G.N. Library to install new circulation system

The Island Now
Marietta DiCamillo, president of the Great Neck Library Board of Trustees (left), speaks at a meeting on Jan. 16, 2017. (Photo by Kristy O'Connell)

By Kristy O’Connell

The Great Neck Library Board of Trustees approved a new system for handling circulation on Tuesday pending further research into the system’s possible flaws.

Marietta DiCamillo, the board president, said the implementation of the radio-frequency identification, or RFID, system is expected to improve the library’s efficiency, freeing the staff to do other things.

“The really important thing about RFID is the ability to do a correct inventory,” board Treasurer Josie Pizer said, “which in 45 years has not been done accurately.”

The system, which would be purchased from the firm Bibliotheca 3M, would install radio-frequency tags on books to track them as they get checked out and returned. The Great Neck Library currently tracks books with scannable barcodes.

The plan has been under review for about two years, and the board has met with several librarians and vendors throughout Long Island to reach a decision, DiCamillo said.

A newly elected board member, Doug Hwee, questioned of the RFID system’s reliability, citing a conversation he had with Frank Marino, the business manager of the Elmont Library.

Marino told him the Elmont Library is trying to get out of its contract with Bibliotheca 3M, citing its lack of attention to problems, Hwee said.

Hwee  said there are glitches in the system, and malfunctions with the tag readers can lead to people being wrongfully charged for a book that has been returned.

“I just don’t see the cost-benefits at this juncture,” Hwee said.

DiCamillo said she was unaware of Marino’s dissatisfaction and ordered the library’s executive director, Kathy Giotsas, to address Hwee’s comments and further research the vendor and product before moving forward.

In the event that the decision to purchase the system from Bibliotheca 3M is revoked, DiCamillo said, revisions to the budget will be made and the issue will be revisited at the board’s next meeting.

The library board also welcomed five new appointees: Donna Litke, programming/outreach coordinator; Adam Hinz, youth services coordinator; Steve Cashkin, business manager; Jamie Lagasse, Levels manager; and Charles Walden, facilities manager.

Community activist Rebecca Rosenblatt Gilliar questioned the lack of a requirement that the youth services coordinator have a library degree.

“My understanding is that people need to understand what libraries do,” Gilliar said. “The problem here is that we don’t have a clearly defined sense of what a library is, does, and who works in a library.”

The meeting closed with a presentation of plaques and thanks to outgoing members of the Board of Trustees, Treasurer Josie Pizer and Secretary Varda Solomon.

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