Empirical Research on Automation and Laborsaving of Library Work

RFID标签(ID Tag)是即将到来的普适计算时代的一项核心IT技术。它具有非接触式通信、大内存、免电池等特点。它将用于几乎所有已提供磁卡的服务。随着ID标签的普及，将实现ID标签的标准化、性能提高和价格降低。图书馆是RFID技术的一个很有前途的应用领域。图书馆的工作，特别是图书资料的处理，既费时又费力。为了研究ID标签对图书馆工作的影响，我们在九州大学图书馆集市分馆安装了RFID标签系统，以调查ID标签对图书馆工作的影响。这是一个与一些ID标签制造商合作进行的项目。我们首先在大约5,000本书上贴上13.56 MHz的标签。结果我们知道，检查5000本书大约需要1.5个小时，大约比使用条形码检查快20到30倍。此外，我们知道使用自助结账机可以缩短结账时间。我们也认识到了一些问题，如灵敏度在取向上的变化和金属的存在。这些问题应该通过技术改进和操作改进来避免。2004年3月，新的Chikushi图书馆大楼额外安装了2万个ID标签。我们将继续在该图书馆进行研究，探讨RFID技术对中型图书馆的影响以及图书馆ID标签的标准化。

RFID tag(ID tag) is a core IT technology in the coming ubiquitous computing era. It has great features such as contactless communication, big memory, battery-less and so on. It will be used virtually all services that have been provided with magnetic card. The standardization, improvement of performances, and reduction of price of ID tags will be achieved along with popularization. Library is a promising application field for RFID technology. The library work, especially dealing with books and materials, is time and labor-consuming. Reduction of time for inventory and number of counters will be a great benefit for libraries.We have installed a RFID tag system to the Chikushi branch library of Kyushu University Library in order to investigate the effect of the ID tags to library jobs. This is a project has been carried out in a collaboration with some ID tag makers. We started by attaching 13.56MHz tags to about 5,000 books. As the results we know that it takes about 1.5 hours to check 5,000 books, which is about 20 to 30 times faster than checking by using barcode. Also, we know that the checkout time can be reduced by using self-checkout machines. We have also recognized some problems such as sensitivity varies in orientation and in existence of metal. These problems should be avoided by technological improvement as well as operational improvement.In March, 2004,additional 20 thousand ID tags have attached and placed in the new Chikushi library building. We will continue our research in this library and investigate the effect of RFID technology to the middle sized libraries and standardization for ID tags for libraries.