Well my first whingey post at my new job. I have to say that it is incredibly frustrating dealing with an IT department that do not want to let go of control.
I understand that security is of high importance. I also understand that some staff should not be trusted to install local software (I've seen cases of people screwing up their computers by installing things they shouldn't have, I also know that people are likely to install illegally acquired software if they can). These things aside, it is frustrating as heck to me that I am not allowed to even install an update to the library system.
Being part of a consortia, an upgrade to the library system's database means that the new software needs to be rolled out as close to the upgrade as possible. Using old software on a new database (with a potentially new data structure) is potentially dangerous to the database. Having to schedule someone from IT to physically come to each computer to upgrade it seems to me to be an incredible waste of time, especially as the library network is totally seperate to the staff network and the PCs are unable to have software installed remotely.
I think that I am going to have to demonstrate to our IT department that the library is not only forward-thinking in terms of computing, but also that we have a high level of skill in this area and certain people can be trusted to install software.
That being said, it is actually quite exciting for me. I think that the library here has never really shown what we are willing to do in this field. With my boss (who is new) and myself here, I really think we'll be demonstrating a much higher level of IT expertise to the IT department than ever before, and developing a higher level relationship will probably mean we'll be given more lee-way to do the kinds of things we should be doing.
As an aside, does anyone have any ideas on how to butter up a bunch of people to get them to do stuff? ;)
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Job change - starting again
I've been away for a little while from my blog (mostly being a slacker). But I'm back!
I've recently changed jobs and said goodbye to Brimbank Libraries. I'm now working in technical services at the City of Yarra in Melbourne's northern suburbs. Yarra is a very small municipality with a very different demographic to Brimbank; lots of rich people and lots of not so rich people in public housing.
Currently I'm finding out about getting the following for our libraries:
Wireless internet with authentication. Yarra currently offers wireless for the public through wireless routers in the libraries - no authentication or any kind of limiting. I'm suprised we can afford it (must be a great deal).
A computer booking system for the computer. Yarra currently has no real system. They use an online database to book the computers, but there is no control software at all on the computers.
An events booking system. There is currently one in place but I'm implementing a new one (it was purchased before I started).
Plus all the usual stuff like building a relationship with IT (called Information Systems or IS just to confuse me), moving servers and dealing with the company that runs our ILS. More about the ILS another day though (Sirsi-Dynix's Symphony system).
Just thought I'd post an update for you all!
I've recently changed jobs and said goodbye to Brimbank Libraries. I'm now working in technical services at the City of Yarra in Melbourne's northern suburbs. Yarra is a very small municipality with a very different demographic to Brimbank; lots of rich people and lots of not so rich people in public housing.
Currently I'm finding out about getting the following for our libraries:
Wireless internet with authentication. Yarra currently offers wireless for the public through wireless routers in the libraries - no authentication or any kind of limiting. I'm suprised we can afford it (must be a great deal).
A computer booking system for the computer. Yarra currently has no real system. They use an online database to book the computers, but there is no control software at all on the computers.
An events booking system. There is currently one in place but I'm implementing a new one (it was purchased before I started).
Plus all the usual stuff like building a relationship with IT (called Information Systems or IS just to confuse me), moving servers and dealing with the company that runs our ILS. More about the ILS another day though (Sirsi-Dynix's Symphony system).
Just thought I'd post an update for you all!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
RFID Wand / Magic Wand Comparison
We are currently testing a magic wand (aka RFID wand) from FE Technologies. I have also tested the one from 3M and seen one from Bibliotheca and one from QLS (which was made by a Scandinavian company whose name I cannot remember).
It is interesting how the different companies have designed their magic wands.
Bibliotheca Wireless Inventory Wand
Bibliotheca have had their wand around for a while and you can see that in the design. Bibliotheca's design incorporates a giant battery pack which has a strap so that you can carry it like a handbag (if your handbag was filled with bricks). It then has a funky little PDA containing the software and a paddle that you wave at the books to detect it. Depending on which way you hold the paddle determines how accurate the scan will be, using the flat side gives you a wider scan, the sharp side (or even the point) gives you a more detailed scan.
Pros: PDA means that it could easily be installed on any kind of wireless computer device (or a laptop if it comes down to it). The software is easily updated by docking the PDA. Also, the wand is quite long which means you don't have to bend down to reach books on the bottom shelf or reach high to get ones at the top, you just wave it like a light saber.
Cons: Big-arse heavy bulky battery pack.
(note: I didn't actually get to use this as Bibliotheca were not currently supporting my tag format, the usability of the program did seem quite logical though...even if it was in German due to being the test model)
3M Handheld Inventory Tracker /Digital Library Assistant
This was the first RFID wand I had used and I was suitably impressed at the time. It is compact, light, and quite easy to use. It is an all-in-one unit that does not need any external battery support or even an external computing device (ie a PDA). You install a program onto a computer, upload a file of the items you wish to find to that location, it then pulls the items into the RFID wand and away you go. The file format is simple, comma seperated file with 4 options. First one was the barcode. Third was the call number. Fourth was the title. The second allowed you to enter something 'secondary', ie, the word missing if you wanted the device to tell you that the item went 'beep' because it was missing. It was a while ago now, but I do remember it being easy.
Pros: Lightweight. Easy to use, the screen was easily visible.
Cons: The size meant that you had to bend to do books on lower shelves and reach up to do higher ones. Battery life wasn't great (although you could have multiple batteries and they were very easy to change).
FE Technologies Portable Scanning Unit
This is my most recent device for testing and is quite new to FE, I don't know if they've actually sold any off yet and I know that they are very interested in the results of my testing to find out how to improve the unit. The unit itself is a swish looking black box with a screen. Attached to this box is an RFID antenna that looks like a handle with a squared off piece of metal attached. The box is operated by means of a special pen (which retails at $75 so I warned all of my staff that they'd better not lose it). The device itself contains a computer, battery and small RFID reader inside the black box (I asked). It can be set to run through a wireless network and will automatically download the update files that you ask it to. This was the only one of the units which I have seen which will actually update the status of items that it wands (if you want it to). For example, I could use this unit to change the security status of my DVDs to 'secure' if I was so inclined. It also works very fast, a heap faster than the 3M one did.
It operates in an interesting way. It has a dump file of all of the LMS items in it and uploads updates to the device overnight. When it scans items, it checks this dump file to see if the item is included and, if we wanted it to, it checks to see if the item is within a certain call number range, location or collection. It works with all/any of our collection codes too, very fancy (also very useless for our library service which has floating collections so nothing is really located in only one spot). It will also alert you to tags which are not 'in' the dump file. This would mean that they had previously been withdrawn and were still sitting on shelf. You can turn this off.
You upload items into it by means of a CSV file, similar to the 3M method it allows you to enter a reason that the item is being detected, unlike the 3M method you don't enter any title details, these come from the local dump file.
Pros: Fast and accurate. The antenna/aerial allows you to stand at one height and scan items on the top/bottom shelves. The thin design allows you to 'shove' the antenna between books to get greater scanability on thin items (where the RFID tags shield each other to a greater degree). Also, being in production means that if I have any issues at all then I ring them and they alter the software for us...I love testing.
Cons: Still quite heavy, similar to the Bibliotheca model (although not that cumbersome). We got around this by placing the device on a small trolley. Also, the device has no way of attaching a keyboard, mouse or, well, anything. This means that the only methods of altering stuff on there is either via the annoying Windows On-Screen Keyboard or via a network. If they gave it a USB key and allowed me to upload the CSV file from there, I would be happier.
It is interesting how the different companies have designed their magic wands.
Bibliotheca Wireless Inventory Wand
Bibliotheca have had their wand around for a while and you can see that in the design. Bibliotheca's design incorporates a giant battery pack which has a strap so that you can carry it like a handbag (if your handbag was filled with bricks). It then has a funky little PDA containing the software and a paddle that you wave at the books to detect it. Depending on which way you hold the paddle determines how accurate the scan will be, using the flat side gives you a wider scan, the sharp side (or even the point) gives you a more detailed scan.Pros: PDA means that it could easily be installed on any kind of wireless computer device (or a laptop if it comes down to it). The software is easily updated by docking the PDA. Also, the wand is quite long which means you don't have to bend down to reach books on the bottom shelf or reach high to get ones at the top, you just wave it like a light saber.
Cons: Big-arse heavy bulky battery pack.
(note: I didn't actually get to use this as Bibliotheca were not currently supporting my tag format, the usability of the program did seem quite logical though...even if it was in German due to being the test model)
3M Handheld Inventory Tracker /Digital Library Assistant
This was the first RFID wand I had used and I was suitably impressed at the time. It is compact, light, and quite easy to use. It is an all-in-one unit that does not need any external battery support or even an external computing device (ie a PDA). You install a program onto a computer, upload a file of the items you wish to find to that location, it then pulls the items into the RFID wand and away you go. The file format is simple, comma seperated file with 4 options. First one was the barcode. Third was the call number. Fourth was the title. The second allowed you to enter something 'secondary', ie, the word missing if you wanted the device to tell you that the item went 'beep' because it was missing. It was a while ago now, but I do remember it being easy.Pros: Lightweight. Easy to use, the screen was easily visible.
Cons: The size meant that you had to bend to do books on lower shelves and reach up to do higher ones. Battery life wasn't great (although you could have multiple batteries and they were very easy to change).
FE Technologies Portable Scanning Unit
This is my most recent device for testing and is quite new to FE, I don't know if they've actually sold any off yet and I know that they are very interested in the results of my testing to find out how to improve the unit. The unit itself is a swish looking black box with a screen. Attached to this box is an RFID antenna that looks like a handle with a squared off piece of metal attached. The box is operated by means of a special pen (which retails at $75 so I warned all of my staff that they'd better not lose it). The device itself contains a computer, battery and small RFID reader inside the black box (I asked). It can be set to run through a wireless network and will automatically download the update files that you ask it to. This was the only one of the units which I have seen which will actually update the status of items that it wands (if you want it to). For example, I could use this unit to change the security status of my DVDs to 'secure' if I was so inclined. It also works very fast, a heap faster than the 3M one did.It operates in an interesting way. It has a dump file of all of the LMS items in it and uploads updates to the device overnight. When it scans items, it checks this dump file to see if the item is included and, if we wanted it to, it checks to see if the item is within a certain call number range, location or collection. It works with all/any of our collection codes too, very fancy (also very useless for our library service which has floating collections so nothing is really located in only one spot). It will also alert you to tags which are not 'in' the dump file. This would mean that they had previously been withdrawn and were still sitting on shelf. You can turn this off.
You upload items into it by means of a CSV file, similar to the 3M method it allows you to enter a reason that the item is being detected, unlike the 3M method you don't enter any title details, these come from the local dump file.
Pros: Fast and accurate. The antenna/aerial allows you to stand at one height and scan items on the top/bottom shelves. The thin design allows you to 'shove' the antenna between books to get greater scanability on thin items (where the RFID tags shield each other to a greater degree). Also, being in production means that if I have any issues at all then I ring them and they alter the software for us...I love testing.
Cons: Still quite heavy, similar to the Bibliotheca model (although not that cumbersome). We got around this by placing the device on a small trolley. Also, the device has no way of attaching a keyboard, mouse or, well, anything. This means that the only methods of altering stuff on there is either via the annoying Windows On-Screen Keyboard or via a network. If they gave it a USB key and allowed me to upload the CSV file from there, I would be happier.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
RFID self-check machines
I have been analysing our brand new RFID self-check machine that we are planning to install at our latest library to be RFID'd. It is quite interesting how the different vendors program their RFID machines to work. I know that we have some say on what screens come up and in what order, but some of the vendors offer more options than that.
We have used 3 RFID companies in our libraries. Checkpoint were our original RFID vendor, we then moved to 3M and we now use both 3M and FE Technologies. It is funny, FE are a relative newcomer to the RFID world and, probably because of this, are more than happy to alter things for us. 3M, not so much. They have a huge market share so don't really see any point in changing software that works for the masses, I understand their outlook actually, why change something that works?
With the FE RFID self-check machines we have near total control over the interface. Each page of the sequence is an html page with javascript buttons. We can add buttons and remove them, totally revamp the interface if we want and they even have an option so we can translate everything - pages, RFID popups, even the messages coming through the SIP connector. Quite powerful actually.
Even so, there are some things with FE's self-check that are irritating. What will be good though is their responsiveness. We're only just starting our look into altering the interface though so I don't know if they'll be as quick to make changes as we'd like, but here's hoping!
We have used 3 RFID companies in our libraries. Checkpoint were our original RFID vendor, we then moved to 3M and we now use both 3M and FE Technologies. It is funny, FE are a relative newcomer to the RFID world and, probably because of this, are more than happy to alter things for us. 3M, not so much. They have a huge market share so don't really see any point in changing software that works for the masses, I understand their outlook actually, why change something that works?
With the FE RFID self-check machines we have near total control over the interface. Each page of the sequence is an html page with javascript buttons. We can add buttons and remove them, totally revamp the interface if we want and they even have an option so we can translate everything - pages, RFID popups, even the messages coming through the SIP connector. Quite powerful actually.
Even so, there are some things with FE's self-check that are irritating. What will be good though is their responsiveness. We're only just starting our look into altering the interface though so I don't know if they'll be as quick to make changes as we'd like, but here's hoping!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
m-Cat - a view to the future?
Following on from my post about my mobile library catalogue the other week, I had comments that some screenshots may be nice. Now I warn you, it ain't pretty. Being a catalogue for a mobile device, my entire aim was to make it:
a) fit on a small screen
b) resize if they had a larger screen
c) use very little bandwidth (which ain't cheap in Australia for mobile devices)
Problems I am having are mostly resulting in 'set' code from our library management system. Code is spat out of the system that I cannot change (ie on the patron details page, I cannot change the default text that is generated).
1. Search window
2. Results window
3. Availability window
4. Customer details window
