Implementation of an innovative RFID application in libraries

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398 Received 30 January 2008 Revised 28 February 2008 Accepted 2 May 2008

THEME ARTICLE

Implementation of an innovative RFID application in libraries Shien-Chiang Yu Department of Information and Communications, Shih-Hsin University, Taipei, Taipe i, Taiwa Taiwan, n, Repu Republic blic of China

Abstract Purpose – This paper aims to considers how to extend RFID applications given the limited funds and budgets in libraries. RFID can replace barcodes and magnetic strips for security control and collections management. This study describes describes the Shih-Hsin University University Library UHF Design/methodology/approach – This RFID system which uses long distan distance ce induction to assist in three innovative applications. applications. The three applications are regional seeking and positioning for collections in mis-shelves or collections loss in library,, statis library statistics tics calculation calculation in usage frequency frequency and length of book readin reading, g, and instan instantt librar library y guiding service. This research explains the implementation of the tag frequency, the construction of the multi-t multi-transc ransceiver eiver and exist existing ing TCP/IP network applianc appliances. es. Findings – The application not only estimates benefits in advance and lower the risk of failure setups,, but it also provides innovative library services. setups services. This is st stud udy y di disc scuss usses es is issu sues es and pos possi sible ble so solut lution ionss in th thee pro proce cess ss of Originality/value – Th implementing impleme nting RFID applica applications tions for three innovative applications applications in library services. services. frequencies, ies, Identification, Libraries L ibraries Keywords Radio frequenc

Paper type Technical paper

Library Hi Tech Vol. 26 No. 3, 2008 pp. 398-410 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0737-8831 DOI 10.1108/07378830810903328

Background Due to the low cost of barcodes, the automatic identification (Auto-ID) system has been extensiv exte nsively ely appli applied ed in the mana manageme gement nt of libra library ry colle collectio ctions. ns. Barc Barcodes odes simplify the identification of items for library circulation and archives. However, due to low data capaci cap acity ty and th thee ina inabil bility ity to pro progr gram am bar barcod codes, es, the sco scope pe of bar barcod codee app applic licati ation on is lim limite ited d to information access of collections and patron cards. A better solution for the storage of recogn rec ogniza izableinfor bleinformat mation ion and tra trans nsact action ionss is to use int integ egrat rated ed cir circu cuit it (I (IC) C) mem memory ory car cards ds or smart sm art car cards ds to co conve nvey y dat data. a. How Howeve ever, r, th this is kin kind d of con contac tact-t t-typ ypee IC car card d mus mustt wor work k th throu rough gh a reader contact to have power and to transmit materials. The shortcoming of usage incl in clud udes es lo lowe werr pr proc oces essi sing ng sp spee eed d an and d ab abras rasio ion n of an el elec ectr tron onic ic co cont ntac act. t. On th thee ot othe herr ha hand nd,, the contactless IC card technique transmits data between card and reader through radio waves. The power also can be converted from radio waves or built-in batteries in cards. Because of the transport of power and information through radio waves, contactless auto-IDs are called radio frequency identification (RFID) systems. RFID is not a new technique. In 1948, Harry Stockman published a paper entitled “Com “C ommun munic icati ation on by me mean anss of re refle flect cted ed pow power” er” th that at dis discu cuss ssed ed th thee th theor eory y an and d This work was partially sponsored by the National Science Council of Taiwan under grant NSC 95-2413-H-128-001-CC3.

implementation of RFID (Stockman, 1948). Vernon (1952) and Harris (1960) published papers entitled “Application of the microwave homodyne” and “Radio transmission systems with modulatable passive responder”, respectively. After that, the development of RFID continued. From 1980 to 1990, RFID systems gradually matured, including use by, for example, the Association of American Railroads and the Container Handling Cooperative Program. RFID initiatives simplified the identification and tracing procedures in the process of merchandise delivery. As a result the application of RFID soared (Landt, 2001). Currently, RFID technology has been applied in food circulating safety, health and medical treatment, home and public security, aviation ravel application, and trade channel safety. Libraries have implemented RFID applications in collection management, circulation services, and inventory operations to employ the functions of identification, rapid response and durability to enhance efficiency and accuracy. The cost of RFID chips is a substantial expense for libraries, especially with the expenses in addition to reading and writing devices. Libraries have to spend a substantial amount of time to implement RFID systems. If the purpose of implementation of the replacing barcode by RFID which applies to shelving, circulation, inventory, and so on in library, these activities do not affect the original service models. Therefore, to apply RFID does not attempt libraries to do so. This study reveals applicability of RFID system in library utilizing Shih-Hsin University Library as example which introduced three major innovative service models: (1) seeking and positioning; (2) access and reading rate measure; and (3) locating information for library collections, requests of related components and specifications, analyze problems encountered, and possible solutions as well. Finally, materializes a flow of functioning process of whole structure that will be useful guideline for other libraries when implementing RFID system.

Application planning A RFID tag is mostly made into a thin, flexible, and smooth form, with remote induction technology, to fit in with the information system to record patrons’ loan history, improve efficiency of inventory, and strengthen circulation and safety management (Kern, 2004). At the current stage, this has been the major purpose to replace traditional barcode and magnetic tape with wireless technology (Yu, 2007). How to expand the scope of applications is the major purpose of study. In addition to replacing barcodes and magnetic tapes, it is to improve the functions in inventory, mis-shelving and re-arranging the collections. During the routine of library operations, some situations may take place as follow: If patron takes an item from the collection without returning it to its original location, placing it in a wrong location, or on a different floor, these will bring trouble to library staffand later users. If the book’s location canbe shown in Online Public Access Cataloging (OPAC), as well as the relative information of library collections which will be useful to library collection management. In addition, a book travel with patrons’ route could be traced from location to location. Thus, users’ behaviors could be used and analyzed as reference to access floor planning and seat assignment in a library. .

An innovative RFID application in libraries

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Circulation records can be stored in an automatic system for the statistics analysis purpose. However, for those books and magazines used inside library, the utilization period, and frequency are not recordable. Therefore, it is not easy to analyze the usage rate of all library collections. Library often spends time and money on introductions of library resources, for example, the signboards. Most patrons can get to know the library’s environment and shelf assignment through the signboards. But the information on the sign boards are fixed and needs update when modifying shelf locations or changing equipment position.

Based on these three situations, this study focuses on finding solutions via the long-distance reactive characteristics of ultra high frequency (UHF) RFID for library applications and service modes. The discussion are divided into these points of: .

analysis and design;

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application planning;

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implementation problems and solutions; and

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functional design and process as follow.

Analysis and design Basic component Because of the popularization of RFID development and applications, RFID systems can be simplified to two main modules, a reader and a data tag accessed by radio. As Figure 1 shows, the principles of an RFID system can be divided into three components as described by Kern (2004): (1) the RFID tag (or transponder); (2) the RFID reader (or interrogator); and (3) the application system which is used for the reader to transmit or receive data from a tag. Several frequency ranges of the radio spectrum are public frequency bands. With different usage and restrictions, every country opens not exactly similar public frequency bands, governments tightly license users of radio transmitters except the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) frequency bands which were established by the International Telecommunication Union Radio Communication Sector (ITU-R; 2005). Transmitters using these bands do not require government licensing. Therefore, the spectrums of RFID use the bandwidth of industrial and scientific requirements. The advantages and disadvantages of these are shown in Table I (Shepard, 2005). Bands below 135 kHz are the most mature for RFID production. The 13.56 MHz band performs various applications. The RFID production of this band is often used for

Figure 1. Modules of RFID system

Frequency band

Benefits

Drawbacks

Low frequency (125-134 kHz)

Popular deployment Lower interference by metal Popular deployment Lower interference by mist Popular deployment Higher scope of signal communication Higher reaction range

Lower reaction range (under 1.5 m)

High frequency (13.56MHz)

Ultrahigh frequency (UHF; 860-960 MHz) Microwave (2.45GHz)

Lower reaction range (under 1.5 m) Higher interference by metal Higher interference by mist Tag and tag too close maybe exerts detuning Not popular Implementation more complex and without completely standardization

commodity management. The RFID production using bands of 2.45 GHz and UHF have similar characters, but UHF provides longer distances for induction. Another important characteristic of RFID is the type of power supply for the tag. There are two types, passive and active tags (Kleist et al., 2004). Passive tags do not contain power and all the power for the process must be converted from radio waves that are provided by the reader. Active tags contain a battery. If a passive tag is out of a RFID reader’s reactive range, it is not workable. On the other hand, active tag has a battery with the electric power necessary to run chips and can provide longer reactive distance than a passive tag. However, the tag life is limited by its battery life (Ollivier, 1995). Another type is semi-passive tag, which has the characteristics of passive tag in terms of its small size and light weight, it has a built-in battery to increase the reactive distance.

Applications on industries Several industries implement RFID in all kinds of fields, such as electronic article surveillance (EAS), document authorization, access control, production traceability, employee monitor, environmental test, electronic finance, mass control, exercise time, transportation routing, industrial automation, and supply chain integration, which provides advantages in security, authorization, safety, convenience, and process efficiency (Bhuptani and Moradpour, 2005). Compared to magnetic tape, RFID tag is bigger in size and cannot be easily hidden. Besides, the characteristics of RFID function is easily interfered by metal or influenced by the angle of antenna. Its effect of security control is not better than that of traditional magnetic tape. A more suitable application mode is the identification function by RFID instead of barcode to improve the efficiency of circulation and inventory. To the library, RFIDs can improve current operation efficiency without changing services. Therefore, the library of Shih-Hsin University embarked on a RFID research project that did not apply RFID as a general application in circulation and entrance guard control, but tried to apply the wireless identification of RFID function to plan the application model of non-circulating collections for analyzing and implementing the availability of these applications in order to create more interest in library management. RFID application models are based on the characteristics of long-distance reaction, identification, and data storage in the usage of RFID tag, corresponding to the timely reactive speed of RFID readers, making large amounts of tags in a short time. The tag


401 Table I. Frequency band of RFID usage and its benefit and drawbacks

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reaction can be applied to the audit of persons or items. The reactive priority can be applied to follow the moving direction of persons or items. The function of data storage can cumulate the transaction of persons or items. While changing the applied target from persons or items to library collections, in accord with the characteristics of library services, some application models can be planned:

Library innovation applications Seeking and positioning . Referring to the RFID application models in industries (Bhuptani and Moradpour, 2005), besides similar functions to library circulation operations in logistics management, seeking and positioning are novel services developed using RFIDs. One of the drawbacks in an open-shelf library is the books can be placed on the wrong bookshelves or books can be lost. The automatic system only supports the loan record, not for the actual location of library collections. Depending on the library RFID readers’ reaction to all RFID signals in a specific scope, while the automatic system is applied for search, it can identify the actual location of library collections according to the position of RFID reader. This happens because the RFID reader reacted with the RFID tag of the collection to provide the function of seeking and positioning. It can also show the bibliographic and loan record. This service function can offer a more convenient management mode to non-circulating collections and improve the follow-up process for misplaced books and lost books which are in the same book categories but in different locations, such as reference materials, exhibited books, and special collections. This service must be in the consideration of the reaction range between the RFID reader and tag. Access and reading rate measure. No precise measure is available to figure out the reading utilization rate of non-circulating journals or books in library shelves. Because of the free-reading mode of patrons in an open-shelf library, the usage status cannot be recorded in an automatic system. Patrons may not be willing to fill a usage record bill pasted on a journal. In this case, the effective range of RFID reaction can be utilized where library shelves are fitted with the location of RFID readers. While a RFID tag, which is placed in a journal, cannot respond to the RFID reader, the collection can be regarded in library patrons’ usage until the next signal response to the RFID reader. Consider that skimmed collections by patrons, the time interval can be set up in library automatic system. While the RFID reader cannot access the RFID tag of the journal over the setup time period, the journal can be regarded as the materials in usage and recorded in the automatic system. This method can effectively measure the utilization rate of journals. Location information for library collections. Library patrons can use a hand-held appliances integrated with RFID reader when visiting the library. RFIDs can offer a guide service. Traditionally, this approach requires the content to be processed in advance for the location information in order to let the RFID reader access the RFID tag and shows the input information in the screen of the hand-held appliance according to the serial number of labels. Library automatic system can include all information relative to library collections, such as the records in from acquisition, purchasing, checking and accepting, shelf locations, as well as circulation. This information can be combined with automatic analysis in data statistics. With RFID tags in library collections, the hand-held appliances of the RFID reader can attain current categories. Furthermore, the location

information, based on the categories available through data transmission protocol, such as SIP2 (Standard Interchange Protocol v.2), can be used to fetch library items from automatic system. Such operation design is mainly set up using data sourcing from current statistics data in the automatic system, which saves additional labor in processing the guiding content.


Implementation problems and solutions In the implementation, according to above-mentioned innovative application modes, the components and specifications in the experiment must be decided first. These factors of relative modules and standards were adopted in the components are described as follow:

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Frequency Considering the range of RFID frequency, the main frequency band of RFID frequency is under 13.56 MHz. This readable range is too short for a long-distance application. In addition, 2.45 GHz has not been totally standardized yet, and equipment is difficult to purchase. Therefore, this research used the 900 MHz products which in UHF frequency band to be the experimental subject and utilizes its characteristic of longer distance to study the applications in a library. Passive tag Comparing the advantages and disadvantages with active tag and passive tag, active tag possesses longer reactive distances from over 5 m to more than 100 m (Vigoda, 1999), but the price is higher than passive tags. Due to the built-in battery, the active tag is a bigger size. Therefore, active labels are not suitable for library applications in RFID to manage collections. In addition, the usage of active tags is limited by the life span of battery, which is not suitable for the materials in long-term storage. A short reactive range will limit the application mode of combining RFID with library collections, but the storage area in a library is bookshelves. Thus, using a long reactive range will cause confusion because too many tags will be picked up by every antenna and increase the burden that the information system deals with. Given these reasons, passive RFID tag with the readable-and-writable characteristic are more appropriate for library applications. There are two ways to handle the transactiondata with a RFID tag. The first way is to record data within the tag directly. The second way is to record in the database system and later access the transaction data from the database system according to the identificationnumber in a tag. The advantage of a direct record inside the tag is to be able access the information in a tag any time through a RFID reader for offline management and applications. In the test process, the research found that higher value of electromagnetic radiation is generated from the electric power which supplies the receiving and transferring operations while the RFID tag requires high-energy electricity provided through a RFID reader and antenna to access data. According to regulations from the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP, 1998), radiation intensity should be lower than 0.0046 f 1/2 MHz as well as the ionizing radiation intensity, 1.38 mG. This research uses a magnetic wave meter to measure the electromagnetic radiation from the antenna equipment in this research by every interval of 5 cm. The average value in the test is described in Figure 2 and it shows

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Figure 2. Radiation intensity of electromagnetic wave

the average value of transient radiation intensity is higher than the standard value in the regulation. Because the research adopts the in 900 MHz UHF, its electronic field intensity is higher than that in 13.56 MHz. Though there is no crucial conclusion to prove injury to that the system will cause people from radiation, this research bases on the design principle of adopting the transaction data in the database to reduce high radiation caused by a tag read or write activity from reader. However, this research still chooses RFID tags with memory function. The main purpose is to consider the backup function to make sure final transactional status for library collections available in the tag while the information system is not online, corresponding to the integrity of information processing.


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Usage of multi-transceiver For RFID signal pickup, not only does the antenna design influence the range, but the angle of antenna also affects signal quality. If the antenna of RFID reader is not set at good angle, it will influence the distance and range. In addition, the tag attached to library item will change the angle when patrons’ move around. As Figure 1 shows, a single antenna will cause poor quality reception. Reviewing international RFID equipment, this research discovered that RFID readers possess modules of multi-transceiver as Figure 3 shows. The application of this kind of equipment can connect several transceivers to a single RFID reader in a specific location. Every transceiver can be set at a different angle to receive RFID tag signals from any angle, which can solve the problem of the reception reliability. The problem that results from adopting multi-transceivers is that the signal dispatch and integration of channel transmission, requires increased complexity of software development. Setting up a multi-transceiver for every RFID reader requires tags should be able to be picked up at least one transceiver within the reactive range. When two or more transceivers sense a certain tag, the reactive signal in time difference can define the moving direction of tagged objects due to different distance setup for transceivers. For example, when library patrons take periodicals with RFID tag to the second floor from the first floor, the RFID readers can be set up with several transceivers to sense the tag signal within the scope of the two floors. While the library patrons move with circle of transceivers, the transceivers will sense the movement of periodical tags. Such systems can record the moving direction of periodicals and define patrons’ upward or downward movement according to these transceivers’ reaction priority among time intervals. Even the angle makes only one of transceivers active, the final record that periodical appears can be transferred back to the system and later

Figure 3. RFID system modules with multi-transceiver

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information from other transceivers in different locations can assist in judging the moving direction of periodicals.

Usage of TCP/IP connection RS232, the computer serial interface, or universal serial bus (USB), are the main connection interfaces between RFID readers and computer systems to transmit signals. In few cases, RS485 is applied for longer distance and connects with rear host computers by the computer system through network. No matter which kind of connection interfaces is adopted, every RFID reader must connect to the connection port of one computer. Most RFID applications use a one-to-one connection port to communicate with RFID readers through rear equipment. For example, one RFID readers in patron self-check (PSC) machine connects with one rear computer to deal with the process. To achieve the positioning concept in this research, it was necessary to set up many RFID readers within the library and connect several transceivers to every RFID reader. These RFID readers must feedback whether the tag is reactive and convey all signals to one rear host computer for analysis. Therefore, in consideration of the connective way for a longer transmission distance and more RFID readers, the best solution is to use existing network appliances, which not only avoids wiring problems but also solves the connection restraints between RFID readers and computers. On the basis of above analysis, the connection interface between RFID readers and information equipments must include RS232 or USB converters of transferring network signals. Through the test of relevant converter products, the structure of equipment connection in the research implementations is shown in Figure 4. Functional design and process Application modes in this research included three functions: collection seeking and positioning, calculation of access rate, and instant information of shelf location. Because of the cost of equipment, it is not applicable to deploy and set up RFID readers and transceivers in the entire library in order to expect all reactions of library collections anywhere gathered within the library. Therefore, in practice, this research is

Figure 4. Connective structure between RFID reader and rear computers

modified on the basis of RFID reactive characteristics to record the final area of library collections, according to the final transceiver location which senses the library collection, to provide the seeking and positioning functions. Through the planning and analysis in this research and the implementation test, the active diagram of main operational functions is shown in Figure 5. Because the library of Shih-Hsin University is divided into many areas, this research plans to place one RFID reader and proper volumes of transceivers in the entrance and exit of every floor in the library to make sure that at least one or more transceiver senses the signal while patrons carry library items in or out the gate of any floor inside the library. When the transceiver senses the signal, the information system will record the serial number of the RFID reader and the transceiver. When the same entrance and exit the library collections are sensed by two or more transceivers, the system can judge the moving direction of the library collection to provide the detailed moving route according to the reaction priority of several transceivers. Thereafter, if other patrons search the library collection from the automation system, the system can provide the current location of the collection to the patron, according to the information in the database. The calculation of the access and reading rate depends on whether the library items on shelves are continuously sensed by the transceivers which were installed in shelves to calculate the off-shelf frequency and time interval. Current library bibliography in the automatic system records the shelf location according to the call number of the collection. This research utilizes the shelf information from the call number of one collection management system, which periodically drives the RFID readers to collect information on every shelf and to scan the tags of collections within a specific scope. According to the tags, the information system will check the records one by one to see what should be on the shelf. If one tag which should be sensed is not available, it means the collection with the tag are took out by patrons; if it is not sensed before but this time, it means the collection with the tag is returned to the shelf. In order to avoid the case that patrons just temporarily take down and skim the book or periodical without reading the content, the system can calculate its time interval between the record of taking out and the current response timing; if the period is longer than the planned time interval, this is assigned a reading value to calculate reading time. Besides the static environment and relevant equipment, the content of library location introduction often includes the library classified catalog and shelf direction. Due to a vast number of items in the collection and the different kinds of library materials continuously collected, such as books, periodicals, and audiovisuals, the automatic mode can generate location information on everything that is tagged. Depending on the characteristics of sensing all RFID signals within the detectable range in any time by a RFID reader. Patron can take a hand-held device with portable reader to detect all RFID tags of collections can be sensed periodically and calculated in group to attain the major classification number or main class in nearby shelf according to the tag. Through the attained major classification number and the connection with rear automation system by wireless network, the relevant statistics information of those classification numbers can be attained, such as the classified catalog introduction, details of new collections, and loan details of popular collections. If patrons continue move items, the system can continue offering relevant information of category collections about the new locations. In this way, the information source completely depends on the statistics data of the


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Figure 5. Major functional activities in the planned system of this research

automatic system, without librarian doing additional work to process introduction information for guide maps. To sum up this discussion, this research replies on the way that RFID in bookshelves or in gates is reactive or not within a library, corresponding to built-in RFID tags of library collections, to achieve the functional requirements in data seeking and positioning, measurement of access rate, and instant shelf guiding information which is automatically generated.

Conclusion If budgets being tight, it is not cost-efficient for the library to use RFID tags only to replace the functions of barcode. A library should conduct a thorough evaluation in advance basing on the needs and characteristics of its services and collections to estimate the potential benefits of installing an RFID system by investigating the functions already developed by the industry before making the decision. By doing so, the failure risk can be lowered and many innovative applications of such a system may be created. During the implementation, the research found necessary improvement in many portions for equipment suppliers, such as abnormal signals resulted from environmental differences, higher energy of electromagnetic wave in the transient transmission while driving tags by RFID readers, consistency between different production suppliers’ RFID readers and tags. In addition, all specifications of RFID equipments, including chip standards, communication transmission agreements, programming interface, are not completely standardized. The libraries in an early implementation status cannot make sure the specification consistency between early and more recent equipments. The implementation of RFID certainly improves much service efficiency for libraries and increases more diversified applications and service modes. However, regulating necessary standards, processes, and interfaces to fit in with current information systems and extend automatic library operations requires continuous effort. References Bhuptani, M. and Moradpour, S. (2005), RFID Field Guide: Deploying Radio Frequency Identification Systems, Sun Microsystems/Prentice Hall PTR, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Harris, D.B. (1960), “Radio transmission systems with modulatable passive responder”, US Patent 2,927,321. International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) (1998), “Guidelines for limiting exposure to time-varying electric, magnetic, and electromagnetic fields (up to 300 GHz)”, Health Physics Society , Vol. 74 No. 4, pp. 494-522. Kern, C. (2004), “Radio-frequency-identification for security and media circulation in libraries”, The Electronic Library , Vol. 22 No. 4, pp. 317-24. Kleist, R.A. et al. (2004), RFID Labeling: Smart Labeling Concepts & Applications for the Consumer Packaged Goods Supply Chain , Printronix, Irvine, CA. Landt, J. (2001), Shrouds of Time: The history of RFID , AIM Publications, Pittsburgh, PA, available at: www.aimglobal.org/technologies/rfid/resources/shrouds_of_time.pdf Ollivier, M. (1995), “RFID enhances materials handling”, Sensor Review , Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 36-9. Shepard, S. (2005), RFID: Radio Frequency Identification , McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.


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Stockman, H. (1948), “Communication by means of reflected power”, Proceedings of the IRE , Vol. 36 No. 10, pp. 1196-204. Vigoda, B. (1999), “A nonlinear dynamic system for spread spectrum code acquisition”, Master’s thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, available at: http://web. media.mit.edu/ vigoda/thesis.pdf ,

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Vernon, F.L. Jr (1952), “Application of the microwave homologue”, IRE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. AP-4, p. 110. Yu, S.C. (2007), “RFID implementation and benefits in libraries”, The Electronic Library , Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 51-64.

Corresponding author Shien-Chiang Yu can be contacted at: [email protected]

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Implementation of an innovative RFID application in libraries

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