Real-Time Automation Delivers Efficient Service to Communities

Looking for a solution

In 2010, as the number of staff at the Aarhus Public libraries had been halved and the library was altering the focus of its work, the Aarhus and Copenhagen Public libraries teamed up to bid for a smarter material handling system. The libraries had different pain points, but it was imperative to solve the continuing conflict between cuts to staffing levels and the need to increase library activities.

The main focus from Aarhus Public Library (AAKB) was to introduce a fully floating collection with all the benefits it would give in the form of a better distributed collection, less transport, and fewer copies while ensuring that there were none of the drawbacks as seen from other library systems – such as pooling and depletion in branches and the time-consuming rebalancing of the collection – “it was just not going to happen”. Statistics at the time showed a strong net flow from the Central Library in the center in town with returns in smaller branches in residential areas.

At the time discussions ran high – it was clear that for floating collections to REALLY work some sort of automation was required – but what about the branch librarians’ heart blood, the book selection for THEIR users? Floating the collection might drain the carefully selected titles to other branches, maybe never to appear again. What about the precious children’s books seeping out to the branches where the more computer-savvy parent lived?
Automatization and change management were not new concepts to the staff at Aarhus, as they had been automating and changing workflows from the early 90s.

The first introduction of self-service stations taught the library much about the necessity of staff involvement to ensure that large technical workflow changes are successful. Therefore, the decision and procurement process of one of the very first central sorters in Denmark was led by staff and the sorter eventually got constructed by FKI Logistex in 2002. Lyngsoe Systems acquired the FKI Logistex library solutions in September 2009 and indeed some of the very early engineers on this first central sorter for libraries are still with the company.

Susanne Hansen describes the process of building such an (at the time) innovative Automated Material Handling system as both challenging and exciting: “I think, I worked 24 hrs a day, every day that first year and I learned how to use a screwdriver and indeed about who from the staff I could trust to use one”.

The first AMH got replaced with a large 100-bin sorter from PV Supa (now part of Lyngsoe Systems) when in 2016 the library moved to the beautiful new DOKK1 on the Aarhus harbor front. It was immediately clear that the new, next-generation sorter was a blessing of much less noise and it was much easier to clean and maintain.

“The introduction of the sorter and self-service returns led to extensive change of workflows throughout the library, simplifying material handling leading to a drastic fall in work related injuries from afflicting almost 100% of the circulation desk staff to 0%.“

Learning from other industries

However, issues also arose from the first automation: When a reserved book was returned to the shiny new FKI sorting machine, patrons got notified automatically by the ILS, which led to confusion and lots of time spent looking for material still on its way to the shelf. Years later this led to a clear requirement for the IMMS™ development: a proper track and trace system was needed with notifications not going out before an item was shelved on the actual reservation shelf.

With this strong history of automation, the library was very clear that if float should be a success, they needed to automate the handling and embrace the new routines fully. If not the envisioned benefits would never be achieved.

During one week of the summer of 2010, staff in select branches performed basic time measurements, jotting down on paper whenever material was handled – from basic processes like shelving and tidying to helping patrons looking for books that were not on the expected shelf. The data gathered showed that something needed to be done NOW as more than 40% of staff time was spent on handling physical materials. This made the material management pain immediate and real. At the time, library commentators across the world were predicting that the physical book would be gone by the end of the decade, but a solution was
needed right away.

When staff started looking at possible solutions it soon became clear that off-the-shelf industrial logistics systems did not serve the purpose. The software had to be developed – earlier projects had shown that response times were crucial – slow response or delayed updates between LMS and logistics system would remove the potential benefits.

Carsten Hammershøi tells the story of how he was finally persuaded of the viability of the idea of an automated floating material handling system. While pondering about the problems, he found a case story from Lyngsoe Systems, where the Lyngsoe LIVE Logistics™ asset management helped track over 200,000 fish crates from the Danish fishing industry, knowing where all the crates were in real time, ensuring that no crates were lost on their routes between the many Danish fishing harbors.

For the IMMS™ development project, Lyngsoe Systems came forward bringing a solid track record of library automation as well as a unique logistics background forging a firm starting point for the development of IMMS™ in collaboration between the two libraries and the company.

The initial sharing of knowledge and skills between the Lyngsoe Systems developers and the libraries has grown into a continued development partnership. Every year a percentage of the license fee is set aside for new customer-led development. This ensures that IMMS™ is kept relevant for modern library needs.

“We knew from our earlier projects with Self Service that response times were crucial, slow response or delayed updates between LMS and logistics system would remove the potential benefits“.