LIBRARY RFID: A MATURING MARKETPLACE?

BIC's publication this week of guidance on compliance with the new ISO 28560 standard for tag structure and content in library RFID is timely. At long last news has come through that the Final Draft International Standard is about to go out to ballot on a two-month timetable and should be published by the middle of 2011.

It's been an uncomfortable few months for the library RFID community. The standard has been disgracefully delayed by purely editorial matters - it's been technically stable for a year or so - and though some libraries have been asking for full compliance with it in their tender documents it hasn't been easy for suppliers to guarantee it.

There are some hopeful signs now. The compliance document spells out exactly what libraries need and suppliers should provide. The RFID Alliance, a grouping of the leading RFID companies, is examining the options for testing compliance. The issues still outstanding from the UK data model - the UK profile of the standard - which BIC published last year are near to being resolved. When that is finalised, we shall be publishing full guidance notes on the use of the data model. And in the new year we shall be publishing - in collaboration with the National Acquisitions Group - an explanatory template for RFID tender documentation to help libraries ask the right questions and get the solutions they want and need.

At the end of this road is a standard for interoperability in library RFID and best practice policies and guidelines which will help the library RFID community to comply with it. That should spell the beginning of the end to the proprietary solutions which have bedevilled the industry since libraries first embraced RFID technology. Not only will libraries have much more freedom of choice in the tags, software and hardware they buy but also open up new opportunities for using RFID to enhance library operations.

BIC AT CILIP'S RFID IN LIBRARIES CONFERENCE

We may be as far away as ever from universal use of radio frequency ID in the trade supply chain, but in the library sector it's now part of the woodwork. CILIP's conference yesterday was the sixth annual event, and although public sector cuts had obviously precluded attendance for some there was still an excellent crowd of interested and committed individuals from the public and academic library communities.

BIC was very much to the fore, with Martin Palmer of Essex Libraries (a member of our operational board) in the chair and our consultants Mick Fortune, Francis Cave and Simon Edwards - and myself - all speaking during the course of the day. The BIC/CILIP RFID in Libraries group has found itself in a pivotal position as the industry moves from the proprietary solutions which have generally prevailed in the past towards a more stable standards-based environment.

Martin Palmer made the point in his closing remarks that all new technologies undergo this shift as they become established and speculated on whether the same may come to be true of the digital supply chain...