Peter K, Romy and myself have been testing the self checkout machines, lending desk software (“circulation assist”), sort bin and check-in software (“sort assist”) at Central in preparation for re-opening next week.

1. The self-checkout machines are working well. We are planning to ‘tweak’ some of the messages that pop up for borrowers but found no major problems.

2. The lending desk software is also mostly working well. The main RFID component is the pad – you will still mostly use Horizon but the software simply enables items to be automatically checked in/out once they are placed on the pad. Prior to the earthquake we found that the software kept freezing. This is still a problem but we suspect it is related to trying to check out a book that was just returned on the same station. We will keep working on this. Bear with it – you can always check out an item with a scanner if need be.

3. The sort bin is working but note that it will only ‘check in’ and secure items that were issued with RFID. However, all items that come through checkin must be put on the ‘Sort Assist’ RFID pad – this will secure ALL items with an RFID tag. (There is no need for security blasting returns).

You can monitor what items are being checked in by opening the “Returns Monitor” (there is an icon on the desktop of that computer) – a list of all books returned will pop up.

3. Testing the check-in software has revealed a number of issues that need to be resolved/tweaked that mean we need to be vigilent. The software is returning Central items, producing hold slips, and noting items that need to go in transit (destination is indicated with location code). However, it will not produce ‘In Transit’ slips so we need to take care that items go in the right hamper – a workflow is yet to be developed for this process. We also want to streamline the format of messages.

Please place all items on this pad top ensure all books are secured. Most items should checkin with little problems. However you may get the following error messages:”LMS CKI Failed. Try Again” or “Item not for self issue. Please go to a Service Desk”. Please check these items in on Horizon with a scanner (you will need to use a different computer as Horizon is not loaded on the checkin station).

Romy is on at 8.30 on Monday and I start at 1.15 so we will be around to help with any issues, and we will keep working on resolving some of the problems next week.

There are draft RFID workflow documents that I have been working on located on the K drive (K:\projects\RFID\RFID Workflow Documents).

These may be useful to have a look at if you have time. They are only drafts and we still have a number of issues to resolve (the text highlighed in yellow). Feedback would be fantastic – please feel free to email me with suggestions/problems and so on.

Fiona T