Background
- Nile University is the first research university in Egypt, established in 2006. It is considered one of the modern universities aiming to provide distinguished and innovative education. The university seeks to offer high-quality academic programs, in addition to training students in practical life skills to prepare them well for the job market.
- It is an initiative by a group of distinguished Egyptian academics in collaboration with businessmen, to bridge the gap between academic education and the needs of the job market.
- Nile University is located in Sheikh Zayed City within a scientific complex that includes research institutes and technology companies, in addition to a campus designed with modern technologies, including:
- Advanced labs such as nanotechnology labs and artificial intelligence labs.
- A massive digital library linked to international databases.
- The university includes a number of colleges and specialized institutes in fields such as engineering, information technology, business administration, and applied sciences, including:
- Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences
- Faculty of Biotechnology
- Faculty of Architecture and Design
- Nile University is distinguished as a leading university in the field of scientific and applied research, with a team of faculty members who possess experience and competence, in addition to providing a stimulating educational environment for all students.
- Nile University aims to:
- Expand artificial intelligence and digital transformation programs.
- Establish a smart campus that relies on green technologies.
- Enhance collaboration with the industrial sector to transform research into applicable products.
Challenges
- Nile University faced several challenges in its library, mainly related to inventory and resource management. This caused significant time and effort to be spent on manual stocktaking, with errors arising from traditional human methods and difficulties in tracking books and required resources.
- Delays in lending and returning processes, long waiting lines, which led to delays for students and researchers, thus wasting staff time. Furthermore, errors in recording lending and returning operations resulted in difficulties determining responsibility for lost resources.
- Book loss or theft led to material and moral losses for the library and difficulty in providing materials to researchers. This resulted in delays in discovering missing materials and difficulties in preventing theft.
- User dissatisfaction with required services and delays in researchers obtaining necessary information, affecting the quality of scientific research.
Solution
- These obstacles and damages prompted Nile University to adopt RFID UHF technology in library management to improve operational efficiency, enhance security and protection, and improve the user experience.
- Through the library management system, Nile University was able to solve many of its problems by using advanced modern technology and following a few steps:
- Attaching a tag to each book individually, which contains all the data for each book, making stocktaking easier without confusion.
- Using RFID UHF readers to quickly and accurately identify books.
- For lending and returning, users can use Desktop Readers to lend and return books quickly and easily.
- Inventory operations are carried out faster and more accurately using portable RFID readers.
- In addition, RFID gates are used to prevent book theft or loss.
Effects
- After implementing RFID UHF technology, Nile University saw notable improvements in its library management. This led to enhanced operational efficiency, reduced stocktaking time, and reduced effort for staff.
- Automation of manual processes led to a significant reduction in human errors.
- Providing self-service lending and returning increased user satisfaction, reduced queues, and waiting time.
- Enhanced security and protection against theft helped reduce material losses for the library.
