What is RFID and Why Do We Care?

I'm so happy that so many of you have signed up to ride to Chicago and view the products of three different RFID vendors. Many of you have seen RFID in action at other libraries, but many of you haven't, so I thought I'd give you a quick guide to what it is and why we care.
First, let's start with why we care.
KPL staff joined with the community to develop a very ambitious strategic plan the year before I arrived. My job now is to lead the projects to put that plan into place. That includes figuring out how to squeeze the resources we have to provide the results we promised the community. It's no secret that KPL could use a lot more financial support. Funding barely increases from year to year and in some past years, it's even decreased. So how do we accomplish an ambitious plan while still providing core services? By working smarter.
Working smarter means getting more efficient. It also means investing in technology to do what we're currently doing by hand and reinvesting our staff resources toward the new work defined in the plan. That work includes

• Children's services and programming, like Computer Coding Camps for Kids and other STEM activities.
• Adult public programs like Big Read and community discussion events.
• Grant writing and fundraising to diversify our income and help us become more resilient to the ebb and flow of city funding.
• Digital literacy (computer classes and technology instruction) to help people get jobs, earn their GED, improve their school performance, and navigate the modern world.
• Outreach to schools, senior living communities, the disabled, and English language learners.
• Staff training so we are all ready to deliver the right answer every time.
• Partnership development with other organizations in our community.
• Merchandising our collections to make them more appealing, more visible, and get them into the hands of our customers.

Sound impossible? Not if we work together.
Here's a surprising fact: 50% of our staff work in some kind of task related to circulation. That 50% costs $1.7 million annually. Most of that work can be automated using RFID technology. Can you imagine what we could do with even $1 million dollars of the money we've invested in doing circulation tasks by hand?
Now here's another surprising fact: Libraries who convert to RFID NEVER do so to cut staff. Just like the KPL plan, they do so to ADD services that the public wants, like more children's staff, people on the floor to help with computers and digital devices, to teach, to recommend a book in the stacks, to arrange the shelves to entice people to pick up a book, to arrange an interesting program. And they keep the best parts about circulation- the relationships. Yes, those of you who check things out for people every day build wonderful relationships with our community, relationships no machine could ever build. That's why we want you interacting with the public more. By automating the check in and sorting process, you will have more time to spend in activities that meet the public. We're not replacing you. We're freeing you to do what you do best! And with more collection activity, we'll need even more staff hours to shelve returned materials.

So what is this RFID thing, anyway? Here's a short YouTube video to explain the science. Each item in our collection will need a new RFID tag, programmed to identify the item. This is in addition to the barcode. The tags allow patrons to check things out themselves at "self check" machines, up to five things at once. They also allow for returned items to be checked in immediately. So parents who check out 50 picture books at a time will instantly be able to check out 50 more after returning the books through the new book drops- their items will be checked in by the time they approach the self checks with their new selections and any fines will be calculated in advance. On the other side of the book drop we will install AMH (automated materials handling) equipment that sorts the items into bins according to our specifications. For instance, we can set the equipment to sort all children's books into one bin and all adult books into another. Sorting systems can be as small as three bins or as large as several hundred. It depends on how many item types and how many locations you have. So Brooklyn Public Library may sort 100 ways. We will start with 5 bins at Northside and 7 bins at SW. Uptown and Simmons will continue to handle returned items as they do now.
RFID tagging will begin early summer 2015. Self check machines will be installed mid-year, as well. From now till then, we have a lot of work to do. First, we have to make sure that everything we tag is worth keeping. That's why we're removing so many old and unused items from the collection. Tagging is labor-intensive and expensive. I don't expect to gain a lot of staff hours for other activities by installing self-checks. For one thing, tagging our collection will take a lot of staff hours and there will be catch-up work to make sure we haven't missed anything. Also, much of our community will still want help checking out for the first few months, so we will need to keep our desks staffed to provide the extra support. Bottom line is, we'll be plenty busy in 2015 with the whole transition.

AMH is scheduled for 2016. That's when we will start to see the opportunity to reassign staff.
I hope the list of new activities captures your imagination. I hope you see a place for your talents and interests in this list. You are all valued and are a vital part of our success.
Enjoy your time in Chicago!

Thanks from Lisa Rivers

Hi Barb!

I just got finished reading a personal e-mail I got from Donna Holmen tonight telling me that she had shared with you her thoughts about the Frozen Party, and that you were going to post something about it.  

I just wanted to share my thoughts about the event as well, because in my opinion it was one of most memorable library programs I have ever had the pleasure to be a part of.  This truly was a collaborative effort on every level, and in my wildest dreams having been involved with popular programs like the Polar Express, American Girl, Sponge Bob, Star Wars, Thomas the Tank Engine, and the Big Read, never ever did I ever think that we would get the response that we did for the Frozen Party and sing-a-long. 

The collaboration started at our Youth Services staff meeting over 6 months ago, and not only was everyone in Youth Services excited, but Jill Miatech from adult services decided to work with us and said, let's do a sing-a-long too! Then we got Culver's to donate custard for the event which was served after the sing along, and a friend of mine from Barnes and Noble to share some of her games she had at her Frozen Party, not to mention our Youth Services volunteers Cassandra, and Vanessa who cut crowns, antlers, and put together other items for the crafts we had.  There was Corey the all day volunteer,  who told his mom I hope " I hope I'm not going to be bored today". Let me tell you he was not at all bored that day, and was put to work from the minute he got there. He did everything that was asked of him from putting signs up, to setting up and moving  tables, to clean up. He was fantastic!

Donna Holmen also asked her daughter Ariel to come with her to work at the last minute, because I had called her before her shift to tell her we were running out of toilet paper rolls,and I knew she had some stashed away at her house that we could use for our Olaf snowman craft. Ariel also helped with clean up, and directed patrons in the lobby for the sing-along event. Her help was also very much appreciated, and invaluable.  Not  to mention Pam Penza, who just came in to see and sing at the sing-a-long, who then ended up stamping hands of patrons, when we found out we were going to exceed room capacity, and so we came up with a plan to add another sing- a-long session at the last minute so that we did not turn patrons away. Oh, and did I mention she also was cutting, and replenishing craft materials as well?   

In the end it was a successful day on every level, even with the few glitches that came our way.  It wouldn't have been as successful without all their help, so THANKS EVERYONE!   They say the difference between success and failure is a great team. Working alongside Donna, Jill, along with the help of our volunteers,and donations from members in our community, I do believe that we created a fun and memorable experience for our patrons.  

Lisa Rivers

Thanks from Donna Holmen

Hi Barb,

I just wanted to let you know that my co-worker, Lisa Rivers, put on a wonderful Frozen program last Saturday.  I have been with KPL more than 9 years, and that was the most highly attended library event that I have ever seen.  We had more than 500 people come to our Frozen party.  People were parking a block away as the parking lots were full.

We were absolutely swamped, pushing out crafts, answering questions, finding books, etc. Poor Pam Penza made the mistake of stopping by to pick up something and we grabbed her and put her to work for an hour or two also! I called my home and had my 16 year old daughter come in and cut out more crafts for us. We had another volunteer, an 8th grader, Cory, who was so helpful too.  Both teens stayed all the way through to the end to help clean up,vacuum and get things back in order.

There were so many smiles and happy families.  Lots of people wanted to know when we were going to do it again.  People kept telling us thank you, and that it was so nice.  

Tom from Culver's was very gracious.  We had to split the Frozen Sing-A-Long into two sessions as there were too many people for the fire code.  Even then, we had to turn people away.  Tom offered the people that we had to turn away some cups of custard, and he kept the smiles going.  I know he called to his store and had them bring more custard as we had so many more people than we expected. They gave away a lot of custard that day!  

As the event was winding down, Lisa came around to Circulation and Adult Reference and offered every employee some custard too.  We were all tired, but it was a good tired! It took all of the hard work of the staff at Southwest library to make this event a success!

Lisa had the crafts, photo booths, games and the flow of the crowd so thought out ahead of time.  I know that Jill Miatech was part of planning and setting up the Sing-A-Long too. It was a busy day for employees but great day for our patrons who visited Southwest Library.  I know how much work Lisa put into this program to make it such a success.

I am wondering if there is someway we could acknowledge Tom and Culver's for their time and donations to the program?  Perhaps in a newsletter or on the website?  Culver's is wonderful at supporting our Youth Services summer reading programs too.  If so, Lisa Rivers would have his contact information.

Sincerely,

Donna Holmen

WWWC15

How wonderful to see so many of you participating in this week's WWWC15 webinars! I think the quality of the programs is outstanding and I can't wait to hear the ideas you've collected already. If you were inspired by anything you heard from the presenters today, or if anything inspires you tomorrow, please add a comment to this post to share with all staff. Let's get the conversation started!