Customer of De Bibliotheek Zuid-Kennemerland speaks ► Xafax

Customer of the Zuid-Kennemerland library has its say

The Zuid-Kennemerland Library has twelve branches
in the municipalities of Haarlem, Heemstede, Bloemendaal,
Hillegom and Zandvoort. More and more people know
to find the South Kennemerland Library
read, study and meet each other. Last year
More than 950,000 people visited the Library. We offer
a large number of activities every year, which we do alone, with
collaboration partners or – increasingly – with residents
of the neighborhoods.

Part of the social and cultural infrastructure

The Library is part of the social and cultural infrastructure and ensures that people of all ages and backgrounds can meet each other. With us they get the opportunity to enrich themselves and thus improve their quality of life. The way people develop is changing. We respond to this with our services. In addition to the collection, the Zuid-Kennemerland Library offers programs in the field of language and digital skills. We act as a platform for sharing knowledge where all kinds of inspiring activities take place. Whether you are learning your first words of Dutch, starting to read for the list, want to read to children, share stories from the past with peers, learn to distinguish fake news from facts or become more digitally skilled: the Library makes you richer!

The public environment

The Zuid-Kennemerland Library has been a Xafax customer since 2011. Our branches have had payment terminals, pay stations, public workstations and scanning and printing facilities for about ten years now. The PCs at the public workstations were prone to interference, switching users took too much time and we were not confident that no data would be left behind on the systems during such a change, especially if the switching procedure was not (completely) followed. had gone well. How do you find out if that happens?
The damage has probably already been done. In addition, the hardware, at least the PCs, was reaching the end of its lifespan not only economically but also technically. Windows 7 was no longer supported. The PIN machines in the pay stations had to be replaced due to contactless payments. In addition, a lot of support was needed in the branches when using the equipment. In short: reason enough for change.

The market inquiry

The Zuid-Kennemerland Library collaborates with Het Cultuurgebouw Haarlemmermeer in the field of ICT. The market was approached by Stichting ICT Beheer. We looked broader than Xafax. We were satisfied with the existing relationship with Xafax, but there are more providers, including outside the library world. We have drawn up a package of wishes and requirements for the solution of the problems, the implementation of that solution and the service during its management. In addition to ease of use, stability, compliance and low costs, we especially wanted flexibility. The solution had to be able to grow and shrink with our developments. We also asked the market questions about inventiveness and solution-orientedness. A number of market parties responded to the request and submitted a quotation. We had drawn up exclusion and selection criteria in advance, so the final choice for Xafax was more or less a result of the process and the previously drawn up procedure. Of course that sounds very procedural, and in fact it was. We wanted to take every provider seriously, create a level playing field and ultimately choose the best solution for our organization and our visitors. The good relationship we had built up with Xafax in the previous years did not play a role in the selection procedure. Nevertheless, we are very happy that we can continue the collaboration in a new setting.

The solution

We have replaced all pay stations with EasyPay payment terminals. These were newly developed devices at that time, which form the basis for further development from Xafax. The EasyPay payment terminal has a more attractive design and is friendlier to use than its predecessor. We now use the Easy Print Touchpad to operate the printers, select, release or delete a print job. Print jobs can be sent to the printer from public workstations, WiFi or from the office environment. The Touchpad is a major improvement due to the large screen and simple operation. It remains that users sometimes need help from staff, but I wonder whether this can be prevented, as there are always people who have difficulty with equipment. The biggest improvement, I dare say, are the public workstations (zero clients) in combination with Easy Account Plus Online. We have set up various accounts (for example a public workplace with extra facilities for members, a course workplace and catalog PCs) that can be changed 'on the fly' centrally or from behind the counter. Switching users is simple, fast and safe. We have set up that members can use the workplaces for free for a number of hours a day and then have to pay a small amount. Non-members pay that amount directly and do not have free use. If the balance is insufficient or there is another reason why a user must stop, he or she will receive a message before the session is closed. We have opted for a 'pay per use' variant, scaling up and down as needed and no upfront investment. This helps in the uncertain times in which libraries find themselves.

The implementation

We have decided to start a pilot in Haarlem-Centre, our largest branch. The rollout could take place without disruption to services. It is fair to say that we had some problems in the beginning, problems that forced us to temporarily shut down the public workstations. Xafax was on top of it, got to grips with the problem and eventually resolved it. We got a good feeling about this, problems cannot be prevented, but it is important how you deal with them. After this, we had sufficient confidence in a further rollout, first in the other branches of the Zuid-Kennemerland Library and then in the Haarlemmermeer Library. It went almost silently.

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