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Dear all Apologies - for cross posting and for my email client cutting short the previous post! (thanks for telling me so promptly Andrew!) Last year's RFID survey scaled new heights with almost 500 replies from 19 different countries. At this year's SIG meeting in Helsinki it was suggested that IFLA might provide translation support to help us reach an even more international audience next year. There are essentially two strands to the survey. The first looks at the spread of the technology - and the increasingly diverse uses to which it is being put in libraries. The second gathers feedback on supplier performance. There are a number of difficulties in gathering the data - not least being that the number of responses received is far lower than the 10,000+ libraries being claimed by suppliers to be using the technology. Obviously the survey gains authority by increasing numbers. In the past we have also sought the views of librarians that have not yet invested in the technology - primarily to try and assess the degree of understanding of issues surrounding its use among those about to spend their valuable budgets! Over the last year I've been in dialogue with a number of people about improving the reach and accuracy of next year's survey and yesterday had lunch with one of them, Marshall Breeding - owner and author of the Library Technology Guides <http://www.librarytechnology.org/> website. Marshall and I have often discussed the problems of gathering data and he, like me, has struggled to gather information about RFID installations. We are now considering pooling our resources to try and improve on this situation. Much of the information gathered in previous years has been of a somewhat sensitive nature - especially about supplier performance - but is nonetheless extremely valuable in assessing the real concerns of a profession often struggling with the technology. What I would like to propose therefore is that next year - in January 2013 - we run two surveys. The first through Marshall's site to gather factual data about the numbers of institutions using RFID and the second by me to gauge performance and elicit opinions - as in previous years. As most of last year's respondents subscribe to one or more of these lists I'm eager to canvas your opinion on this proposal. Thanks for your time Mick Library RFID Ltd <http://www.cilip.org.uk/rfid2012/programme/pages/default.aspx> Library RFID Conference - November 15 2012, London m. <mailto:+44%20(0)7786%20625544> +44 (0)7786 625544 t. +44 (0) 1865 522291 e. <http:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] w. <http://www.mickfortune.com/RFID2012/start-here> www.libraryrfid.co.uk Join the UK list! <http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=LIB-RFID-UK> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=LIB-RFID-UK Read the blog! <http://www.mickfortune.com/Wordpress> http://www.mickfortune.com/Wordpress