Blog posts tagged with RFID

I've been focused recently on developments in UHF technology and how it might help libraries improve on the RFID products we currently use (which are  based on HF tags).  My interest, of course, is having something that fits our library applications best and if UHF is a better fit, I'd rather know now than later after we have an even greater investment in the HF technology.

If you care about physical delivery of library material (and I do), you may want to catch this webinar being produced by NISO.

It’s in the Mail: Improving the Physical Delivery of Library Resources
May 12, 2010
1:00 - 2:30 p.m. (Eastern Time)

If you have ever wondered how materials handling automation could fit into your library environment, you might enjoy this study I did for a client.

RFID technology for libraries still suffers from a lack of standards. Early adopters bought tags that aren't necessarily usable with today's RFID systems. RFID readers, security systems and materials handling systems are often purchased from a single vendor in order to ensure that all the components and tags work together. Tags that any library buys today will not necessarily work with all the circulation or security components a library might like to use in the future. One of the big standards hurdles is a data model standard.

Do you understand that you can incorporate automated check-in machines and sorters for your library without taking on the enormous costs associated with RFID tags? Self check out is old news. Everyone is doing it (or should be) and they are getting a very high rate of self checkout use (85% and higher) with and without RFID. If you are NOT getting 85% self check on your machines it properly has more to do with where the bar codes are located, whether everything in your library is indeed self check out-able.