[Koha] Koha and RFID

Fri Jan 16 09:36:26 NZDT 2015

Hi Jason,

You are describing some things that suggest to me you have issues with your
implementation.  The limitations you are describing are not common to all
RFID implementations.

1.  SIP connections flooding your system:  Not typical. Sounds like others
on this thread have some ideas for you. This would be a Koha issue and not
an RFID issue.

2. RFID pads are not powerful and require shuffling:  This is a problem
withe product you are using. You didn't state whether you were talking
about the pads used by staff or the ones used in the self-check machines.
If staff, I'd harangue Bibliotheca until they get you some pads you are
happy with.  If it's the self-check machines....I have heard from other
Bibliotheca customers that their tabletop units don't have good pads. If
they are unsatisfactory, again, harass your vendor until you are
satisfied.  Did you put any kind of performance requirement in your RFP?
That's what I do with clients.  That way if items aren't getting read as
promised, it is on the vendor to fix it.

3. DVDs/Stingrays/Bidirectional Gates:  This makes no sense.  I wonder if
you are not understanding something about how direction gates work. If you
have set up your gates s they only alarm when a patron is ENTERING the
library, then the gates will simply stop alarming unless two conditions
exist:  the gates detect someone walking into the library and they also
detect an unchecked out item (which may or may not be associated with the
person who is walking through the gates).  Gates detect RFID tags up to 18
inches or so in all directions.  All the directionality does is control
whether the alarm will sound or not.  And, there are two ways to determine
directionality.  One is for the gates to set up two seeing eyes (lasers or
whatever) so that when the laser beam is broken in the right order, the
gates know someone walked in.  There's another technology used as well
which uses radar.  Anyway, this is probably not the reason your DVDs aren't
being detected.  Any discs with metal on one side are simply not doing to
get detected. And if you have more than one Stingray on a set of discs
(e.g. books on CD), they will probably conflict with one another and render
all the tags useless.

4.  Now, that conforms with my understanding!

Hope the above info helps.

Lori Ayre

On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 3:01 PM, Jason M. Burds <JBurds at dubuque.lib.ia.us>
wrote:

> We are in the end stages of a long and painful RFID migration.  To answer
> your question, SIP makes checkouts and check-ins work much faster.
>
> We chose Bibliotheca for our vendor.  They do have a Circ manager software
> that will connect with SIP and allow for multiple items checking in and
> out.  Our staff still has to bring up the patrons account in Koha to verify
> holds and overdues.  There are many bugs with it but overall it functions
> most of the time.
>
> Warning about Bibliotheca and Koha
> 1. SIP connections are tremendous and will eventually lockup your SIP
> server with flood messages.  We have to restart SIP server every morning,
> to clear out log files.
> 2. RFID pads are not powerful and will disappoint you, expect to have to
> shuffle items to get them to read.
> 3. Gates cannot detect DVD's with Stingray tags when the gate is set to
> only alarm on outgoing traffic.  You need bidirectional detection.  This
> may be important on how you tag your collection and how you plan your
> implementation.
> 4. Inventory device needs to run on Windows 7.  Good luck with anyone with
> a new PC in the last 2 years.  OS on inventory device is an old windows
> palm OS.  We are still waiting for a replacement for one that came bad out
> of the box, 2 months after receiving it.
>
> Not to be overly negative about them, they do have a few good support
> staff and a programmer David who is excellent.
>
> In addition, we have Tech Logic self-checks that are near perfect on
> detection and RFID pads are 50% stronger.  Makes me wish we would have
> spent the money and went with them 100%.
>
> Good luck and if you have any questions let me know.
>
> Jason Burds
> I.T. Supervisor
> Carnegie-Stout Public Library
> (563)589-4229
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Koha [mailto:koha-bounces at lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Liz Rea
> Sent: Wednesday, January 7, 2015 1:07 PM
> To: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
> Subject: Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID
>
> It would be awesome if all replies to this email could come to the list,
> so that we can make a FAQ for the website.
>
> Cheers,
> Liz Rea
>
> On 31/12/14 07:04, Keener, Nancy wrote:
> > Our library is considering RFID in our near future.  Are there any Koha
> libraries out there using RFID?   Does SIP limit RFID functionality?  And
> finally, what vendor did you choose?
> >
> > Nancy Keener
> > Systems Librarian
> > I.T.O.S.C. Chair
> > Washoe County Library System
> > Reno, Nevada
> > 775 327-8347
> > nkeener at washoecounty.us
> >
> >
> >
> > ea
> > http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
>
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