Dear colleagues,
(Apologies for cross posting.)
For the last four years we have 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.
This year I'm teaming up with two of my fellow library consultants - Lori
Bowen Ayre of the Galecia Group (http://galecia.com/ ) based in the USA and
Alan Butters of Sybis (http://www.sybis.com.au/ ) based in Australia - to
attempt to obtain a more global view of this rapidly expanding, often
confusing but always exciting market.
The information gathered is used for a variety of purposes. At one level it
provides a simple snapshot of the spread of the technology but the survey
also provides a valuable resource for users to gain information about their
supplier's performance and other user's experiences. Individual reports are
sent to all responders and their suppliers showing performance in key areas
like reliability of equipment, speed of response etc. All these reports
contain statistical information only - no-one is named!
One service the results have enabled me to provide has been to connect same
supplier clients sharing similar issues to each other (with their consent of
course).
Finally the information gathered helps all of us trying to improve the way
in which RFID solutions operate, and particularly the ways in which they
interoperate with other systems, to establish areas where closer attention
might be needed. Input from UK librarians in previous years helped lead to
the establishment of both a national data model for tags and a new
communication protocol for tighter integration between management systems
and RFID solutions.
There has possibly never been a more important time to make the right
technology decisions so the survey also seeks to establish what we've
already done, how successful we have been, and what those about to commit
their organisations to using RFID expect for their investment.
Please take a moment to complete it. This link will take you there:
<https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RFID2012>
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RFID2012
The survey will be open until the end of January. First results will be
published during February.
Thanks very much, and a Happy New year!
Lori, Alan and Mick
Mick Fortune
m. +44 (0)7786 625544
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