Self-Service has come to Dame Street

Today we have finished installation of a self-service station at the Dame Street library, making DBS library 100% RFID enabled. I believe we are the first library in Ireland to have achieved this. Probably everyone has used the Aungier St. self-service stations, but if not, they're very simple to use: aks your friendly neighbourhood library staff if you are unsure of what to do.

Self-Service x2

After a difficult period, where we thought we'd ended up with a very expensive paperweight, we're pleased to say our 2nd RFID self-check machine ("Louis Mathieu") is now functional.

There's also added functionality now - you can now do unseen renewals - that's technical jargon for renewing books that you don't have with you. Touch 'Renew Items' or 'Account Info', scan your card and touch 'Renew Items' on the bottom right of the screen. A list of your loans will appear. You can renew books by touching the check box next to the book.

Disruption to Library Services 08/09 and 09/09/09

There may be some disruption to library services on the evening of the 08/09 and morning to early afternoon 09/09/09 (when's the next time you'll see that date?) as we will be installing our second RFID machine. This one is a bit more complicated as it involves digging up some floor. We may indeed have to close the library for a short while in the morning. Watch out for notices on the stairwell. We will try to keep disruption to a minimum, and the Dame St. library is open if you need some peace and quiet. If it's merely a PC that you want you can also try the computer labs in South William St.

Update on Summer projects -RFID countdown

As Dave's earlier post mentioned, all may be quiet on the student front but library staff are working hard behind the scenes to bring about some big changes before September.

To satisfy your curiosity as to what we are up to, here's a little update...

RFID Countdown

Our big switch to RFID self check technology is well under way in the Aungier St Library. Book tagging is in full swing with only about 25,000 items remaining! We have drafted in some extra work experience hands to help us get through the arduous process of RFID tagging our 30,000+ Aungier St collection. All things going to plan, we should be ready to install the new system by late July.
Once up and running, DBS will become the first fully RFID enabled academic library in Ireland and your days of queuing up at an issue desk just to issue or return a book are a thing of the past. We understand the new system might take a bit of re-adjustment for returning students so staff will be on hand in the first few weeks of the new term to demonstrate the self check stations, answer any queries and help ease the transition. Our aim is to make it quick and easy for you to do things like issuing and returning books independently so that (at the risk of sounding like a bank or insurance ad.) when you need help with the big things (searching the catalogue, using databases, referencing and research) we'll be able to give you the time you need.

Watch this space for further updates on the RFID conversion & some of the other things we've got in the pipeline for the next academic year.

We're still here

The academic year may have all but ended; the exams are over and the majority of the student population dispersed to the four corners of the earth, but the library endures. Don't think for a minute we're sitting back with our feet up drinking Earl Grey tea and eating Malteasers (it's actually ordinary tea and toffypops), your hard-working library staff have a variety of projects to keep them busy.

The annual stocktake is under way, in which we elucidate how many books are actually in the library. Allied to this is the weed of old stock, in which we decide whether we need that 1st edition of Exploring Corporate Strategy that was published in 1826. We're also thinking of ditching archiving our print journals to create a little more space in the library.

More ambitiously we're looking into the following (all, some or none of which may actually come to fruition):

RFID in the library. RFID stands for radiofrequency identification and is used for inventory tracking and management. Loathe as I am to link to Wikipedia, here's their article on RFID. For the benefit of the 3 readers of this blog who'll actually click that link, any RFID technology we use will be passive. What this will allow us to do is to expand our self-issue and return options.

PC and Study Room Booking. We are investigating methods of allowing students to book PCs and study rooms online by themselves, without having to call to the Issue Desk.

Virtual Reference Service We are hoping to pilot a virtual reference service whereby you go to the library website and chat with library staff via Instant Messaging. For an example of it in action, visit the UCD library website

Access Management This may be longer term, but we are investigating a single sign-on system for all DBS resources. It's called Shibboleth and sigh, here's Wikipedia's take on it. If implemented you will only need to sign in the one time to access resources such as Moodle, e-books and the library's electronic resources.

There's probably more, but I've either forgotten it, or it's so top secret, that I can't mention it in public.

Any news will appear here and also on the library's twitter account. See you in September! Alternatively, if you have left DBS, but are still interested in using the library, why not investigate our Alumni and External Reader Service