RFID for School Libraries—Benefits, Funding, Next Steps

Using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) for library processes has been established in public libraries for more than twenty years. RFID has proven itself in those settings with efficiencies in self-checkout, staff checkout and check-in, item security, automated materials handling systems, and shelf management with handheld scanners. With the cost of RFID tags decreasing from 60-75 cents per tag during those early years to around 10 cents per tag currently, the benefits are now more attainable for school libraries.

How does RFID benefit school libraries? How it is implemented?

RFID Benefits for School Libraries

Inventory

School districts have begun to adopt RFID specifically for efficiencies in managing their inventory process. Many school jurisdictions require annual inventories of library collections—a tedious manual process requiring days of labor to scan each item’s barcode at the shelves.

Many school libraries lack the resources to complete their inventories, sometimes in violation of state law, and many depend on volunteers, students, or teachers to help with the process. Adding to the inconvenience is dealing with materials housed on low, child-height shelving which require bending or crawling along the shelves to scan each item. Finally, barcode scanners with triggers create repetitive stress hand injuries.

If RFID tags are added to each item, the staffCIRC TRAK handheld scanner gathers up barcodes from items on the shelves with a pass along the spines. The staffCIRC TRAK eliminates bending or crawling to scan individual items—and creates a list of barcodes to send to the ILS software. The Library.Solution for Schools software also adds the scan date to each item record to create a “dynamic inventory” process.

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Rochester City (NY) School District developed a successful case for moving to RFID based first and foremost on more efficient inventories and fewer repetitive motion injuries. In the past, gathering barcode numbers for inventory took Rochester’s staff a full week for each school library because they had to pull and scan each item barcode manually.

Now, with RFID and staffCIRC TRAK, inventory scanning is done in a few hours and updates their LS2 inventory module in real time (thanks to a special integration between sister companies Tech Logic and TLC).

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Dynamic Inventory and Exceptions Scanning

When an inventory is complete, the ILS moves all items not found on the shelves into a “missing” status. Using staffCIRC TRAK in its mode to “find exceptions” at the shelves, a quick pass along the shelves will find any of the missing items still in the library. Using these two functions—dynamic inventory and exceptions scanning—school libraries have effective and efficient tools to manage their collections. ‍

Exceptions scanning also provides an ongoing method to clean up the catalog of exceptions that may occur over time. If any of the lost, claim returned, missing or transit items are on the shelf, exceptions scanning will locate them to be returned so they can be returned to an available status.

Efficient Checkout

Finally, RFID in school libraries offers a more efficient multi-item checkout such as that offered by selfCIRC PRO. Students and teachers can place groups of materials on an RFID pad to check them out instantly and provide a receipt. This ability helps school libraries handle classroom visits even with just a single self-checkout station.

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Justifying and Funding an RFID Project

School districts looking to implement RFID can create a cost/benefit case for 1) the time savings to complete inventories of individual school libraries, 2) avoiding repetitive motion hand injuries, and 3) satisfying inventory requirements for local jurisdictions. Ongoing shelf scanning will also find missing materials to avoid the cost of replacing them.  Finally, RFID provides faster checkout for students and teachers and self-checkout will free up desk time.

In 2023, Rochester (NY) City School District implemented RFID in their school libraries with Tech Logic. Dr. Colleen Sadowski (Executive Director Library & Media Services) and Dr. Melissa Frost (Systems Librarian) developed a successful case for moving to RFID based first and foremost on more efficient inventories and fewer repetitive motion injuries. Finding missing materials using RFID also meant money saved on replacement costs. In addition, some of the district’s high schools will adopt RFID for self-checkout.

“The primary goal for our RFID project was faster, less cumbersome inventories to meet the requirements for annual inventories in school libraries in New York state,” Dr. Sadowski explained.

At FETC 2023, Rochester further described their motivations and approach for pioneering RFID in the school library setting (see the full FETC 2023 presentation, below).

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How to Accomplish an RFID Conversion

Each item in the collections will need an RFID tag placed in it and the barcode number “encoded” or “written” to the tag through a conversion process. The conversion process requires use of a PC or laptop, a barcode reader, an RFID antenna, and a supply of RFID tags.

Tech Logic's rfidTAG CASE empowers staff and community volunteers to with an exceptionally simple workflow that requires no ILS connection. Simply place the RFID tag onto the antenna, scan the item’s barcode, and apply the tag to the item. Any staff stations can also be adapted to become tagging stations.

School districts typically organize their conversion projects during a time when most materials are in the libraries and extra staff may be available in each school. Besides media specialists, that could be students fulfilling service projects, local volunteers, part-time personnel, substitutes, district-level staff, or teachers fulfilling professional development hours.

The duration of an RFID conversion project depends on the number of personnel available and the number of tagging stations. To estimate the time required, use 125-150 items tagged per hour by one person; use 350 per hour for a two-person team. Sections of the collection with a wide variety of sizes or complexities will take longer.

If materials are in circulation at the time of the tagging project, those will need to be tagged as they are returned.

At the end of the project, libraries are ready for their first RFID inventory using staffCIRC TRAK!

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Looking to see if RFID is the right investment for your school district? Please reach out to our team—we're here to help!

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‍Tech Logic connects libraries with their communities through dynamic, innovative, and efficient workflow technologies—delivering unparalleled service and outstanding experience. Since 1997, we have worked exclusively with libraries to develop solutions that empower library users and staff.