Monday, June 27, 2011

EnvisionWare Demonstrates ISO‐28560 Encoding at ALA

Atlanta, GA. As the NISO working group prepares to meet and respond to feedback about the Draft NISO Revised Recommended Practice for RFID in U.S. Libraries, EnvisionWare prepares for release of a new RFID Encoding and Tag Query Solution.

According to Mike Monk, EnvisionWare Vice President, “the new software is built on our open API‐based RFID suite and offers a completely redesigned encoding and validation experience. As in the past we remain committed to customer choice, and our new system offers versatile support for ISO‐28560‐2, ISO‐28560‐3, and the most widely deployed open model, the Danish Data Model. Our customers around the globe will be able to adopt a profile that is specific to their needs, and our supplier partners and RFID encoding vendors will be able to select from an unlimited list of library‐specific profiles. As in the past, the new system will continue to measure productivity.”

Monk also explained that EnvisionWare’s system would continue to support the open database model implemented in many of EnvisionWare’s products and will write encoding history to a central database, which is often used to reconcile inventory as part of an encoding project. Customers can set a preference to use MSSQL, MySQL, Postgre, Oracle and other platforms.

Incorporating feedback from EnvisionWare RFID‐enabled libraries around the globe, the system offers an improved workflow, real‐time onscreen encoding results, and enhancements to leverage the touch screen supplied as part of the EnvisionWare Mobile Station.

Customers currently using the Danish Data Model can continue to encode with that model. Those libraries selecting ISO‐28560‐2 in the US and Asia Pacific can adapt templates to create a library‐specific encoding profile. According to the Draft US Recommended Practice, libraries can select from twenty‐four fields in the US “‐2 Profile.” Many Australian libraries have adopted specific profiles by region. Libraries choosing to encode with ISO‐28560‐3 can adopt fields beyond those originally available in the Danish Data Model.

As in the past, EnvisionWare RFID circulation solutions will continue to concurrently support most of the vendor‐proprietary models as well as the new ISO standards and the Danish model. “Because of the installed base and the need for interoperability of materials, we envision a continued need to support multiple models for the foreseeable future,” said Monk. “To that end, we have again improved the performance of our RFID software and worked with our suppliers to enhance hardware performance so that we can continue to offer stellar performance regardless of the number of models in use at any given library,” he added.

Libraries were encouraged to read the document posted by NISO and to ask questions and make comments in order to get broad feedback and to ensure widespread appeal of a US Profile. Now that the comment period has closed, the Working Group will convene to address all of the comments and then compile a final Recommended Practice for publication. The final product release will occur after the adoption of the Recommended Practice.

EnvisionWare is a leading supplier of self service and library efficiency solutions and serves more than 10,000 libraries around the globe. The Company operates headquarters near Atlanta, GA and in Adelaide, South Australia as well as from regional locations around the US.

Visit EnvisionWare at Booth #3132 or contact the Company for more information:
Michael J. Monk
Vice President
EnvisionWare, Inc.
2855 Premiere Parkway | Suite A
Duluth, GA 30097‐5201
800‐216‐8370
marketing@envisionware.com

EnvisionWare at ALA 2011

NEWS FLASH: EnvisionWare is in the magnificent city of New Orleans as we speak, unveiling a number of exciting new products for the annual ALA (American Library Association) conference. Below are some tasty selections from our recent press release:

The Company will demonstrate EnvisionWare 1Pad, a new, integrated RFID Reader and Unidirectional Pad that looks like a large iPad. The new design provides detection only directly above the pad surface and features an integrated and more powerful RFID reader, which improves media detection and circulation. The All‐In‐One design eliminates messy cables and ferrite shields and dramatically simplifies installation and support. In an upcoming software update, the new diagnostic system in the 1‐Pad will provide an onscreen alert to staff such as an Environmental Alert that indicates a user may have detuned the system by placing a keyboard on the pad surface. The 1‐Pad offers a new price point that is lower than the former, separately priced components.

A new RFID LTag will be deliverable at ALA that brings the highest quality performance at a remarkable new price. EnvisionWare’s standard tag has measured performance at up to 15% greater distances when compared to many tags in use at libraries, which translates to higher detection rates through the gates. In the past that performance came at a slight premium. A new, library‐specific engineering design results in identical 2X*GEN performance at a price that’s hard to beat. EnvisionWare is accepting orders for delivery in two weeks.

Earlier this year members of the Sonoma County Library staff collaborated with EnvisionWare on a comprehensive list of workflow and interface improvements for the EnvisionWare RFID Software Suite™. The Company will release a new generation of the Suite at the conference that is faster and more intuitive, and which features a host of usability improvements designed by circulation and cataloging staff. New updates for the Innovative Item Status API are incorporated, as are new features for the EnvisionWare Media Case Controller™, a system that checks out and unlocks media in Clear‐Vu and Kwik Case media cases in one step.

EnvisionWare will also demonstrate EnvisionWare eCommerce Services™ Version 3.0 fine payment and account revalue software, which expands the global list of credit card acquirers and adds new customer options for processing architecture. Four different architectural implementations will be available along with more than thirty choices for card processing.

The Company will also release a new product for delivery this month that will couple the new eCommerce Services release and EnvisionWare’s Staff Transaction Station (STS)™, a library point of sale software system, to the Innovative Millennium platform.

Visit EnvisionWare at Booth #3132 or contact the Company for more information:

Michael J. Monk
Vice President
EnvisionWare, Inc.
2855 Premiere Parkway | Suite A
Duluth, GA 30097‐5201
800‐216‐8370
marketing@envisionware.com