[Wactclc-alma] RFID question

[Sally Sheedy]

Do you know if they are going to drop bar codes on the ID cards, or obscure them with the RFID tags?  Surely the people who chose Papercut (the "deciders") must have given thought to other ways in which ID cards are used, aside from printing? Hahaha, as if.

We now have RFID in our library (but not on ID cards). You need an antenna to read the RFID. The self-check kiosk and gates have them, and so do the pads at the circ desk and in tech services. So you definitely need something different than your regular scanners to pick up on RFID.

But barcodes didn't go away -- they are needed on our items and are still put on new ones. The bar codes are the link to Alma. The RFID tags are associated with barcodes, and you connect them one at a time, with the item on the RFID reader pad and the barcode scanner wand at the ready.

(We have some materials (in a closed location) that are not RFID tagged, having only a barcode.

hth
-Sally

From: Wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> On Behalf Of Elena Bianco
Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2021 11:27 AM
To: Guidry, Wade <WadeG at bigbend.edu>
Cc: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: [Wactclc-alma] RFID question

Hi Wade and Alma List people:

So, we just found out that our campus is moving to a new Papercut print management system that uses RFID stickers on users' ID cards to charge student accounts. They will be implementing this system for students after ctcLink goes live in October. Do you know if that kind of thing can be configured to work with Alma?

Currently, we use barcodes on student ID cards for Alma, and I would love to somehow not have to have students get two stickers on their id cards and just use one system for both the print system and library checkouts.

The problem is our books still use barcodes and we just don't have the staffing to do a whole library RFID conversion project, so we need to keep barcode scanners.  I have no idea how RFID works - guessing you can't use the same scanners for both RFID and barcodes, right?

Anyway, I am looking for some guidance to see if we can simplify things for students so just one system can be used for both the library and the print system. I'm guessing, though, that we are out of luck and stuck with two systems unless the library converts everything to RFID and gets rid of barcodes altogether...

Thanks in advance for any insights...

Elena


Elena Bianco

Systems & Technical Services Librarian

Skagit Valley College Library

2405 E. College Way

Mount Vernon, WA 98273





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