Dutch book supplier RFID labels to all new books to enable automatic tracking of books within libraries
The Netherlands — August 26, 2004 — NBD|Biblion, which delivers 2.7 million books annually to Dutch libraries, said that in March of this year it decided to integrate 13.56 MHz radio frequency identification (RFID) labels into all the books the company supplies.
The item-level RFID labeling project is now underway and is entirely supported by NBD|Biblion, with no extra cost for the libraries.
According to NBD|Biblion, UPM Rafsec is providing half of all the labels required by the company with over one million RFID labels delivered to date.
NBD|Biblion said it aims to stimulate the use of RFID tagging in libraries, where the technology enables fully automated check in/out and inventory management. The chip within the RFID tag stores a unique ID code that can be used to identify and track the book. The tag can be read at a distance with a fixed or portable RFID reader without the need for line-of-sight.
To tag new books, NBD|Biblion installed two automated applicators that print, encode and apply RFID labels to the new books. The company is also offering, as an added service to its customers, the possibility of tagging existing collections of unlabeled books in order to migrate their entire collections to RFID-based library management solutions.
UPM Rafsec said it specializes in the production and development of card, ticket and label transponders based on RFID technology. Founded in 1997, UPM Rafsec's headquarters and research and development are located in Tampere, Finland, and the production plant in Jyväskylä. In addition, UPM Rafsec has sales offices in the United States, Netherlands, Japan and Singapore.
