09/10 Capital Budget: Library
The Public Library wants to move to an automated checkout that would enable you to walk out with your books and not need to get checked out by a librarian. It done with a system called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). The Library wants to combine the RFID with the removal of the checkout desk... allowing for additional space for books, etc.
Tim White
5 comments:
Like every other project what is the return on the investment? How long will it take to pay the taxpayers back for the 200k? Will there be a reduction in staff, lower energy bills, what are we really getting other than a fancy way to track books.
I've been raising those same points as this has come up several times... not only via the capital budget, but also via grant requests. No clear answers yet though. And to me that's not a really big deal because this is not an impending project - it's in year 2.
I do note though the difference in the level of detail between the library and... ohh... any of the DPW proposed projects. Not that any level of detail is the perfect level of detail, but... are we even allowed to know which roads would be getting paved if another $1.3 million passes at referendum for road?
When I read this it sounded like there would be no reduction in staff. They'd be redirected to some other task at the library.
This "prevention of repetitive task injury" claim seems "invented" to me. If you redirect them to some other task, won't they develop some injury due to repeating that new task?
Bunch of baloney if you ask me. Keep things the way they are!
Yes, the only way this is justified is by a reduction in staff. If the Town can reduce staff by 2 FTE's, it's worth considering. Whenever someone uses the word "redeploy" - that's a red flag for "I want to spend more money but I am not willing to commit to any real savings".
Adopting RFID technology within the town library will guarantee routine increased expenditures for RFID technology going forward. RFID is no different then any other form of electronic business equipment.
Whatever you invest in is guaranteed to become obsolete in a very short time. At that point you are forced to spend even more to upgrade to the latest "supported" hardware and software. It might make sense to invest in if as part of it maybe 25 or 50% of the library staff gets their walking papers and their positions are not re-filled, ever.
I vote for letting the librarians keep their jobs and letting the tax payers keep their money.
Who knows, if implemented maybe RFID could become the pool's little brother - - -?
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