Home LITA Membership LITA Interest Groups RFID Technology Midwinter Meeting Minutes

GROUP: RFID Interest Group

CHAIR: Connie Haley/Lynne Jacobsen

REPORTER: Connie Haley/Lynne Jacobsen

EMAIL: chaley@csu.edu

CONFERENCE: midwinter

MEETING: Interest Group business meeting

ATTENDEES: 41

CURRENT ACTIVITIES: The RFID chairs outlined suggestions for the group's strategic plan. The goals discussed included:

1. Promotes and provides continuous learning opportunities nationally and internationally for librarians.
   
   
2. Promotes discussion of the critical issues of RFID technology in libraries.

The group submitted a proposal to provide a program at the ALA annual conference to educate librarians about RFID. Speakers of the ALA annual are RFID experts from Europe, Asia and US. They will discuss RFID from an international perspective followed by a session of Question & Answer. There was much discussion on whether to broaden the scope to include RFID from other industries, such as the retail industry. Various industries use RFID in different ways. However, because libraries must decide how to best use RFID and because standards are still being created, the argument was made that libraries need to be informed about developments in other industries and other countries. The discussion revealed that there is much confusion about how RFID works. Will library tags go off in another setting such as a grocery store? The answer is AFI ­ Application Family Identifier. The AFI is used to distinguish among tags using different numbering schemes and/or different RFID applications.

For example, a library DVD with a library AFI (checked out ­ value of 0x9D) will not trigger the alarm system at BlockBuster, and vise versa. This AFI identifier allows for more efficient and accurate use of tags in a global, multi RFID applications environment. There is a need to sort out the differences between RFID use in the retail industry and in libraries. Now is the time to include this information in a program to help libraries meet the challenges of implementing RFID and to guide the creation of standards.

FUTURE ACTIVITIES: The group's third strategic plan will be added to the annual business meeting, which is to promote RFID standardization, including RFID data model, standard vendor software, etc. The RFID IG will have its business meeting at both ALA annual and midwinter. The RFID IG suggested running a standing program titled "RFID In Libraries" for ALA annual with various subtitles as long as the RFID IG exists. We will share our experience at the business meeting, including round robin reports from various RFID groups, oversea libraries and publishers, along with a panel discussion of critical issues. The group decided to elect a new vice chair informally when current vice chair becomes a chair after ALA annual. The RFID IG chairs will contact ALA/LITA to create a RFID listserv and/or blog to keep members informed and to archive the information.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: At the RFID IG meeting there was a panel discussion of critical issues. The panel members included Vinod Chachra, VTLS, Paul Sevick, 3M, Emmett Erwin, Bibiotheca, Pat Stevens, NISO, Shai Robkin, Integrated Technology Group, Frank Mussche, Libramation, Gary Kirk, TechLogic, Paul Simon, Checkpoint, and Jim Lichtenberg, Lightspeed. RFID Interest Group Connie Haley (chair) and Lynne Jacobsen (vice chair) led the discussion, which addressed what information should go on a RFID tag, the structure of data models, standards, technological developments, costs, problems with metal, and finally shared experiences.