Plenty of libraries own RFID. Far fewer use it to its full extent. Staff place a single item on the pad, wait for it to process, then reach for the next one. The hardware can read a whole stack at once. The day-to-day workflow rarely lets it.
Mason Humphrey, Commercial Director at Bibliotheca, has noticed this gap for years. He still remembers an early visit to a Koha library that already had RFID installed. Staff processed one item at a time. “I said, so you just throw everything on the pad? And they said, no, we take one item, put it on there, and move on,” he recalled. “There’s something just not working here.”
That observation stayed with him. It became the starting point for a new RFID integration that Bibliotheca built with ByWater Solutions, the support provider for Koha, the open-source ILS. Mason and Jessica Zairo, VP of Strategic Partnerships at ByWater, demonstrated it in a recent webinar. Here are the highlights.
Why We Partnered
The idea took shape at a previous ALA conference. Mason, Jessica, and the Bibliotheca product team sat down and listed the friction that Koha libraries kept describing. Holds pop-ups that interrupt a checkout. A family arriving at the desk with a tall stack of picture books. A line forming while staff process returns one item at a time.
ByWater hears these stories from its Koha libraries. Bibliotheca hears them from libraries running its RFID hardware. The two companies set out to fix the handoff between them. “We talked about what are the biggest pain points our mutual customers have,” Mason said. The goal was straightforward. Let staff finish daily circulation faster, with less manual handling and fewer errors.
Common circulation workflow challenges discussed during the Bibliotheca and ByWater Koha RFID webinar.
What We Built
The integration runs as a background plugin. Koha controls the RFID pad, not the other way around. Staff do not need to tell the system which task they are doing. It recognizes whether they are in checkout, check-in, renewal, or batch processing, and adjusts the pad on its own. It runs on a Windows PC with the pad connected and a small piece of software running in the background.
Libraries with a mix of RFID and non-RFID branches can turn the plugin on or off by location. A branch without RFID keeps its current workflow. A branch with RFID gets the new one. Both live in the same system.
The integration also tracks what it has already processed. Set a stack of items on the pad, and it checks each one out. Leave those items on the pad, and they will not be checked out again. Add a new item, and only the new item processes. A reset button clears that memory when staff want to run items again.
Two hardware options support this. A small USB workstation that plugs in and travels easily, and a shielded workstation with a higher read range that handles metal desks well.
Checkout and Batch Checkout
The demo opened with an ordinary checkout. Mason pulled up a patron account, set several items on the pad, and let them process together. One item carried a claims-returned flag. The system stopped on that item, flagged it, and waited for staff to confirm before continuing. The rest checked out.
Batch checkout works the same way from Koha’s batch checkout tab. Staff set down a stack, review any items that need attention, and confirm. Libraries that want this tab can enable it via a Koha system preference and limit it to specific patron categories. Youth accounts are a common choice, since children often arrive with large stacks.
Preventing Duplicate Processing
The memory cache drew real interest during the session. Circulation desks get busy. The same item gets set down, picked back up, and set down again. Reprocessing it creates confusion. The integration keeps track of what has already been checked in or out, so items can remain on the pad while staff keep working. Only new items get touched. When staff need to run something through again, the reset button clears the cache.
Bulk Check-In
The demo closed with returns. Instead of scanning items one at a time, Mason placed a stack on the pad. Koha read each item and updated its status, turning security back on in the background. For libraries with heavy return volume, this is where the time adds up.
Mason Humphrey demonstrates how the Bibliotheca RFID integration helps Koha libraries process multiple items at checkout.
Watch the Full Session
The recording includes the complete demo and the Q&A with the Bibliotheca and ByWater teams.
Heading to ALA Annual in Chicago this summer? Stop by the Bibliotheca booth to see the integration in person.
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