earticle

영어

The literature has indicated that libraries in developed countries are fast growing early
adopters of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. The adoption of RFID in
supply chain has reported superior growth, spurred by mandate compliance from global
retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target. Numerous tests have been performed in a variety of
supply chain environment to determine the performance requirements, physical
characteristics and limitations to achieve a near 100% read rate. However, the literature is
sparse on reports of performance testing in a library setting, and results from supply chain
testing should be reluctantly applied to other environments. Based on the above, this study
addresses this gap in the literature with the execution of test cases to examine the operational
efficiencies of the inventory reader and the self-check station. The study was conducted at a
university library with a test sample of 200 books of different types. The factors examined
include tag placement, reader orientation sensitivity, read distance, and metal and other
possible sources of electromagnetic interference. Each test case was executed repeatedly and
the accuracy rate was recorded. Additionally, a spectrum analyzer was used to monitor
possible sources of interference. The preliminary findings suggested that mobile phones and
wireless computers have no effect on the performance of the self-check station or inventory
reader. In addition, the preliminary results also suggest that metallic shelves affect the
performance of the inventory reader with reduced read rate accuracy.