December 28 2008

Radio-frequency technology in libraries

Libraries have long had problems in finding easy and effective ways of handling stock and
membership records.

Most libraries need to watch costs: many are publicly funded, while others are in cash-
strapped organizations. It is, thus, crucial that any new form of technology provides an
excellent return on investment. Stuffy libraries that operate for the benefit of dreary,
‘shushing’ staff have gone. They have been replaced by modern information centers
supplying users with a wide range of both paper and electronic services. Books still form a
major part of libraries’ stock, but they must be managed in a cost-effective manner.

The issues
Library users want to feel empowered: ideally they would like libraries to copy supermarkets,
staying open when they are needed, rather than when it suits management. That implies
round-the-clock opening – something that is frequently too expensive in terms of staff and
security; it may also be difficult to find staff able to get to and from work during unsocial
hours. The ideal solution therefore, is technology that permits self-service issue and return of
items, with minimal out-of-hours staffing to cover basic security.

Stock control has long been a problem: not just the ease and frequency of carrying-out basic
stocktaking operations, but also the efficient management of library content. Being able to
locate items swiftly is crucial – if a book is not in exactly the right place on the shelf, it can
be unfindable and, in effect, does not exist. There are many reasons for an item to be away
from its correct location: it may be mis-shelved, in use, removed for a technical purpose –
binding or re-classification, for example. Or it may have been sent to another library. Much
staff time is, therefore, taken up with organizing and arranging the stock and searching for
missing items; activities that can also lead to repetitive strain (RSI) and back injuries, with
their own knock-on impact on staffing. An effective solution to stock-control problems
should maximize productivity.

Security is another key issue. Libraries often contain rare (and, therefore, irreplaceable)
books, periodicals or audio-visual items and theft control has become increasingly important.
A variety of bar-coded labels and electro-magnetic theft-detection devices are in use – not
always giving the best results. Sometimes they are tuned to the retail frequency and this can
be embarrassing when security strips set off alarms in shops. I recall with horror making a
last-minute purchase as I rushed to Hong Kong airport – only to be chased through a typhoon
by security staff after a radio-frequency transmitter in my book triggered an alarm!
What is RFID?
The arrival of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) as a form of tracking technology, with
its many potential applications, provides a promising new approach to solving librarians’
problems.

RFID combines radio frequency and microchip technology to transmit data. Unique serial
numbers are sent by radio waves from 'tags' (containing transponders) to readers or sensors
(with antennae). A tag attached to an object allows it to be 'seen' and monitored. Plastic tags
can be fixed to any physical items, such as books (for which they may contain author/title or
category information) or membership cards (containing personal data). RFID tags can be
either active or passive. Libraries use the passive type, as do supermarkets. There is, however,
an important difference: identical packs of a grocery product (e.g. a cereal) will have the
same RFID number, whereas each copy of a book needs its own identifier.

RFID does not usually require the replacement of existing networks or back-office systems:
there are, however, separate issues over the lack of interoperability, especially in academic
libraries, between the various content-management systems in use (library management,
finance, student/ institutional records, virtual-learning systems, etc).

According to a report by Britain’s Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), RFID tags
can provide the ‘glue’ for linking objects to computer networks: a stop en route to
‘ubiquitous’ computing, a vision of seamless technology. That is the dream of an ‘Internet of
things’: everyday objects and gadgets embedded with simple communications technology,
allowing connections to one another within local networks and, ultimately, to that wider
network of networks – the Internet. But, how does this help libraries?

RFID in the library

RFID allows staff to examine tags (out of sight and from several meters away, if necessary)
without opening individual books or delivery boxes. The tags can be encoded with
bibliographic or membership data, making it easier to check information on an item or user
without needing to interrogate a central database.

Other services can benefit from RFID, too: the introduction of self-service borrowing and
more effective stock-taking, for instance; it can also help control (the increasingly-costly)
inter-library lending services as well as resolving the problem of how physical items, such as
books, can be linked to electronic networks through the internet.

Although the name may not mean much to the average library user, most people are familiar
with some sort of RFID application. This familiarity helps greatly with its introduction.

While, at one time, the technology was presented as a neat, but jokey, way to monitor kitchen
equipment from a distance or demonstrate how executives could order soft drinks from
remote machines, most people nowadays have come across some of its applications: from
animal-tracking tags to contactless travel cards (such as London’s Oyster) and anti-theft
devices in shops. RFID is also used increasingly with biometric technologies for
authentication and security applications. Embervision, an information consultancy, carried
out a survey of librarians’ views of RFID. The results were positive: fewer queues, more time
for staff to spend with users, better training in book and data base knowledge coupled with
higher-status work, improved stock maintenance (giving users easier browsing) and clearer
library layouts.
The benefits
RFID is proving itself a viable technology. Automatic identification of items has several
benefits for libraries. Perhaps the most obvious being that it can perform routine tasks,
freeing-up valuable staff time by, for example, providing a reliable self-issuing technique that
discharges and deactivates items in one step. Thus, in Munich’s main library self-service
stations allow users to issue (borrow) and return items quickly and easily; books, CDs and
DVDs carry different types of tag. A borrower can scan a pile of books in one go, rather than
individually. Once returned, the RFID-tagged materials are automatically sorted using
criteria set by the library, reducing any staff-stress injuries caused by manual checking. In
addition, recently returned books, which were previously hidden away for hours, are out on
trolleys available for immediate use.

RFID speeds up stock-checking – entire shelves can be scanned in seconds with portable
readers. In addition, books which are out of sequence are spotted instantly. Other possibilities
are audio information (using head-sets) on books’ shelf location (using geographical
information systems) or Amazon-style advice on similar books to the ones already selected.
Such ideas are being tested in the Netherlands.

Queuing-time for issue and return is greatly reduced. While library members might not, in
future, need the assistance of staff for basic transactions, library staff have more time to
provide increasingly sophisticated services.

The University of East Anglia won the prestigious 2007 RFID in Libraries Award for its
innovative ‘robust, user-focused self-returns system’: returned items, as in Munich, are
cancelled immediately from borrowers’ records (confirmed with a receipt – eliminating
arguments) while an automated sorting system cuts down on the work needed to re-shelve
items.

The university’s entire collection of more than 700,000 items was RFID-enabled in just one
summer using an efficient and innovative process. The use of hand-held scanners in the
tagging procedure allowed work to be carried out at the shelves, resulting in minimal
interruption to normal library services and no moving of stock during implementation.

An American Library Association (ALA) report suggests that RFID readers are now virtually
100% reliable (when the reader is within 12-14” of the tag) and that a 50% increase in
throughput can be achieved with a big reduction in false ‘theft’ alarms - RFID readers at
library exits can reduce losses by sounding audible and visual alarms if users accidentally try
to leave the library without borrowing items in the correct manner (exit sensors do, however,
have lower reliability as they read at a greater distance). Theoretically, the use of long-range
frequencies would allow missing items to be detected, even if they have been illicitly
removed and taken home. However, such applications are still under development.

The costs
Eventually, RFID tags are likely to be printed, much as bar codes are today. And, like bar
codes, they will cost virtually nothing. However, substantial technical and economic hurdles
must be overcome beforehand.

Despite its many advantages, the cost and time involved in installing RFID currently remains
prohibitive for smaller libraries. The lower staffing anticipated from RFID’s introduction
should mean that fewer people are needed, but there is no evidence that this is the case: the
staff in most libraries has already been reduced to such an extent that little or no ‘fat’ remains
for further cuts (rather than using automation to cut staff, many libraries have invested in it to
maintain services that would otherwise have been lost through fewer staff).

A survey carried out for the 2007 RFID in Libraries Conference on behalf of the Chartered
Institute of Library & Information Professionals (CILIP) confirms the fear that, for many,
RFID is too expensive: those considering RFID systems fear that implementation costs are
high, while the benefits are uncertain. Many librarians are far from convinced of the business
case for its introduction.

One survey respondent noted that the obstacles are "cost and lack of clear cost-benefit", while
another cited "lack of identifiable benefits in relation to high cost". Almost three-quarters of
those with no immediate plans to implement RFID gave cost as the obstacle, while many
were suspicious of the alleged savings. Other reservations expressed included change
management; lack of technical standards, personal security implications, staff health
concerns, problems with using the technology and difficulties of integration it with other
information and communication technologies (ICTs). There was also concern that, in addition
to high initial costs, consumables and maintenance would also be expensive.
Libraries face the difficulty, then, of building a case to fund RFID implementation, given the
relatively high overall costs. The CILIP survey suggests that the minimum expenditure outlay
for an RFID system as £80,000 (€96 000), while the figure for a completed implementation
project can run as high as £2.1 million (€2.5m). If combined with acquisition of a new RFID-
integrated library-management system, the cost may well rise to over £3 million (€3.6m.).

This implies that if RFID is considered only as a transactional technology, i.e. a set of
machines and devices whose benefits are measured solely at the level of operational
efficiencies, the costs of RFID implementation are too great: cost-savings made at the
operational level will not justify the capital investment, while the opportunity costs (i.e. the
money standing a better chance of being spent more effectively elsewhere) may also be
excessive.

Scale is another factor. The CILIP respondents noted that the smaller the library, the less the
return on investment, while the end result is not "the shiny new machines" but "the improved
user experience throughout the whole service".

If RFID is considered both a transactional and a transformational technology, the survey

suggests, the high cost might be off-set against greater benefits when operational efficiencies
are married to improvements in user experience, professional development, service provision
and libraries' capabilities in fulfilling their institutional roles: in order to achieve a positive
cost-benefit evaluation, RFID has to be considered as part of a larger programme of change.

Once RFID has been implemented in larger libraries, however, a more positive view
develops. In 2004, The City of London’s Barbican Library introduced RFID for self-service
loans and inter-lending (items borrowed from other libraries get temporary tags). The stock-
management side is still being tested. Annual savings of £119,000 (€142 000) are claimed.

Standards
At first, libraries set up their RFID primarily for local use, without much thought of wider
applications. With the growing number of RFID-enabled libraries around the world,
professional groupings are being formed to develop interoperability standards to cater for
interconnecting services (such as inter-lending). There is also now a greater inclination on the
part of librarians to increase the range of tag suppliers, with common standards, thus,
perhaps, allowing implementation costs to be reduced. The frequencies used for RFID in the
USA are currently incompatible with those of Europe or Japan. Furthermore, no emerging
standard has yet become as universal as that for bar codes.

Concerns about RFID

The nature of RFID has raised three main types of concern about its use in libraries:

1. Privacy. In theory, RFID tags can be read from considerable distances and questions
have been raised about the use of sensitive information. According to the ALA,
several US states are considering legislation that would pose restrictions on the use of
RFID by libraries. However, libraries have always collected a range of data about
their members; the type of tag currently used by libraries contains solely item
identification and can be read over only very short distance. Nevertheless, there are
legitimate concerns as to what might happen in the future and an RFID signal-
jamming device has already been developed.
2. Theft. There is a risk that tags can be removed or concealed – for example, by
overlaying books or by wrapping them in foil, although thicker volumes can have
their tags hidden in spines. Tags can also be concealed by making them look like book
plates.
3. Safety. There have been reports of bugs that can infect RFID tags – so far these have
been detected only in luggage and passport systems. The ‘secure’ encryption on chips
in British passports was broken in less than 48 hours and researchers have managed to
clone passport data in the post, without needing to open envelopes.

Is RFID the answer?

RFID has the promise to be the answer to every librarian’s prayers. However, like any new
form of technology, it must meet a definite need (or be a means of replacing older, less
flexible, equipment) while, at the same time, providing a good return on investment. For
libraries, user acceptance of RFID has been high: a six-month trial in one Dutch public
library, gave borrowers the choice of using RFID or a traditional system. Surprisingly, 70%
opted for RFID, quickly adapting to it - even the elderly. Staff and customer benefits are
potentially high – but only if managers do not count the cost. They must balance the need for
cost-cutting against service quality.

Author: Ralph Adam