Eng. Salah Amiri, Assistant Director General of Dubai Municipality for General Support Services Sector said the RFID technology will revolutionize how librarians do their work, and how customers receive library services.
'The system will help us do more with fewer resources, reduce materials handling by up to 90%, relieve staff from some of the most tedious, repetitive tasks and provide customers with better services and a friendlier, more rewarding library experience,' he said.
Mohammed Jassim Al Eraidi, Director of Public Libraries Department said the RFID project, which is considered to be one of the biggest technical projects applied in the libraries of the region, aims at implementing the vision of the Government of Dubai to adopt the best international practices, especially in the field of e-government.
'It also aims at saving time, effort and money as regards the main services provided by the public libraries to its members such as lending and returning books, search for library materials as well as arranging and organizing them. The new system will also help in offering quality services to the public in consonance with the modern standards and trends such as personalized services,' Al Eraidi said.
He said the system also aims at developing national human resources and enhancing their competency in work matching international public library practices.
The RFID system project was implemented by Arabian Advanced System company using the technical solutions of 3M International. Before implementing the system, the pioneering libraries that applied the RFID technology such as the Singapore Library Council were visited. A seminar was also held on managing and organizing e-libraries using RFID, which was attended by more than 40 people from the UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
In addition, the required equipments were brought to Dubai Public Libraries and a German expert from 3M International was also called in to ensure their operations as per the international standards and specifications. More than 70 employees of the department were trained to use the new system. Dubai Public Libraries representatives visited a number of libraries in Germany and Holland to get a brief about the best practices in the field of RFID application in public libraries.
The project was implemented at a cost of Dhs3 million in the seven public libraries of Al Ras, Al Twar, Hor Al Anz, Al Rashidiya, Al Safa, Umm Suqeim and Hatta. It will also be implemented in the new libraries that are coming up in Al Mankhool and Al Barsha. The RFID system is now applied on more than 300 library materials spread over seven public libraries. The action team that implemented the project was comprised of ten employees of the public libraries, three engineers from Arabian Advanced System company and a German expert.
The Public Libraries will apply smart card system supplied with the RFID technology to its members. Card payment procedures in the Public Libraries will be made easy using the smart cards. A study will be conducted on the possibility of providing modern RFID equipments in different locations in the emirate of Dubai to allow book lending using them.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Lara Lynn Golden
Quelle/Source: AME Info, 05.05.2008
