A Web gathering created on 22nd, September, 2005 for LIS (Library and Information Science) professionals, specialists and students.

السبت، يوليو 08، 2006

RFID and Libraries


RFID (Radio Frequency identification) is one of the latest technologies used in library security systems. it is based on placing special microchips which stores about 2,000 bytes of data, known as RFID tags, to be read using radio frequency technology. the system consists of RFID tags, readers, software and server. This technology has already been implemented in around 300 libraries in the United States. It is a promising yet controversial technology. It have proved many advantages such as rapid check-outs, high reliability, long tag life, inventory efficiency and automated materials handling. A large group of specialists suggests that this technology have many advantages over the traditional barcodes. they hold more data than barcodes, thus they can be used for tracking individual items. The item can be individually tracked as it moves from one place to another, ending up in the reader's hand. But do the advantages of RFID outweigh its deficits? The high cost and pivacy issues constitute the main problems of this technology. Imagine that the tag placed on a single item costs 0,500 K.D. In this case, implementing the system in a large library that contains 100,00 books for example would be very costy. However, the price of the RFID tags is falling gradually and might be more reasonable in the coming years. Also, there is a perception that RFID represents a threat to patron privacy.