RFID

RE: Re: RFID

2009-08-06T20:42:57Z

Any librarian contemplating RFID should read this: Feds at DefCon Alarmed After RFIDs Scanned.

Here's some text:

It’s one of the most hostile hacker environments in the country –- the DefCon hacker conference held every summer in Las Vegas.

But despite the fact that attendees know they should take precautions to protect their data, federal agents at the conference got a scare on Friday when they were told they might have been caught in the sights of an RFID reader.

The reader, connected to a web camera, sniffed data from RFID-enabled ID cards and other documents carried by attendees in pockets and backpacks as they passed a table where the equipment was stationed in full view.

It was part of a security-awareness project set up by a group of security researchers and consultants to highlight privacy issues around RFID. When the reader caught an RFID chip in its sights — embedded in a company or government agency access card, for example — it grabbed data from the card, and the camera snapped the card holder’s picture.

The thing is ... a person can cobble together an RFID reader for less than $50. What he/she can do with the data is extremely important.

Re: RFID

2008-04-25T19:08:22Z

The Instructables on how to block/kill an RFID chip:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-blockkill-RFID-chips/

One good way ... use a hammer!

It's pretty low tech, but I imagine it works. Of course, if you don't really care if you mark it it's easily done with a knife. You just have to cut off the antenna.

Something to ponder, eh?

Re: RFID

2006-10-21T15:22:01Z

Well, not *because* since that implies some cause due to RFID. It's pretty low because we work at it.

(Well, the circ department does. I watch.)

When there have been a couple of errors there's likely to be some double-checking of book trucks. Gets the point across.

Re: RFID

2006-10-20T20:37:11Z

IMNSHO --I like that! I think I neeed to start using that one, she says, not so humbly. ;)

Now you make me wonder what the "error rate" was for most libraries before RFID. Is your error rate so low because you are a non-RFID library?

The articles I cited both refer to scanning multiple items, presumably at the same time. I think our library self-check instructs me to place one item at a time on the scanner pad, but I could be wrong about that. The automated assembly-line belt does an effective job of separating items as they move along, so maybe the error there is minimal.

Re: RFID

2006-10-20T18:48:52Z

Well, the biggest issue for most public libraries (IMNSHO) is making a happy voter.

Said voter is not happy when told he/she has not returned an item that he/she knows very well has been returned. I think our current error rate here is probably a smallish fraction of 1% ... and we'd prefer zero.

10%, here, would be nearly 300 items per day ... something close to 100,000 items this year. Given a population of 35,000, this would mean an average of three major mistakes per person per year ... maybe 10 per family.

I'd be looking for a new job long before then.

But ... maybe the "true figure" is lower in library-specific environments. Or perhaps there are stories out there needing to be told and no one willing to do so.

Yet. :-)

Re: RFID

2006-10-20T18:32:36Z

I just did some of my hasty research on the topic. Since I'm not too savvy about RFID technology, I'm kind of groping, but here's some of what I found.

According to this [url http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/4522 ]Tech News artilce[/url], there can be a 10 - 20 % error rate when scanning multiple tags. It seems like this could apply to libraries with lots of tagged books entering the system at once.

This September '06 article from [url http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/2691/ ]RFID Journal[/url] (the horse's mouth?) confirms that 10 - 20 % rate.

So how do you think this impacts libraries specifically? Is it adding more of the hand-processing that it was supposed to eliminate?

I have to say that it is SO COOL to watch the Seattle PL system as the books come down the conveyor belt into the main processing room, then make the appropriate (we hope) turn onto another belt specific to a delivery destination, and then flip themselves quietly into the bin that aligns with the tag information. Okay, I am easily amused. ;-)

Re: RFID

2006-10-19T17:55:10Z

There hasn't been much action here lately. :-(

Just noting that the local rumor mill has a local public library that went to RFID experiencing a 10% error rate. Oh My!!!!!

I don't know if the rumor's true ... but I haven't seen any real-life (i.e., non-vendor) experience stats.

Maybe someone else has?

Re: RFID

2005-09-01T12:46:16Z

Hey Marcia!
I think I might have handy a few links which you might find useful.

An excellent article by Richard Boss: <a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/pla/plapubs/technotes/rfidtechnology.htm>www.ala.org/ala/pla/plapubs/technotes/rfidtechnology.htm</a>

Best Practices from Berkeley: <a href="http://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/BESTPRAC.pdf>http://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/BESTPRAC.pdf</a>

I also like this blog on RFID in Libraries: <a href="http://libraryrfid.net/wordpress/">http://libraryrfid.net/wordpress/</a>

David Molnar the guru from Berkeley on RFID: <a href="http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~daw/papers/librfid-ccs04.pdf">http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~daw/papers/librfid-ccs04.pdf</a>

This is *sort of* from a vendor, but really from Chicago State University - who posted their "Productivity Bid Specifications" for RFID on their website, it does have the vendors logo on it, however the info is still relevant I think.

And now after searching I can't find it. However if you can find it, it is from CSU and it was on their website recently as a pdf...

Max

Re: RFID

2005-09-01T02:09:14Z

Marcia,

Did you get any replies by email? Please post here!

RFID

2005-08-18T12:57:38Z

We are a mid-size public library with four (soon to be five) branches. We would like to move to an RFID system that integrates both security and circulation functions with our ILS vendor, Dynix (Horizon 7.32).

I am looking for a basic checklist of considerations of what a new RFID system should include. I have started collecting information from various vendors.

If you have such a list, even out of date, and are willing to share it, please either post a link or email me at middlem@uhls.lib.ny.us.

Thank you,

Marcia Middleton