TAGGING BOOKS TO PREVENT THEFT Kendra Mayfield Email 05.20.02 For reference librarians, scanning endless bar codes is as tedious a daily task as dealing with stolen, lost or overdue library books. Now, a wafer-thin, microchip-based tag the size of a postage stamp could ease their workloads. Librarians can affix materials with security tags that contain microchips and an antenna that transmits information to a wireless reader using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. The technology could one day become as ubiquitous as the bar code. Unlike bar codes, which need to be scanned manually and read individually, radio ID tags do not require line-of-sight for reading. Multiple tags can be read simultaneously, through packaging or book covers. With radio ID tags, librarians can automate check-ins and returns. Patrons can speed through self-checkout without any assistance or ever even opening a book. An RFID tag can be read from just inches away, so librarians can simply wave a wireless wand while walking through stacks to record what books are on the shelves. The hand-held unit reads the chips and stores data that can be downloaded into the librarys circulation system. Instead of weeks or months, collection inventory would take just hours. Inventory of the collection, normally a time-consuming process, is made easy and quick, said Patricia Mackey, librarian for Rockefeller University Library, which uses Checkpoint Systems Intelligent Library System. Electromagnetic sensors guard library exits, so that only checked-out books leave the building. If a book isnt signed out properly, a hidden RFID tag will trigger the sensors and an alarm will sound to alert librarians to a possible theft. At Rockefeller University Library, a camera videotapes patrons in real time whenever an alarm is triggered, catching action that security guards might miss. A number of vendors, such as Texas Instruments, Checkpoint Systems, 3M Library Systems and Tagsys, have introduced RFID technology to the library-security market. But the applications for RFID technology are limitless. Fundamentally, the technology can and is being extended well beyond libraries, said Doug Karp, senior director of RFID operations and strategic marketing for Checkpoint Systems. So many things are being looked at because of what this technology can do, Karp said. Booksellers in Great Britain hope to use RFID chips to track each books transaction, from publisher to wholesaler and retailer to customer. But cost and lack of standards have prevented many libraries from adopting RFID technology. RFID tags cost upwards of 50 cents, whereas bar code tags cost about 2 cents. Cost may be a factor for many libraries, Mackey said. It can be costly if the library is using older technology for security purposes and it has to be replaced or if they have a very large collection to treat with security tags. archive.wired/science/discoveries/news/2002/05/52493
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 14:23:12 +0000
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