All aboard!

The RFID train is leaving the station folks... all abooooooard!

So yep, in the mere blink of an eye, here we are at the brink of first building works commencing. This is it peeps... this is the point at which it all gets very real. I know some of you are probably thinking 'arrrrrrrrggggggh!' but can I tell you, this is the point at which we all need to let out a simultaneous 'yee ha!' because the wild ride has finally begun.

This means no more wondering (and possibly worrying about) what things will look like and how they will operate - we will all be in there doing it, learning together, and creating/amending processes to fit our awesome new setup. No more waiting is a good thing - we learn by doing and we are about to do with some serious enthusiasm.

So much prep has been going on for such a long time, so we are not blindly venturing into the great unknown. To paraphrase Louise who was paraphrasing Donald Rumsfeld, 'we know what we know' and 'we know what we don't know' (and have planned for it), but there will always be elements of 'we don't know what we don't know'. And you know what gang? This is all good. Like totally all good. No one person, or organisation, can ever know everything. We are not psychic (or psycho as Thelma would've said) so we cannot know exactly what this is going to look, feel and taste like without experiencing it. The true skill we have, and need to embrace, is the ability to be nimble. We are a solid, supportive team of problem solvers and we will adapt to the best way to operate as we live it. And again you have to trust me, because although it might be scary, it's such an exciting opportunity. We'll look back at this as a milestone of how much our service was able to improve once the tools were in that enabled us to do so.

So for those who don't like being overwhelmed with information, you can leave this blog post right here and know that you are in capable hands and that your input to the library team is invaluable.

For those who like details, here is a random assortment of things you might like to know about, in absolutely no order at all:

Each weekend before a branch closes and before a branch reopens, your project team (with the help of a few volunteers who happened to be working those days) will be onsite doing prep work.

Before a branch closes, this involves removing everything from cabinetry that will be demolished, and labelling everything with a wondrous colour coded system that marks items to keep, items to store and items to demo.
Before a branch opens, this involves putting everything back and setting up for our new look operations.



Think of Goodwood Library as RFID bootcamp. Once it's up and running with the RFID equipment (hopefully from Monday 9th May - and definitely from when it reopens on Tuesday 10th May) as many staff as possible will be rostered there so we all have an opportunity to learn together. No one will be left on STAR by themselves - it'll be a big family affair! How cool is that? We can learn and be nimble together. Awwwww sweet.

Always remember it's okay to ask questions - your input is invaluable. But also take the initiative and do some fact finding yourself. RFID HQ is full of useful information - it has pictures of all of the equipment and furniture, it shows the floor plans, and of course contains our resident oracle - the test kiosk. Always talk to your LibraryLand buddies, and/or a friendly RFID Project Team member, if you want to chat all things RFID and explore more. The essentials for successful operation obviously take priority in the scheme of knowing, and the less urgent stuff we will nimbly solve as we explore. But please see above - we don't know what we don't know - and that's okay.

The shelving and exception trolleys that live next to the RFID kiosks in all locations bar the Toy Library will be monitored as a part of your STAR shifts. This just means we will swap them out as they get full. The full exceptions ones will be taken out to the returns areas and put through the amazingly productive Sort Assistant. Not sure what a Sort Assistant is? Then check out the images on the RFID HQ wall, and keep your eyes peeled for a future blog post that will detail all of the equipment for your reading enjoyment :)

And just to reiterate a couple of mega uber totes important points - we learn by doing and the RFID kiosks (and their pretty halos) will be our main weapon of choice). Soooooo, please make sure you visit the kiosk soon...and often! The more familiar you are with it, the more confident you will feel about this whole amazing ride.

And most importantly, know that we are a really strong team, and together we really do got this...