In addition to the suggested criteria respondents were invited to list any other aspects of RFID that they had taken into consideration when choosing to invest. Their replies offer some useful additional insights:

 Ergonomy

 More comfortable and faster RFID selfchecks, compared to single check-outs via barcode

 Maintain staff costs - not reduce costs

 To develop projects together with degree courses and research staff in our university

 We got the money from a special fund of the European Union

 new library building

 Part of a scientific research project

 Improve customer service and experience

 Opened new library

 As far as I can gather, the primary driver was to extend opening hours without extending staff costs. Staffing levels during core hours have not been reduced but self service allows staff to be more creatively deployed.

 NB We already had self-service so this was an enhancement

 We had to change our hardware for issue and return and we wanted to "future proof" by moving to the latest technology with the advantages of self service and being able to get rid of counters

 Our library stock had never been barcoded so circulation was laborious and prone to error. Our security system was also ineffective (retail ADT EM tags rather than a library-specific EM solution). So for us it was a way of solving two very real problems at once.

 Changing staff roles

 We already had a self-service system but we knew an RFID system would greatly improve upon what we had.

 Enabling staff to be more involved with higher value customer facing roles and remodel library environments by removing reception desk.

 New building Extension

 It does NOT improve security - the tags are too visible and can be removed, unlike the other tags which could be hidden in the book's spine

 To replace an existing, but poor RFID solution

 Currently only use RFID for DVD collections for self-cko and case unlocking.

 Very important:  reduce materials handling workload so that staff could be reassigned to more customer-focused tasks.  Note:  while some of these reasons were not involved in our initial adoption of RFID technology, they may become more important later.

 Note that we are not actively trying to reduce staff, however budgetary realities make it so staff costs go up every year while staff #s stay constant...

 Building new central library and wanted to have the latest bells and whistles in the whole system.

 Improving self-service not starting

 Reallocate staff time to roving customer service within the library

 OHS i.e. reduced manual handling  Automated returns

 Reduce staff manual handling

 Reducing staff time processing book loans

 To minimise impact of below-standard staff levels, and aggressive population growth on service delivery within Council libraries through more efficient processes and introduction of self service.

 Releasing staff from desk duties to run programs such as storytime and book club.

 Increase in the level of service and engagement by staff with our community/customers.  Due to being free of the low level checkout/checkin process.

 Reduce manual handling and processing of items

 Improved OHS

 To free up staff time in order to provide more programs/services to the community.

 As an amalgamated Council it was to also provide consistent service options across the branch network. Additionally to focus staff on more customer focused tasks such as reference and readers advisory rather than basic transactions & reduce manual handling and strain risks

 Managing anticipated increase due to new library 2.5 times the size with no additional staff

2012 SURVEY

EVEN MORE REASONS FOR CHOOSING RFID

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