Current Status of RFID Smart Library Technology Application

RFID has been applied to libraries on a large scale in recent years. The practical prototype components of RFID have been conceived and created based on the principle of radar. The reason why RFID technology can be applied to card, logistics, archive management, library and other industries is that the tags are ultra-thin, passive, and low-priced, until users can afford them. These are inseparable from advanced electronic manufacturing technology.
 

China's current library RFID users are concentrated in the economically developed southern region. There are many RFID technology users in Taiwan and Hong Kong. A library in a certain area of ​​mainland China began to use RFID technology in February 2006. The newly built Shenzhen Library in July of the same year adopted RFID technology on a large scale. The tag frequency they use is 13.56MHz. Shantou University Library announced the use of 900MHz book RFID tags in June 2007. These libraries that use RFID technology have become the highlights of new technology applications in the library industry in mainland China.
 

From the perspective of the scale of use, although the total amount of RFID tag applications in libraries today and in the future does not belong to the ranks of the highest users in the whole society, its development is slightly faster than the logistics industry RFID single-item management application, which is the most concerned. This is exactly the opposite of the barcode era, when the logistics industry was far ahead. The reason is that the current logistics industry is also plagued by standardization issues. Before a consensus is reached on the RFID standard for single items, it is difficult to use RFID technology in the world logistics industry. Each library is relatively independent in society. The library industry is not as sensitive to standardization as the logistics industry. Its application has not stopped without complete standardization. Of course, this does not mean that library borrowing does not need industry standardization. From the perspective of the comprehensiveness of technology application, it can be said that libraries are open small museums for people to understand the application of RFID technology, because libraries are open systems that integrate front-end and back-end systems (front-end RFID-back-end computer management system), item items (RFID item tags), pre-processing, users (RFID card tags), shelf area management (warehouse mobile inventory), charging, administrators, self-service equipment, and security. Before the RFID application in the commodity logistics industry has moved from pallet level to item level management, libraries are one of the most comprehensive examples of RFID large-scale application. Other RFID applications in society are mostly a fragment of the above management model, such as bus cards, bank cards, warehousing, and archive management.
 

It is reported that 2% of American libraries and 8% of the world's libraries use RFID technology. Can this be interpreted as the distribution density of American libraries is higher, so the proportion of American users is lower than the world's total level? At present, the annual output value of the global RFID technology market has reached nearly 5 billion US dollars, which is already an emerging technology industry that cannot be underestimated. At present, among the national libraries in the world, only the Singapore Library uses RFID technology. There are two main reasons why national libraries generally do not use RFID technology. First, the comprehensive warranty life of high-quality RFID tags is still too short for libraries. The indicators of 100,000 reads and writes or effective data storage within 10 years are not enough to manage permanent collections. Another reason is that national libraries generally do not have a collection loan service for the public. A major highlight of RFID technology in library applications is the self-service collection loan and return service. Without a loan service, the tags are not enough for permanent collection management. Most national libraries will naturally not consider using it. Universities (small and medium-sized libraries) that mainly focus on circulation business are ideal users of RFID technology. At present, the price of high-quality and long-life RFID tags is still relatively high. The one-time equipment-tag investment and annual consumption are still difficult for libraries in developing countries to bear. In view of the problems of RFID tag life and quality stability, and the fact that the database of most library computer main systems has been established and is not suitable for modification, libraries currently continue to use barcodes as the core operating identifier of the collection in the system when using RFID technology.