A technical revolution will be coming to the Reykjavík City Library in the next few weeks. All of the barcodes and theft prevention stickers in all of the city’s library books will be exchanged for microchips, reports Vísir.This transition will be very important for improving efficiency in the City Library system.
Microchips will make the rental and return process much faster than before. For example, many books will be able to be checked out to patrons at once, instead of needing to check them out one at a time. The microchips have been obtained from the Finnish company P.V. – Supa, which specializes in self-service solutions for libraries. Thus far, however, the Reykjavík City Library is the first library to adopt this technology.
Guðríður Sigurbjörnsdóttir, the project manager at the City Library, says that theft is not all that common at the library. But the microchips will spare the staff significant work because they won’t have to put theft devices in every single book.
“The microchips will make the loan process and self-service system considerably simpler than before,” says Guðríður. “All together there are 500 thousand unique books and other materials in six library collections around Reykjavík…I believe that we will be able to put chips in 2,000 – 3,000 books an hour, or up to as many as 10,000 per day. It will be a fast process in itself.”
While the library is making this transition it will be necessary to close each branch for several days. The library closures will be as follows:
Main Branch: 18 – 23 September
Ársafn og Sólheimasafn Branches: 24 – 27 September
Foldasafn and Kringlusafn Branches: 30 September – 4 October
Gerðubergssafn Branch: 7 – 11 October
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