THE FUTURE OF LIBRARIES

I interviewed the director of the San Diego County library system, Jose Aponte, a few days ago and learned that the libraries will soon start introducing a new technology that will allow the same number of employees to check out many more books as the system grows. They will utilize RFID (radio frequency identification) tags that are already being used in many industries throughout the U.S. The first library in the system to get the tags will be the new Fallbrook Library when it comes online in late 2010. It takes a long time to put the tags on the nearly 2 million books that the system has, so libraries will be gradually added three at a time. Valley Center isn't scheduled yet, so we'll stay in the 20th Century for awhile, but within three years all of the branches will be added.

“The county library system moves 8.3 million volumes a year, with three hundred people. How do we deal with increase and the fact that library useage is up twenty four percent?”
You do it with the same number of people by reworking the workplace, says Aponte.