RFID

The Berkeley Public Library has affixed to every item in its collection an RFID tag. (RFID = radio frequency identification) Yes, in daily shifts we all stripped the silvery radio transmitting i.d. stickers from their slick backing and pressed them onto the covers of the books. (I wasn’t involved in affixing the RFID “doughnuts” to the CDs and DVDs or the long strips that went into the VHS tape cases.) It was a big chore, took months, but the idea was that patrons would take over the check out process. The library had too many people doing the same simple tasks over & over and getting repetitive stress injuries. And, frankly, check out is boring. I sure don’t mind having the patrons handle it so I can do other projects – or have time to answer informational questions.

When the RFID check out machines work they’re great. And when they don’t?

It ain’t much fun. I suppose it’s not much different than when we were supposed to check out every item to every patron. But now that we’re not supposed to do that we are assigned other tasks. A new and popular service, for instance, is the option of calling a book on the shelf at West Branch to Claremont Branch (or any branch). We search the shelves for between ten and twenty such requests twice each day. Didn’t do that this morning at Claremont. The self-checkout machines were down.

Perhaps as a consequence every library item that went out the door set off the RFID gates. EEP, they squeaked again & again. The lady holding one book I’d just checked out to her using the staff RFID checkout machine would look over her shoulder at me. And I’d say, “It’s OK. Go on through.”