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RFID Helps CSU Library Automate Sortation, Storage
Library staffers in the storage area then sort the items by size, placing items of roughly the same size together into stacks. To store the books, they log on to a computer terminal and use an RFID interrogator, linked to the terminal, to read the tags attached to the books, CDs and DVDs in each pile to be stored. The robotic arm then retrieves a bin or bins to accommodate the items. The robot knows how many, how many items are in each bin and how many each bin holds. The bins come in a variety of sizes to accommodate various sizes of media, with some divided into six or eight storage compartments. For example, a stack of 12 hardcover books roughly 10 inches tall would be placed into the same bin. Once the books are placed in a bin, the employee confirms the bin number and, if applicable, compartment number into which each item was placed. (If media is part of a special collection the library wants stored together, a specific bin might be retrieved for that purpose.)
Once the books are stored, the robotic arm returns the bins to storage. The ASRS system knows the layout of the bins in the shelves and remembers where each is located. The inventory database, showing which items are in which bins, is constantly updated in real time while the items are put into storage, explains Todd Hunter, account executive with HK Systems. Hunter says he knows of no library outside of CSU that has combined an ASRS with an RFID system for automatic sortation. He notes that some school libraries, such as the University of Las Vegas, use ASRS and also RFID for identifying parts of its collection, but none have yet linked the two systems.
According to McCrank, CSU expects the new system to cut labor costs associated with material handling in half. He notes that justifying the installation of the ASRS system, which costs $1.7 million, was easy when one considers that the amount of books it holds equals an entire floor of open stacks. To build an additional floor of open stacks, the library estimated, would have cost an additional $9 million. Still, McCrank notes, the return on investment for the ASRS and RFID systems is greater than just labor and space savings—it's also in the library's ability to increase the quality of time students spend in the library by reducing the amount of it they spend searching for books in open stacks.
Studies performed by the CSU library show that to retrieve five books, a patron spends an average of about 2 hours (20 to 30 minutes each). Meanwhile, it takes the ASRS about 2.5 minutes to get that many books (depending on how many bins it must retrieve them from). When a patron needs an item that is not in the open stacks, he puts in a request for it, which a staffer in the storage area fulfills. The patron is then asked to pick it up at a circulation desk.
"For the users of the library, we want to decrease time in documents retrieval and increase time for document analysis," says McCrank, noting that the average age of CSU students is 25, and that they are usually juggling school and work schedules. "It's a twist on how business people think of a return in terms of profit."
Once the books are stored, the robotic arm returns the bins to storage. The ASRS system knows the layout of the bins in the shelves and remembers where each is located. The inventory database, showing which items are in which bins, is constantly updated in real time while the items are put into storage, explains Todd Hunter, account executive with HK Systems. Hunter says he knows of no library outside of CSU that has combined an ASRS with an RFID system for automatic sortation. He notes that some school libraries, such as the University of Las Vegas, use ASRS and also RFID for identifying parts of its collection, but none have yet linked the two systems.
According to McCrank, CSU expects the new system to cut labor costs associated with material handling in half. He notes that justifying the installation of the ASRS system, which costs $1.7 million, was easy when one considers that the amount of books it holds equals an entire floor of open stacks. To build an additional floor of open stacks, the library estimated, would have cost an additional $9 million. Still, McCrank notes, the return on investment for the ASRS and RFID systems is greater than just labor and space savings—it's also in the library's ability to increase the quality of time students spend in the library by reducing the amount of it they spend searching for books in open stacks.
Studies performed by the CSU library show that to retrieve five books, a patron spends an average of about 2 hours (20 to 30 minutes each). Meanwhile, it takes the ASRS about 2.5 minutes to get that many books (depending on how many bins it must retrieve them from). When a patron needs an item that is not in the open stacks, he puts in a request for it, which a staffer in the storage area fulfills. The patron is then asked to pick it up at a circulation desk.
"For the users of the library, we want to decrease time in documents retrieval and increase time for document analysis," says McCrank, noting that the average age of CSU students is 25, and that they are usually juggling school and work schedules. "It's a twist on how business people think of a return in terms of profit."
