RFID in the library: Economic, social and environmental perspectives

摘要

Although academic research discus that Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has changed from being insignificant to being universally used, many libraries are still slow in adopting the technology. The RFID system allows more efficient and effective processes but there are still a number of concerns related to implementation costs and time, changes to job descriptions, privacy and environment that needs to be considered. This paper presents an exploratory study related to the business value of the RFID system from economic, social and environmental perspectives. The study was conducted in two phases, namely a library survey and confirmatory interviews with the managers of the participating libraries. The key findings indicate a number of benefits across all perspectives (such as greater operational efficiency, improved customer/staff satisfaction, positive changes to staff roles and responsibilities) whereas it seems that full functionality of the system is not fully utilised (e.g. stock management) and some aspects (e.g. environmental) can be strengthened further.