Ottawa Public Library and Bibliotheca complete first stage of RFID installation

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Created on Thursday, 28 February 2013 09:00

North America’s largest bilingual (English and French) public library system, Ottawa Public Library (OPL), has announced the completion of the first phase of its RFID project this month with the RFID tagging of the system’s entire library collection.

Commencing in May 2012, the project entailed tagging (converting) OPL’s entire collection of over 2 million items from barcode to RFID technology using Bibliotheca’s smartstation™ 700 mobile tagging units, and has seen a team of 12 ‘taggers’ and one team leader work endlessly across OPL’s 33 branches (together with two bookmobiles and a central materials handling center) to ensure that each item was tagged and prepared for the next stage of the installation.

To mark this occasion OPL and Bibliotheca held a small celebratory event recognizing the hard work and efforts paid by those involved in the tagging project and acknowledging the significant milestone the Library has achieved.

Craig Ginther, Manager at OPL, commented: "This is a major milestone in our move to implement RFID at Ottawa Public Library. Having our collection completely tagged lays the groundwork for successful branch roll-outs in the years ahead. Bibliotheca has been a model of dedication and professionalism on this project over the past nine months, and we appreciate the support they provided throughout."

Darin Currie, Bibliotheca Canada SVP General Manager, added: “We are grateful that Ottawa Public Library has chosen to put their trust in Bibliotheca for their RFID rollout, and pleased at how smoothly the tagging of the system has gone. Through extensive collaboration with both management and staff at Ottawa Public Library, we were able to tag the entire collection ahead of schedule.”

Bibliotheca implemented self-checkout and staff solutions at OPL’s Hazeldean branch, which was the pilot for the project, and with tagging now complete, OPL can concentrate on the next phase of the project, which will see full RFID technology implemented in their Emerald Plaza, Alta Vista and Nepean Centrepointe branches.

About Bibliotheca
Bibliotheca is the world’s largest company dedicated to the development, deployment and support of library technology solutions, designed to improve operational efficiency and enhance customer service. We focus on public, private and academic library markets. Our reach extends across the globe, with direct operational offices in North America, Europe and Australia, together with a range of distributors covering Asia, Africa and Latin America. We are proud to work with over 3,500 unique library sites with a deployed equipment range in excess of 5,000 individual self-service units and over 100 automated materials handling (sorter) systems. In satisfying this range of customers, Bibliotheca has deployed well over 200 million RFID labels to the library sector alone, and continues to supply in excess of 50 million each year.

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