RFID Innovation @ National Library

I remembered when I was still in primary school, I would visit the Queenstown library with my sister and mum as my sister is a big fan of books since she was young.
Therefore when we visit the library, I would try to grab some books to look at them.
I remembered the books last time were old and tattered, the front page would be full of ink chopped of dates and everything seems very untidy.
Plus the queue to allow the librarian to scan the barcode of the book manually has slowed things down therefore my visit to the library has reduced.

However when after a few years, I visited the library once again.
I was happy to see the change.
There were more machine then human now which makes borrowing of books faster.
The books are now nice and not many ink chopped already due to having the tag now placed inside every book. =)

The implementation of RFID in all library actually started in the year 2002 however it took 4 years to have all the teachnology properly installed. The very first system was installed in 1998,in bukit batok.
With the new implementation, the national library have saved 47million in manpower cost.
They can also have a faster stock taking,tracking of items that are being misplaced or bound for other branches.
Library user can now borrow books at a faster time and also return books to any branch that is nearest to their house.
Having the new system it benefits both the library itself and the users.
It is definately a long term investment and I can foresee improvements that will be made every now and then. =)

A little information on the system. A comprehensive RFID system has four components:

1. RFID tags that are electronically programmed with unique information
2. Readers or sensors to query the tags
3. Antenna
4. Server on which the software that interfaces with the integrated library software is loaded.

The heart of the system is the RFID tag, which can be fixed inside a book's back cover or directly onto CDs and videos. This tag is actually equipped with a programmable chip and an antenna. Each paper-thin tag contains an engraved antenna and a microchip with a capacity of at least 64 bits.In libraries that use RFID, they usually use the read/write tag to secured against rewriting, e.g., the identification number of the item.
However I felt that, if the tag could be re-written it would save the libraries lesser cost as the price of each tag costs around 45cents per piece.

Another disadvantage is User Privacy Concerns. Privacy concerns associated with item-level tagging is another significant barrier to library use of RFID tags. The problem with today's library RFID system is that the tags contain static information that can be relatively easily read by unauthorized tag readers. This allows for privacy issues described as "tracking" and "hotlisting"

Source from http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~mbolin/shahid.htm


On the second part of the ppt, a 'smart shelf' has been invented with the objective to have more accurate and faster access to library materials and tracking their usage within the library.














a picture taken from the powerpoint slide.
I find this new 'smart shelf' concept awesome because it never struck my mind about having a shelf that will do stock taking to keep the collection inventory up to date, detect wrongly placed item etc...
With this new implementation, the national library's technology has no doubt reached a greater height. (: