Hello John
Replying to your RFID point via the PUB-LIBS list as sadly your
message hasn’t reached me via the RFID list yet.
I can’t comment on the other PC clients you and others may
have but so far as RFID is concerned I think it’s a question of “you
pays your money and you takes your choice”. If you don’t ask for your
RFID solution to be fully integrated with your LMS then you probably won’t
get one. Just to be clear “integration” means a bit more than SIP.
SIP was developed to run self-service – although it has been pressed into
service to do much more than that - but SIP is merely a protocol – and an
unregulated one at that. The struggle for differentiation in the RFID market has
lead to the spawning of dozens of solutions to the staff workstation problem.
Indeed the ISO Technical Committee charged with setting standards for RFID in
libraries was, last year, asked to consider setting up a new committee to agree
a standard for staff interaction with RFID!
I suspect that, like me, you might think that this is unnecessary.
What you want, I suspect, an RFID reader that simply replaces the barcode
reader? Trouble is that’s not generally what libraries ask for. Not only
that, they increasingly demand that tags contain rather more than a barcode. So
some RFID suppliers have seen that as their cue to develop a new and often
independent solutions to handle staff interaction with stock.
That can result not only in extra PC clients but also RFID
solutions that are not fully integrated with the LMS. And that leads who knows
where?
But so long as we buy RFID solutions as if they were groceries
there’s little reason for this situation to change. If we asked for
things to change, they would, that’s how markets work.
Mick
Mick Fortune
Library RFID Ltd
m. +44 (0)7786
625544 t.
+44 (0)1865 727411 e.
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w. www.libraryrfid.co.uk
Join the list! http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=LIB-RFID-UK
Read the blog! http://mickfortune.org
From: lis-pub-libs: UK Public Libraries
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Usher, John
Sent: 13 January 2009 14:51
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Managing Library-related PC clients
Cross posted
to several lists - sorry if this annoys anyone.
We seem to be
buiding up a veritable bank of PC clients from various technology suppliers in
the Library market.
* LMS
* Public PC
Booking and print management
* RFID
and I'm sure
that those of you who are more adventurous than us with your procurement have
more.
Trouble is -
they all have different management overheads and techniques. No surprise there!
My views
are::
* Basicially,
if the PC works fine without the Client, then anything the client
needs should be provided by the supplier, and not rely on anything we may or
may not already do - to do otherwise is an 'Unacceptable Transfer of Effort'
(to quote Lynne Truss writing in 'Speak to the Hand')
* Any client
as supplied should drop on our PC OS and network and - largely - just
work, whatever our set-up, or at least within agreed broad boundaries with the
suppliers at procurement (e.g. Current releases of Windows, but not
Mac?). i.e. we know clearly the agreed limits of what we're buying.
* The
supplier should provide a distribution tool, and a related updating tool -
preferably web-based.
* The client
should include a local admin interface and the supplier should
provide a remote management interface - preferably web-based - and not
rely on our provision of remote access, domains, AD's, use of low level OS
tools like Regedit!
* And I want
world peace!
What do
others think? what problems have you experienced in this area (if any) and how
have you addressed them - if at all?
Hope you can
help
Regards
JU
John Usher
ICT Development Manager
Library and Heritage
Services
Islington Council
Central Library
2 Fieldway Crescent
LONDON N5 1PF
Tel: 020 7527 6920
Mobile: 07825 098 223
Fax: 020 7527 6926
Alternative contact: Michelle
Gannon - 020 7527 6907
www.islington.gov.uk
How to get to
Central Library: http://www.islington.gov.uk/Education/Libraries/Local/Central.asp
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