Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID
Agreed! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Lori Bowen Ayre // Library Technology Consultant / The Galecia Group (707) 763-6869 // lori.a...@galecia.com Availability: http://doodle.com/loriayre lori.a...@galecia.comSpecializing in software solutions, RFID, filtering, workflow optimization, and materials handling =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= On Thu, Jan 15, 2015 at 2:26 PM, Robin Sheat ro...@catalyst.net.nz wrote: Lori Ayre schreef op do 15-01-2015 om 12:19 [-0800]: I think it is incumbent on all Koha developers to at least look into LCF. More pedantically, it is incumbent on libraries who want LCF to look into how they can get support for it developed by Koha developers. -- Robin Sheat Catalyst IT Ltd. ✆ +64 4 803 2204 GPG: 5FA7 4B49 1E4D CAA4 4C38 8505 77F5 B724 F871 3BDF ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID
1. We are testing out the changes mentioned. 2. We have TechLogic pads on our self-checks and they are wonderful. The staff pads are Bibliotheca and are weak. 3. We had the gates setup so they would only alarm when people left the building. This resulted in 1 out of every 100 items with security turned on to trigger the alarm. We had to change the gate to alarm when patrons come in the building and leave the building to get them to detect and alarm at a 75% rate. I know it makes no sense at all, but Bibliotheca gave the response that people were moving too fast to properly trigger the alarm. Directional alarming has a sensor that triggers the entry. It then checks the security of the items. The gates are either too slow or we need to require patrons to walk in slow motion when they leave the building. When you put on Bidirectional, alarming it disables the sensors and checks for security first. Either way it is something to be aware of when dealing with Bibliotheca, and their gates. Jason Burds I.T. Supervisor Carnegie-Stout Public Libraryhttp://www.dubuque.lib.ia.us/ (563)589-4229 From: Lori Ayre [mailto:loria...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2015 2:36 PM To: Jason M. Burds Cc: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID 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 machinesI 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 jbu...@dubuque.lib.ia.usmailto:jbu...@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
Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID
Interesting. It sounds like they don't have that whole bidirectional thing going right yet. Thanks for the additional info. On Thu, Jan 15, 2015 at 12:51 PM, Jason M. Burds jbu...@dubuque.lib.ia.us wrote: 1. We are testing out the changes mentioned. 2. We have TechLogic pads on our self-checks and they are wonderful. The staff pads are Bibliotheca and are weak. 3. We had the gates setup so they would only alarm when people left the building. This resulted in 1 out of every 100 items with security turned on to trigger the alarm. We had to change the gate to alarm when patrons come in the building and leave the building to get them to detect and alarm at a 75% rate. I know it makes no sense at all, but Bibliotheca gave the response that people were moving too fast to properly trigger the alarm. Directional alarming has a sensor that triggers the entry. It then checks the security of the items. The gates are either too slow or we need to require patrons to walk in slow motion when they leave the building. When you put on Bidirectional, alarming it disables the sensors and checks for security first. Either way it is something to be aware of when dealing with Bibliotheca, and their gates. *Jason Burds* I.T. Supervisor Carnegie-Stout Public Library http://www.dubuque.lib.ia.us/ (563)589-4229 *From:* Lori Ayre [mailto:loria...@gmail.com] *Sent:* Thursday, January 15, 2015 2:36 PM *To:* Jason M. Burds *Cc:* koha@lists.katipo.co.nz *Subject:* Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID 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 machinesI 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 jbu...@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
Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID
Lori Ayre schreef op do 15-01-2015 om 12:19 [-0800]: I think it is incumbent on all Koha developers to at least look into LCF. More pedantically, it is incumbent on libraries who want LCF to look into how they can get support for it developed by Koha developers. -- Robin Sheat Catalyst IT Ltd. ✆ +64 4 803 2204 GPG: 5FA7 4B49 1E4D CAA4 4C38 8505 77F5 B724 F871 3BDF ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID
Nancy. SIP2 does limit functionality. That said, it is also a protocol that most vendors are familiar with so it is the easiest way to get your self-checks going with RFID. However, I would like everyone on this thread to pay attention to the Library Communication Framework (LCF) which incorporates SIP, SIP2, NCIP and even some ILL protocols and messages and defines a consistent framework to use to extend beyond the limitations of SIP. Bibliotheca and 3M are both aware of LCF and have either committed resources, or promised to commit resources to using it. The idea is to make it easier for everyone to do the things we need to do without having to go through all the headaches you are all describing everytime you change your RFID vendor (or incorporate a new RFID product) or change ILS. By standardizing on the element names, messages, and what is expected in a communication, it will make it easier (and cheaper) to enhance functionality of all self-service functions as well as resource-sharing functions and other functions that we are only dreaming of (which are not supported by SIP). Koha, as an open source product, should be among the ILS products that support LCF but I have found, to my great disappointment, that the open source ILS products are not all that good at using even the legacy standards. Some still don't support NCIP for example. For LCF to gain any traction, it requires library people to learn about LCF and put their development money into it and to demand support for LCF in their procurements (for ILS as well as all things that talk to the ILS). I ask for it in every procurement I do with a client so it is at least on everyone's radar. I think it is incumbent on all Koha developers to at least look into LCF. Otherwise, Kohacontinues on a track that is unique to Koha and puts libraries in the position of having to wrangle with their RFID vendors and possibly other 3P vendors. Going forward, this should not have to happen. But only if people get on the LCF bandwagon. This is where information about LCF lives if you'd like to check it out: http://www.bic.org.uk/114/LCF/ Lori Ayre On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 10:04 AM, Keener, Nancy nkee...@washoecounty.us 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 nkee...@washoecounty.us ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID
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 machinesI 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 jbu...@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-boun...@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Liz Rea Sent: Wednesday, January 7, 2015 1:07 PM To: koha@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 nkee...@washoecounty.us ea http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org
Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID
On Thu, Jan 08, 2015 at 10:05:11PM +0100, Sebastian Hierl wrote: If anyone implemented RFID with 3M, I would be grateful for any comments or advice on any issues to watch out for. I've done it (not with Koha but with another product) and it was fairly straightforward. Colin -- Colin Campbell Chief Software Engineer, PTFS Europe Limited Content Management and Library Solutions +44 (0) 800 756 6803 (phone) +44 (0) 7759 633626 (mobile) colin.campb...@ptfs-europe.com skype: colin_campbell2 http://www.ptfs-europe.com ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID
Check out Tech-Logic at http://www.tech-logic.com Things have been going pretty well with us, after the bumps were smoothed out a few years ago! Scott Kushner Systems Librarian Middletown Public Library 55 New Monmouth Rd Middletown, NJ 07748 -Original Message- From: Koha [mailto:koha-boun...@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Jason M. Burds Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2015 3:28 PM To: Aaron Sakovich Cc: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID Smartstation Circ Manager Jason Burds I.T. Supervisor Carnegie-Stout Public Library (563)589-4229 -Original Message- From: Aaron Sakovich [mailto:asakov...@hmcpl.org] Sent: Thursday, January 8, 2015 2:19 PM To: Jason M. Burds Cc: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID Do you know what the name of this program is? They've not told us a thing about it, but it really sounds like something we might be able to use. Aaron -- Aaron Sakovich Internet and Technology Services manager Huntsville-Madison County Public Library 915 Monroe St, Huntsville AL 35801 http://hmcpl.org/ -- asakov...@hmcpl.org On Jan 8, 2015, at 1:02 PM, Jason M. Burds jbu...@dubuque.lib.ia.us wrote: They have a new staff circ program that does multiple items check in and check out. SIP definitely times out with the new program. We haven't had an issue with the gates timing out. With the new program, you can checkin/checkout up to 10 items at time, if the pad is strong enough. Jason Burds I.T. Supervisor Carnegie-Stout Public Library (563)589-4229 -Original Message- From: Aaron Sakovich [mailto:asakov...@hmcpl.org] Sent: Thursday, January 8, 2015 12:52 PM To: Jason M. Burds Cc: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID We also use RFID and Bibliotheca, though I will say up front, we are sorely disappointed with Bibliotheca's service. We've had tickets opened for weeks with no activity on them (the latest: they said they were waiting to install a self-check until they found out what ILS we were running. For the record, we've been on Koha for nearly a year, and have 5 branches using their kit already.) We can only check items in/out one at a time at a staff workstation. The Self Check Kiosks can handle stacks of easily up to 7 items at a time for checkouts. We are in on a CheckIn page AJAX development ByWater is managing for us that will allow for multiple items on a staff workstation's RFID pad. The recent changes to the CheckOut page AJAX-ifying the process was a big help, though we're still limited to 1 item at a time (but now, much faster). And the SIP settings on the kiosks and workstations? We bumped the Koha timeouts up to about 5 minutes and have the Bibliotheca kit sending SC messages once every 4-1/2 minutes. Even with well over 60 systems throughout the county, we don't ever have to restart our server except under very unusual and exceptional thrashing... Aaron -- Aaron Sakovich Internet and Technology Services manager Huntsville-Madison County Public Library 915 Monroe St, Huntsville AL 35801 http://hmcpl.org/ -- asakov...@hmcpl.org On Jan 7, 2015, at 5:01 PM, Jason M. Burds jbu...@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
Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID
They have a new staff circ program that does multiple items check in and check out. SIP definitely times out with the new program. We haven't had an issue with the gates timing out. With the new program, you can checkin/checkout up to 10 items at time, if the pad is strong enough. Jason Burds I.T. Supervisor Carnegie-Stout Public Library (563)589-4229 -Original Message- From: Aaron Sakovich [mailto:asakov...@hmcpl.org] Sent: Thursday, January 8, 2015 12:52 PM To: Jason M. Burds Cc: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID We also use RFID and Bibliotheca, though I will say up front, we are sorely disappointed with Bibliotheca's service. We've had tickets opened for weeks with no activity on them (the latest: they said they were waiting to install a self-check until they found out what ILS we were running. For the record, we've been on Koha for nearly a year, and have 5 branches using their kit already.) We can only check items in/out one at a time at a staff workstation. The Self Check Kiosks can handle stacks of easily up to 7 items at a time for checkouts. We are in on a CheckIn page AJAX development ByWater is managing for us that will allow for multiple items on a staff workstation's RFID pad. The recent changes to the CheckOut page AJAX-ifying the process was a big help, though we're still limited to 1 item at a time (but now, much faster). And the SIP settings on the kiosks and workstations? We bumped the Koha timeouts up to about 5 minutes and have the Bibliotheca kit sending SC messages once every 4-1/2 minutes. Even with well over 60 systems throughout the county, we don't ever have to restart our server except under very unusual and exceptional thrashing... Aaron -- Aaron Sakovich Internet and Technology Services manager Huntsville-Madison County Public Library 915 Monroe St, Huntsville AL 35801 http://hmcpl.org/ -- asakov...@hmcpl.org On Jan 7, 2015, at 5:01 PM, Jason M. Burds jbu...@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-boun...@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Liz Rea Sent: Wednesday, January 7, 2015 1:07 PM To: koha@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 nkee...@washoecounty.us ea http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha This message has been scanned for malware by Websense. www.websense.com ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha -- This message has been scanned
Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID
Yes. No, there are not too many limitations, imo. It depends on what you want to do. RFID programs are usually written to conform to the SIP II standard. We are using CIRC-IT from Tech-Logic. Scott Kushner Systems Librarian Middletown Public Library 55 New Monmouth Rd Middletown, NJ 07748 -Original Message- From: Koha [mailto:koha-boun...@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Keener, Nancy Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2014 1:04 PM To: 'koha@lists.katipo.co.nz' Subject: [Koha] Koha and RFID 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 nkee...@washoecounty.us ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID
We are about to implement RFID with 3M. So far, in test mode, everything is working well, though we experienced some very long checkout times (Koha taking a long time to record the checkout of materials). If anyone implemented RFID with 3M, I would be grateful for any comments or advice on any issues to watch out for. Regards, Sebastian -- Sebastian Hierl, Ph.D. Drue Heinz Librarian, Arthur Janet C. Ross Library American Academy in Rome Via Angelo Masina 5 00153 Rome Italy T: +39 06 5846 417 F: +39 06 5810 788 On Thu, Jan 8, 2015 at 9:27 PM, Jason M. Burds jbu...@dubuque.lib.ia.us wrote: Smartstation Circ Manager Jason Burds I.T. Supervisor Carnegie-Stout Public Library (563)589-4229 -Original Message- From: Aaron Sakovich [mailto:asakov...@hmcpl.org] Sent: Thursday, January 8, 2015 2:19 PM To: Jason M. Burds Cc: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID Do you know what the name of this program is? They've not told us a thing about it, but it really sounds like something we might be able to use. Aaron -- Aaron Sakovich Internet and Technology Services manager Huntsville-Madison County Public Library 915 Monroe St, Huntsville AL 35801 http://hmcpl.org/ -- asakov...@hmcpl.org On Jan 8, 2015, at 1:02 PM, Jason M. Burds jbu...@dubuque.lib.ia.us wrote: They have a new staff circ program that does multiple items check in and check out. SIP definitely times out with the new program. We haven't had an issue with the gates timing out. With the new program, you can checkin/checkout up to 10 items at time, if the pad is strong enough. Jason Burds I.T. Supervisor Carnegie-Stout Public Library (563)589-4229 -Original Message- From: Aaron Sakovich [mailto:asakov...@hmcpl.org] Sent: Thursday, January 8, 2015 12:52 PM To: Jason M. Burds Cc: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID We also use RFID and Bibliotheca, though I will say up front, we are sorely disappointed with Bibliotheca's service. We've had tickets opened for weeks with no activity on them (the latest: they said they were waiting to install a self-check until they found out what ILS we were running. For the record, we've been on Koha for nearly a year, and have 5 branches using their kit already.) We can only check items in/out one at a time at a staff workstation. The Self Check Kiosks can handle stacks of easily up to 7 items at a time for checkouts. We are in on a CheckIn page AJAX development ByWater is managing for us that will allow for multiple items on a staff workstation's RFID pad. The recent changes to the CheckOut page AJAX-ifying the process was a big help, though we're still limited to 1 item at a time (but now, much faster). And the SIP settings on the kiosks and workstations? We bumped the Koha timeouts up to about 5 minutes and have the Bibliotheca kit sending SC messages once every 4-1/2 minutes. Even with well over 60 systems throughout the county, we don't ever have to restart our server except under very unusual and exceptional thrashing... Aaron -- Aaron Sakovich Internet and Technology Services manager Huntsville-Madison County Public Library 915 Monroe St, Huntsville AL 35801 http://hmcpl.org/ -- asakov...@hmcpl.org On Jan 7, 2015, at 5:01 PM, Jason M. Burds jbu...@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
Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID
Smartstation Circ Manager Jason Burds I.T. Supervisor Carnegie-Stout Public Library (563)589-4229 -Original Message- From: Aaron Sakovich [mailto:asakov...@hmcpl.org] Sent: Thursday, January 8, 2015 2:19 PM To: Jason M. Burds Cc: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID Do you know what the name of this program is? They've not told us a thing about it, but it really sounds like something we might be able to use. Aaron -- Aaron Sakovich Internet and Technology Services manager Huntsville-Madison County Public Library 915 Monroe St, Huntsville AL 35801 http://hmcpl.org/ -- asakov...@hmcpl.org On Jan 8, 2015, at 1:02 PM, Jason M. Burds jbu...@dubuque.lib.ia.us wrote: They have a new staff circ program that does multiple items check in and check out. SIP definitely times out with the new program. We haven't had an issue with the gates timing out. With the new program, you can checkin/checkout up to 10 items at time, if the pad is strong enough. Jason Burds I.T. Supervisor Carnegie-Stout Public Library (563)589-4229 -Original Message- From: Aaron Sakovich [mailto:asakov...@hmcpl.org] Sent: Thursday, January 8, 2015 12:52 PM To: Jason M. Burds Cc: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID We also use RFID and Bibliotheca, though I will say up front, we are sorely disappointed with Bibliotheca's service. We've had tickets opened for weeks with no activity on them (the latest: they said they were waiting to install a self-check until they found out what ILS we were running. For the record, we've been on Koha for nearly a year, and have 5 branches using their kit already.) We can only check items in/out one at a time at a staff workstation. The Self Check Kiosks can handle stacks of easily up to 7 items at a time for checkouts. We are in on a CheckIn page AJAX development ByWater is managing for us that will allow for multiple items on a staff workstation's RFID pad. The recent changes to the CheckOut page AJAX-ifying the process was a big help, though we're still limited to 1 item at a time (but now, much faster). And the SIP settings on the kiosks and workstations? We bumped the Koha timeouts up to about 5 minutes and have the Bibliotheca kit sending SC messages once every 4-1/2 minutes. Even with well over 60 systems throughout the county, we don't ever have to restart our server except under very unusual and exceptional thrashing... Aaron -- Aaron Sakovich Internet and Technology Services manager Huntsville-Madison County Public Library 915 Monroe St, Huntsville AL 35801 http://hmcpl.org/ -- asakov...@hmcpl.org On Jan 7, 2015, at 5:01 PM, Jason M. Burds jbu...@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-boun...@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Liz Rea Sent: Wednesday, January 7, 2015 1:07 PM To: koha@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
Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID
Yes That's the bug. On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 3:29 PM, Chris Cormack chr...@catalyst.net.nz wrote: * Robin Sheat (ro...@catalyst.net.nz) wrote: Jason M. Burds schreef op wo 07-01-2015 om 23:01 [+]: 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. Assuming you mean the Koha SIP service, this shouldn't be the case. If you like, it'd be good to get a more detailed report on what is going on here, as if it needs restarting, then it's a bug. Hi I think it might be this bug http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=13432 Chris -- Chris Cormack Catalyst IT Ltd. +64 4 803 2238 PO Box 11-053, Manners St, Wellington 6142, New Zealand ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha -- --- Brendan A. Gallagher ByWater Solutions CEO Support and Consulting for Open Source Software Installation, Data Migration, Training, Customization, Hosting and Complete Support Packages Headquarters: Santa Barbara, CA - Office: Redding, CT Phone # (888) 900-8944 http://bywatersolutions.com i...@bywatersolutions.com ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID
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-boun...@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Liz Rea Sent: Wednesday, January 7, 2015 1:07 PM To: koha@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 nkee...@washoecounty.us ea http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha This message has been scanned for malware by Websense. www.websense.com ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID
* Robin Sheat (ro...@catalyst.net.nz) wrote: Jason M. Burds schreef op wo 07-01-2015 om 23:01 [+]: 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. Assuming you mean the Koha SIP service, this shouldn't be the case. If you like, it'd be good to get a more detailed report on what is going on here, as if it needs restarting, then it's a bug. Hi I think it might be this bug http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=13432 Chris -- Chris Cormack Catalyst IT Ltd. +64 4 803 2238 PO Box 11-053, Manners St, Wellington 6142, New Zealand ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Re: [Koha] Koha and RFID
Jason M. Burds schreef op wo 07-01-2015 om 23:01 [+]: 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. Assuming you mean the Koha SIP service, this shouldn't be the case. If you like, it'd be good to get a more detailed report on what is going on here, as if it needs restarting, then it's a bug. -- Robin Sheat Catalyst IT Ltd. ✆ +64 4 803 2204 GPG: 5FA7 4B49 1E4D CAA4 4C38 8505 77F5 B724 F871 3BDF ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
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 nkee...@washoecounty.us ea http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
