Technology: Reducing Operating Costs

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King County (Wash.) Library System (KCLS) has the second-highest circulation of any public library system in the United States. Serving a population of 1.2 million in 44 branches, annual circulation for the library system is 21 million. The library system needed a better way to manage the more than 85,000 items coming into and going out of its Preston Sort Center every day.

The Preston Sort Center serves as a central distribution point for all the branches of KCLS. With an old conveyor belt system, it took 18 full-time employees and occasional outsourced help to sort the materials coming into the center, identify reserve items, and pack the items to be delivered to the appropriate branch. The system was also error-prone and tough on the staff because drivers had to move stacks of totes weighing 160 pounds across the warehouse.

In 2005, KCLS installed an automated materials handling system from FKI Logistex (now Lyngsoe Systems). Since then, material volume has increased 35%, but the library is able to process it with fewer staff, and it has broadened the responsibilities of the shipping department to better serve patrons and free up branch staff.

The system worked with KCLS’s existing barcodes, a necessary feature because the library had ruled out implementing RFID tags. It also allows the Sort Center to achieve 24-hour turnaround time for materials, getting them to branches and patrons much faster. This has made it possible for the library to introduce a new “just-in-time” operation, in which the warehouse stores 35,000 low-use items like older VHS tapes, which frees up shelf space at the branches but allows patrons to access these items within a day.

The system has also reduced errors. “We could not have continued to do business otherwise,” said KCLS Special Project Coordinator Lee Loyd. “The accuracy that is possible with an automated system cannot be achieved when you rely heavily on human activity.”