Mary Sakaluk and Paul TakalaNov. 18, 2011

“Eliminating wasteful activities in the service delivery chain will result in improved customer service. Improved customer service will lead to significant cost reduction” John Huber

Background Info Hamilton has a population of approx 530,000

Over 400 square miles of urban and rural space

Holds

176,746 in 2001

1,153,163 in 2008

1,352,674 in 2009

Circulation for 24 branches;

4,701,565 in 2007

5,122,736 in 2008

6,059,335 in 2009

6,346,100 in 2010

The Two Kinds of Technology Sustaining technologies improve performances of

established products that are valued by the majority of the customers in mature markets.

Disruptive technology is an innovation that helps create a new market and eventually goes on to disrupt an existing market displacing an earlier technology.

Sustaining Technology

Disruptive Technology

Pe

rfo

rma

nce

Time

HPL Annual Circ 2001-10

0

1,000,000

2,000,000

3,000,000

4,000,000

5,000,000

6,000,000

7,000,000

2001 20022003200420052006200720082009 2010

HPL Annual Circulation

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

J M M J S N J M M J S

ebooks Monthly Circ 2010-2011

eAudio Monthly Circ 2010-2011

Monthly Downloads

Jan 2010 to Date

Impact of RFID and Other Changes

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

18,000

20,000

22,000

24,000

2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012

Series1

HPL Circ per FTE since Amalgamation

Goals of the Project To address work-flow for increased volume of

circulation, hold requests and movement of materials between locations

To meet increasing demands with existing staff complement

To address ergonomic issues in handling materials

To enable staff to focus on value added customer service: customer assistance, reader’s advisory, information service and programs

To meet expectations for self-service options

Goals of the Project To protect patron privacy by enabling self-checkout

To help reduce loss rates (particularly in high demand formats such as DVDs, Games, BluRays)

To make better use of limited or “prime” space

To implement inventory control and reduce staff time locating collections

To increase job satisfaction by using expertise and education appropriately

To decrease focus on materials and computer screens and increase interaction with their customers.

Date Project Milestones

2006Prepare RFP and run pilot at 3 locations

Libramation Awarded Contract$723,000 allocated

2007System Implementation

$620k for tags; $2.78 mill for RFIDReview vendor performance

2008Award SirsiDynix ITG contract for RFID

Equipment Rollout

2009Award MK Sorting Materials Handling Contract

Equipment Rollout, 3 sorters December

2010 - 2011Rollout of Sorters, Self Checks,

Gates, Staff Pads

2012 LibDispenser for Valley Park

RFID Equipment – Self Checks

RFID Equipment - Sorters Central - 848,509 (11 bins)

Terryberry - 632,145 (7 bins)

Turner Park – 528, 095 (9 bins)

Ancaster - 364,383 (3 bins)

Westdale - 302,753 (mini sorter – 2 bins)

Ancaste

r

Westd

ale

Central Sorter Installation

Terryberry Sorter

Turner Park Sorter Installation

The Sandwich Test!

RFID Equipment – Staff pads

RFID Equipment - Gates

Other Components Tags

Software

SIP to ILS

Furniture

Marketing Messages

Standards for spacing (gates, self checks, pads)

Tagging – Challenges Metallic covers Metallic materials (i.e. CDs, DVDs) Donut hub tags & Booster tags After-the-fact weeding Quality control

Looking forward…

Embedded Tags from Book Trade Pre-programmed tags High quality/High performance Tag Tag Prices Decreasing

Lessons Learned Metal causes problem:

You need to be very aware of interference and the proximity of metal (including nails/screws in furniture, drawer rails, wiring management…) with any of the readers/antennas.

RFID readers/antennas create a reading zone that is symmetrical below and above the antenna. Putting metal below the antennas shrinks the size of the reading cloud both below and above the antenna.

Cable Management: it is critical that special attention be paid to cable management at all RFID station. Because cables contain metal they will create interference if not properly tied down.

RFID Antenna Table Top

Poor Read Range

Good Read Range

RFID Antenna

Metal Screws, computer cables, bad surface area

• Metal is NOT your friend – it impacts reading zone• Laws of physics apply no matter what a vendor

promises• Signal to read a chip can be weaker, stronger

signal to write to the chip and turn off security bit

Lessons Learned Avoid complexity and reduce points of failure

Decreased tagging on multi-party sets

Table top instead of under-mounted reading pads

Accept non tagged items – make it a backroom issue not a customer service issue

Removed receipt printers from sorters

It may look like you have way too much room now…

Sorters need a lot of space, customers need space to place items, equipment and materials interfere with readers

Don’t forget about the furniture…

Compare costs of Kiosk vs Table Top models, Table top cheaper and more flexible

Lessons Learned Weeding, weeding, weeding BEFORE tagging

Running the pilot project created the knowledge base for a successful system implementation

RFID has helped enable staff spend more time on higher value customer interactions

Other changes: hold process, floating collections have also helped

Increase in circulation without increasing staff

The Public is initially concerned about staff losing jobs – need to have consistent messages ready

Most customers respond very positively to RFID

More privacy; quicker check-in

Implementation anxiety is mostly temporary

Lessons Learned Efficiency improvements require a system

implementation

Renovations provide opportunity to implement RFID

RFID has enabled better merchandising of the collections

RFID equipment is very important, but so is furniture and positioning - follow the standards for spacing equipment

It’s a project – run it like one

Lessons LearnedWhat worked well…

Cross & small group training

Greeter function (self checks and sorters)

Sorter Updates – project awareness

Standard public service messages

Have a backup plan for when sorter is down

What didn’t…

Need a lab to practice typical situations

Running two parallel systems is difficult for a long time

Upgrade on a closed Friday and open with new on Saturday

By the numbers… 35 self checks

65 staff pads

5 sorters

46 gates (pedestals)

Next steps Improved statistical reporting through Xpresscheck

management console and Exit Watch software

Complete the rollout of the last self checks and gates

Complete installations at remaining locations

New Builds – Lynden, Waterdown

Renovations –Terryberry, Kenilworth & others

Inventory wand

Library Dispenser for alternative service delivery

Move from project implementation to operational mode

Improve documentation and support processes

Questions