03-10-2012, 01:46 PM
RFID Based Library Management System
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Abstract :
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a new generation of Auto
Identification and Data collection technology which helps to automate business
processes and allows identification of large number of tagged objects like books,
using radio waves. RFID based Library Management system (LMS) would allow
fast transaction flow for the library and will prove immediate and long term
benefits to library in traceability and security. The proposed system is based on
UHF RFID readers, supported with antennas at gate and transaction sections, and
library cards containing RFID-transponders which are able to electronically store
information that can be read / written even without the physical contact with the
help of radio medium. This paper presents the experiments conducted to set up
RFID based LMS.
INTRODUCTION
RFID technology is being implemented in a number of industries. Supply chain
implementation is perhaps one of the most frequently mentioned applications of RFID tags
and equipment. Retailers such as “Wal-Mart” and grocery stores such as “Albertson’s”
have begun to make it mandatory for their suppliers to tag merchandise destined for their
stores. There is, however, a key difference to the library’s inventory as compared to that of
a warehouse or a retail outlet. In the warehouse and retail supply chain, goods come in and
leave. Only occasionally are they returned. The retail sector is looking at RFID as a "throwaway"
technology that hands an item to a customer which gets discarded. Yet the item wise
unit cost of including an RFID tag is much more than the cost of printing a barcode on a
package. In libraries, items are taken out and returned many times. Thus the same RFID tag
is re-used many times. [1]
The libraries across the globe started to use RFID to speed up the self check in/out
processes, to control the theft and to ease the inventory control in library. The barcode
technology is slowly getting replaced by the RFID technology. The RFID tag does not have
to be visible for detection. It can be read even when it is embedded in an item, such as in
the cardboard cover of a book or in the packaging of a product. It can also store data such
as stack number, accession number, book number, author information etc., but barcode is
limited to just an identification number. The paper presents the study taken and
corresponding experiments conducted for integrating RFID to existing LMS of CDAC.
The remaining sections of this paper are organized as follows: Section II describes about
Library, the tasks involved in that, problems faced by librarians and RFID’s role in
automating some of the tasks of library, Section III describes about the technical
specification of the hardware and tags used in project (RFID based LMS), Section IV
describes about the modules developed in project, Section V describes about the
experiments conducted to find out the proper tag position in book and Section VI describes
about the benefits of the project.
Reasons for choosing UHF in Library Application
UHF technology was chosen for library application due to its long read range, speed of
frequency and low cost. The read range of mercury 4 reader is up to 2 meters, which is
sufficient to monitor the movement of books across the gates. The read range of psionteklogix
handheld reader is up to 30 cms which will be useful for locating a particular book
in a rack. With the new EPC Global Gen 2 standard, over 1000 tags can be read per second
in applications where they are insulated from RF noise.
Monitoring Module
The Monitoring System (fig 4) will be installed at the gates of the library to monitor the
incoming/outgoing bags continuously. The System will communicate with the Mercury 4
RFID reader through socket using RQL. The reader scans the RFID tags attached with the
books and library member cards and will send the tag IDs to the monitoring system which
in turn will save that information in database with timestamp. The system differentiates the
book IDs and library member IDs by checking the format of the ID value. There is an
instant display system which will continuously display the movement of
incoming/outgoing books/library-members. The System alarms the librarians whenever
there is a movement at the gates without prior issue.
Searching Module
The interaction of searching module is given in fig.5. Once a user has located a resource
within the catalog, they must then utilize navigational guidance to retrieve the resource
physically; a process that may be assisted through RFID tagging. Using RFID tags to track
library books could increase security and ease laborious stock takes. The RFID tag attached
with the books contains the book number. The books will be searched with the help of the
RFID handheld reader using any of the parameters like book no, book name, author name
and publisher name.
If the book no. is directly given as a searching parameter, the client s/w will start locating
the book immediately. The beep sound will be given as soon as the particular book is
identified. If other parameters like book name, author name and publisher names are given
as a searching condition, then the client s/w communicates with the server program to get
the required book id from database by matching those parameters. If more than one book,
are satisfying the search condition, then the librarian will be asked to select a particular
book among those books.
Conclusion
RFID in the library speeds up book borrowing, monitoring, books searching processes and
thus frees staff to do more user-service tasks. But the performance varies with respect to
the vendors of RFID readers and tags. The efficient utilization of the technology also
depends upon the information to be written in tag. Experimental results with respect to
effectiveness of RFID reader position, tag position are presented in the paper. The work is
in progress to setup the same in CDAC library. Developments in RFID technology
continue to yield larger memory capacities, wider reading ranges, and faster processing.