interoperability here we come!

Mick Fortune has released the first results of this year's RFID survey. Mick does this survey every year in the UK.  This year, Alan Butters (Australia) and I asked Mick to try for a global reach with the survey and we succeeded.  The survey includes respondents from several countries around the world and include over 50 libraries from the U.S. and over 50 from Australia.

For the last four years Mick Fortune, consultant and blogger at RFID: Changing Libraries for Good (http://www.mickfortune.com/Wordpress/, has been running an annual survey of UK libraries’ use of RFID. Last year’s survey yielded the largest response so far with a total of 122 UK library authorities completing the questionnaire.

 Results are made available free of charge through a variety of channels.

What began as a simple count of self-service users (in response to an enquiry from the then UK national agency for libraries) has now grown into something approaching a full-scale audit of all the ways that libraries have found of exploiting the technology.

In the US, we don't have the history that Mick  and the UK libraries have about their use of RFID. But I thought we might be able to get started and build upon what Mick has done and Mick agreed to let us use his survey here in the U.S.  So we've modified it a bit to take into account some language differences ( we do all speak English, right?!) and we asked Alan Butters (http://www.sybis.com.au/), based in Australia , to participate as well.  Our goal is to obtain a more global view of this rapidly expanding, often confusing but always exciting market.  

I got a call the other day from one of my clients in the throes of an RFID implementation.  She was distressed because members of her consortium were not coming to agreement on which RFID vendor they would use so she wondered if it was possible to use one vendor's products in one location and another vendor's products at the other locations.

The answer is Yes You Can.  This is the beauty of standards.  

It's official....NISO recommends ISO 28560-2.   From NISO Newsline: NISO announced the availability of RFID in U.S. Libraries (NISO RP-6-201x) for a thirty day public comment period, beginning immediately and ending on June 9, 2011.

Mick Fortune, of  RFID-Changing Libraries for Good fame notes that the new data model standard released by ISO just a few weeks ago (ISO 28560) “presents both a threat and an opportunity for suppliers. The threat is obvious. Up until now it has proved too difficult for most libraries to switch suppliers once they have purchased an RFID solution.” With the potential for interoperability between RFID systems, the library RFID marketplace may soon face competition.

On 3/22/211, ISO 28560, the RFID in Libraries Data Model and Encoding Standard was published. It is composed of three parts. Part One describes the data models and data elements while Parts Two and Three provide for two options for encoding the data on the tags. The U.S. will eventually select one of these two models and specify the mandatory and optional data elements to be used in libraries. This will be a NISO standard.

The RFID in Libaries Standard (ISO 28560) moved to Stage 50.20 today.  In other words, the Standard is about two months away from being finalized.

Why do you care?  Because this standard is going to be the basis for a U.S. Data Model standard.  This is what we’ve been waiting for. Finally, a standard that defines how to organize information on a library RFID tag including recommendations for what data elements can be used and which ones are mandatory.