Invengo Case Study: Education Cooperation Between China and UK to Build a Smart Library

Keywords: Invengo, Self-service, Security and Protection, System Compatibility, Comprehensive Tag Identification

Invengo Project Background

The University of Nottingham(UoN) is one of the top 100 universities in the world. FE technology, which is the wholly-owned subsidiary of Invengo, had good cooperation with UoN on the smart library project and established a deep friendship with them.

The University of Nottingham Ningbo China(UNNC), approved by the Chinese Ministry of Education, is a Sino-foreign cooperative university founded by the UoN and Zhejiang Wanli University. The new library building at the University of UNNC has 5 floors and a total of 25,000 square meters. It has over 200,000 open-access books and over 2,600 study spaces.

Based on the cooperation experience with UoC in the UK, this time Invengo build cooperation with UNNC in China. Invengo provided the complete library solution, and create a modern space and intelligent services.

Invengo Project Challenge

The library management system needs to be compatible with the old software.

Software and devices need to be long-term and stable working on both HF and UHF tags. The solution should meet the requirements of self-help of borrowing and returning books,  anti-theft functions, and book identifying.

Providing local services of system design, installation and testing. Invengo engineers will also offer long-term local post-sales services of system upgrades and timely problem responses.

The Solution for Invengo's Intelligent Library Management System

 System compatibility: Integrating Invengo's intelligent library management system with the previous system, and realizing system linkage with the third-party software；

Reasonable tag identification solution: Perfectly compatible with the RF book tags inherited from the last vendor, and ensure the book tags can be read without interference by magnetic stripe.

Self-service borrowing and returning: Self loan station(7*24 self-service) allows readers to borrow and return books without time and location restrictions. It will be convenient and efficient for both readers and tutors.

Automated Materials Handling(AMH): The automatic sorters feature a gentle belt and roller transportation and a highly effective sorting system that can be configured and maintained by the library itself. The External Patron Return unit feeds all the returned books into the automatic sorting component and then finished the sorting process.

Security and anti-theft management: RFID security gates are installed at the entrance and they have ultra-wide channels which can offer more space and a pleasing experience to passengers. Illegal books with tags will be precisely identified when passing through, and the alarm light and the beep will turn on.

Benefit Enhancement of Invengo Project

 Solved the key problems that UNNC has been faced with. It saved labor costs and service costs and improved the service level and capability.

Enhancing digitalization of UNNC library and upgrading its intelligence level. It is significant to develop a variety of extended intelligent services for a modern library. And it can play the advantage of the library resources.