Opening address to the London Library RFID conference November 2011

1. Challenges and Opportunities
Looking forward to 2012
Library RFID
Mick Fortune
Library RFID Ltd.

2. Today’s Topics
• Major events of 2011
• What’s “trending”?
• Today’s conference in context
• What lies ahead?
Library RFID

3. Major Events of 2011
• Standards
– major developments
• Suppliers
– consolidation and change
• New RFID products and services
Library RFID
– moving on from circulation
• Publication of procurement guidelines
• Formation of IFLA SIG on RFID

4. Standards
• ISO 28560* published
– UK, Australia and US(partly?) to use part 2
– Scandinavian and Switzerland to use part 3
– Bibliotheca (US) to use both?
• UK data model published
Library RFID
• BLCF published (UK)
• SIP 3.0 due out end 2011
*International data standard for library RFID

5. Suppliers - consolidation and
change
• Bibliotheca merged with ITG (USA) and
Intellident (UK)
• New self-service suppliers began entering
the UK market (from Italy, USA and now…
Turkey?)
Library RFID
• New suppliers using RFID/NFC beginning
to appear (smartphones/smartcards)

6. New RFID products and services
• Moving on from (self-service) circulation
– Smartphones can read RFID tags
– Smartphones/smartcards are being used to
replace membership cards
– Social networking is being linked to stock via
Library RFID
tags
– Stock can now interact directly with other
RFID devices for resource
discovery/exploration

7. Trends? (1)
• RFID Solutions
– Still link to LMS, but changing...?
– Death of LMS being predicted by many
commentators
• New ideas and library applications
Library RFID
beginning to appear that may - or may not
– integrate with existing systems and
services
• The librarian’s task is getting harder!

8. Trends? (2)
• Frequencies
– HF still dominant
• Tags increasingly being seen as “system
components” - not just identifiers
• New applications being built on this philosophy
(e.g. Massachusetts, South Australia)
Library RFID
– UHF still evolving
• Tags still used as identifiers (often using
manufacturer’s ID – not barcode number)
• Often stand-alone
(Moves to support ISO 28560 on UHF could change this over time)

9. Today’s conference in context
• Key themes
– Impact of new standards and protocols on
established/future service provision
– To migrate or not to migrate?
– Integration
Library RFID
• with non-library services
• with other library applications
• with related technologies (e.g. NFC)
• of existing implementations with new solutions

10. What lies ahead?
(A brief exercise in Fortune telling)
• RFID will continue to transition from dumb label
to system component creating more function-
rich applications
• Use of standards will become vital to avoid
multiple tagging (or re-tagging)
• US market will resume leadership of global
Library RFID
library RFID development as standards are
adopted
• RFID suppliers may evolve into the new LMS
providers

11. Takeaways
• Any RFID strategy needs to consider the
technology’s impact on other systems/services
• As RFID-based applications become more
complex, systems integration will become more
critical
• Your chosen supplier may not be an expert on
Library RFID
everything. (They may even be relying on you to
know some of the answers!)

12. Thank You!
…and have a good conference!
Library RFID Ltd.
+44 7786 625544
Library RFID
(If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this presentation please
contact mick@libraryrfid.co.uk. Or read my blog at
www.mickfortune.com/Wordpress)