RFID's - Book Tagging, etc.

[Alan Ramsbottom]

Kit Lane wrote:

> I can also see there being serious issues with every library book
> keeping a record of every borrower ever (I already know some
> libraries keep some statistics - but they are generally kept simply
> for tracing damage to stock / some usage patterns or book-age
> figures)
>
> Any thoughts?

Yup, to figure out what I'd been reading you'd need to take every book
off every shelf of every branch (not forgetting books that are out on
loan, in storage somewhere or touring the county in one of those mobile
library thingies), throw them at RFID readers, collect all the data
together and scan it for my borrower number.

It's clearly easier to maintain that data as items are checked out. Many
library circulation systems already support 'loan history' (e.g. who's
borrowed Applied Crytography) as well 'borrower history' (e.g. what Kit
Lane has borrowed). I'm not sure how far back those go but a
non-Orwellian reason for maintaining a lengthy history is when books are
selected for 'housebound' library users i.e. so they don't get given the
same book twice.

-Alan-