[MSN] Hamburg Library Moves to RFID.

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Hamburg Library Moves to RFID 

The city's central library and 17 branches will start deploying a system to
manage the circulation of 2 million items per year. Patrons will check
materials in and out themselves.


By Rhea Wessel 

Sept. 20, 2006—Starting in October, public libraries in Hamburg, Germany,
will begin implementing an RFID-based system for checking materials in and
out. The system will be provided by the Danish division of U.K. company FKI
Logistex. 

FKI Logistex won the contract and a 10-year support agreement in a public
tender from the city's public library system, Hamburger Öffentliche
Bücherhallen (HÖB). The firm's Library Mate self-serve check-in and checkout
kiosks will be deployed in Hamburg's central library and 17 city branches,
where about 2 million items are circulated each year. The rollout will start
with the branches, then move to the central library in April 2007. FKI
Logistex expects to finish it next summer. The system will become
operational some time after it is fully deployed. 
  
FKI Logistex's Library Mate self-serve kiosk.  
Patrons and staff at Hamburg's libraries will benefit from faster check-in
and checkout times, more accurate holding information and a better
theft-control system, FKI states. The new RFID application will completely
replace the libraries' current tracking system, which is based on bar codes.


FKI Logistex's system will use passive 13.56 MHz RFID tags to identify and
sort such library materials as books, magazines and DVDs. At the main
branch, patrons will have a choice of seven self-serve stations where they
can check out materials they want to borrow, as well as four stations where
they can check in materials they have finished using. The 17 library
branches will each be equipped with one self-serve kiosk for both check-in
and checkouts, but no sorting function. 

At the branches' self-serve kiosks, all of which are handicap-enabled,
patrons will place materials on a hip-high desk about 80 square centimeters
in size. An RFID interrogator (reader) mounted underneath the desk will read
the unique identification number stored on each passive 13.56 MHz tag. When
items are returned, the computer system will confirm that they belong to the
Hamburg library, and that all returns are complete. A confirmation message
will then pop up on the touch screen in front of the customer, and a receipt
will be printed. 

When the interrogator reads a returned item's RFID transponder, this will
automatically activate an antitheft protection system. Thus, if someone
tries to leave the library with item not checked out, its tag will send an
alert to the exit gate. As part of the project, FKI Logistics is providing
security gates for library exits. 

At the main branch, where the kiosks are attached to the sorter, patrons
will slide items forward and the sorter will pull them in via the belt,
under which is mounted an RFID interrogator. The sorter works with
cross-belts that allow a capacity of 4,500 items per hour. 

"It swallows the items and transports them further to the sorting system,"
says Peter Elmvang, marketing manager for FKI Logistex Europe. 

Items will be sorted according to the requirements requested, and will wind
up neatly stacked on trolleys or in crates, greatly reducing the repetitive
motions usually required by staff, such as bending to pick up stacks of
books. The sorting machine can be as big as 22 meters long, 2 meters wide
and 3 meters high. 

At present, FKI Logistex plans to deploy a total of 41 Library Mate kiosks
each containing one reader per station and up to 2 million transponders.
Tagsys has been identified as the most likely vendor for tags and readers. 

The massive task of applying RFID tags to books, DVDs and CDs is set to
begin in October. The inside back cover of each book will be tagged with a
square adhesive tag label. DVDs and CDs will be tagged with a round
transponder inside a circular label, allowing them to retain the balance
needed to spin properly, and keeping the transponder from interfering with
DVD or CD play. Since discs within a set are tagged individually, the system
can confirm that a complete set has been returned. If discs are missing, a
message to the patron will pop up on the touch screen. 

To check out items, patrons will put their membership cards in a slot, where
their cards' bar-code number will be scanned. They then set their items on a
desk, using guideline markings indicating where the materials should be
placed for optimal reading by the RFID interrogator underneath. 

FKI Logistex's application is up and running in libraries in Denmark and the
United States. The Hamburg installation will be the first FKI Logistex
system to include so many branches.