The London Libraries Consortium has reportedly announced that members of the consortium are extensively using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) for self-service, improved stock management and to facilitate longer opening hours. Around a third of London is served by the consortium's library services. The most recent RFID installations were at Tooting (Wandsworth), Wandsworth Town, Clapton (Hackney), John Jackson (Enfield), Enfield Town and Gants Hill (Redbridge), where public library technology specialist Axiell has provided Bibliotheca Venus machines. These machines supposedly offer easy-to-use self issue and return facilities in over 1,000 libraries worldwide.
Wandsworth has had RFID in its Earlsfield library since 2008 and at the new Wandsworth Town library since it opened in August 2009. Tooting Library serves a strong Asian community and the RFID machines have been set up so that the instructions are available in the relevant language such as Urdu or Punjabi. About 87 percent of issues at the branch are through RFID machines. The technology will be introduced to the remaining Wandsworth libraries by the end of the year.
In the east of Greater London, Havering will carry out stock taking using handheld RFID readers for the first time this year. Six of the borough's libraries have RFID, the latest being the new Central Library in Romford. The remaining four libraries will gain the technology in 2010 with a target of 80% of transactions to go through the machines this year.
At Redbridge, the technology is also used for stock management as well as self-service. Gants Hill library was recently refurbished and now offers extended opening hours as a result of the introduction of RFID. Staffers have been trained in the new customer service model and actively encourage patrons to use the RFID machines and 86% of issues are now going through self-service. RFID will be rolled out to three further branch libraries this financial year and the Ilford central library in financial year 2011-2012.
Brent Libraries have 10 fully self-service libraries with the remaining two facilities to follow suit later in the year. There the main motivator was to free up staff to help customers and to promote stock and events. In the self-service libraries the library counters have been removed so that the public are naturally drawn to the self-service machines. Staffers are available for queries via at least one information pod in each branch. The introduction of the machines also coincided with a makeover: libraries now have improved layouts and additional facilities such as self-service printing. The machines also handle money so that customers can pay for DVD loans or overdue fees themselves and Brent now has an average rate of 80 percent RFID usage across all its branches.
In the borough of Ealing, a recent libraries refurbishment and modernisation programme allowed RFID to be installed in five libraries. The new Northolt Leisure Centre building is open beyond the library opening hours and RFID machines allow users to issue and return books after the library has closed.
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