Our solutions
Prestalib offers two ways for your users to borrow and return items by themselves. The difference is who owns the device that reads the item. Both connect to your library management system and can coexist in the same library.
The user’s own phone
A bespoke Android and iOS app with your branding, compatible with most modern library systems via SIP2. Borrowing and returns through the phone’s own NFC reader.
Library-owned devices
Your library’s smartphones and tablets configured as shared self-service points, placed where you decide, with nothing for the user to install.
Side by side
Neither replaces the other in every case. This table sums up where each one performs best.
| Criterion | My Prestalib App | Prestalib Smartphones |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the device | The user: their own Android phone or iPhone. | The library: one of your own smartphones or tablets. |
| Where the reader is | In the user’s pocket, on any floor or site. | At the point where the library places the device. |
| RFID tags | HF only, through the phone’s NFC. It cannot read UHF. | HF through the device’s NFC and UHF through an external reader connected over Bluetooth. |
| What the user needs | To install the app and have a compatible NFC phone. | Nothing: they sign in on the device and operate there. |
| Coverage | The whole library, right at the shelf, with no queues. | Wherever the device is; it can be relocated. |
| Visitors and external users | They must download the app before using it. | Served with nothing to install. |
| Services beyond borrowing | Catalogue, account, renewals and phone reminders at any time. | Those of the session in front of the device. |
| Floor space | None. | That of the device stand. |
| Library management system | Both are compatible with most modern library management systems via SIP2. | |
| When to choose it | A stable university community with their own phones, to whom you want to offer a branded service. | A changing public, users without a compatible phone, or specific points in the room you want to cover. |
It is a common combination: the app as a service for the university community, and one or more library devices for anyone who cannot or does not want to use their own. Both connect to the same library management system and share circulation policies, so the project is scoped once. In the pricing configurator you can choose both and get a combined quote.
Support throughout
The implementation process is the same for both solutions.
Your library system, RFID, authentication and the services you want to offer.
We adapt the app or the devices to your branding and connect the agreed features.
We validate borrowing, returns and permissions with test items and accounts.
We prepare implementation, support and updates.
Comparing with fixed equipment too? Read the guide to the library self-checkout machine.
Your next step
Starting prices on show, a compatibility check and a formal PDF quote for your university, without waiting for a call: the access link goes to your institutional email.