RFID in Libraries

We’ve added another contributor to the blog. Welcome Margaret Hazel. Margaret has first hand experience implementing RFID at a public library and will be a valuable voice for RFID in Libraries.

I’ve made links to contributor bios under the “Authors” permalinks on the left-hand side.

Also please note there is a more detailed editorial policy available under the “About–This blog” section, also on the left-hand side.

I know changes have been slow in coming to this blog and I thank all the readers for their patience. I’m bootstrapping myself about Wordpress. I do not find it intuitive to administer. Add that to the amount of time I have to devote to the blog and, well, changes occur at glacial rate. I do think the additional contributors will help keep the blog entries more current and timely.

My next big administrative task is to get comment and track-backs in functioning order once more. Wordpress does have some comment-spam controls but I’ve got a backlog of spam to clear out. If anybody knows how to do this quickly, give me a ring and hold my hand through the process. I want to see RFID in Libraries become a real community space. Discussion is crucial for that. After I do that, I’ll tackle doing an upgrade to the latest version of WordPress.

Please welcome Lori Bowen Ayre and Mary Minow to libraryrfid.org. Lori and Mary have graciously accepted my invitation to make contributions to the blog. Many thanks to the both of you for widening the perspective of this space and for helping to keep its content current and timely.

Karen Schneider gave me the proverbial (and deserved) lashing with a wet noodle over my poor choice of words regarding the Warfield/Tien vs. Berkeley Public Library tit for tat in the Berkeley Daily Planet. If you’d like more background on just how my original post came to be, you can read my response to it by following the above link.

I encourage anybody who thinks my original post compounded any problems to re-read it substituting “dispute” for “debunk” and they will get my original intent.

I’m off to re-read the dictionary. Thanks to all the etymologists who corrected my usage.

Did you see those pictures of the four houses in Highland Park, CA (a subdivision of L.A.) which are teetering on the brink of a hill? Those happen to be right down the street from my house. I’ve been off work for the past few days because it’s been a bit hairy in my neighborhood. Streets have been filled with mud, homes have been evacuated, etc. The rain has stopped. For now. But the ground is still not quite stable. I may be in and out of work as the storms continue. My updates to the blog, naturally, will be sporadic during this time.

Thanks for your understanding.

I’ve deleted the blog from the old Typepad site. All of the posts from last year were successfully ported to this domain so everything is available from the archives.

I’m off on a work trip for the next three days, so posts will be limited.

Apologies for the lack of posts this week. The server hosting this blog had some problems. Thanks to all of you who sent links to the Christian Science monitor article. Nothing really new there, but it’s an example of the increasing media awareness of RFID.

Just wanted folks to know I’m still covering library-related RFID news. It’s been a bit slow. I have not encountered anything noteworthy lately.

I’m back from vacation. I’m inundated with library-related RFID news. It may take me another day to find the time to read through it since I’m also dealing with the jam-packed in-box at work. But there are interesting developments all around. Salon.com did an article about library RFID. The mainstream media is really starting to pick up the topic. I realize it’s had national exposure in the library and computer literature. And there has been local newspaper exposure of individual library installations. I take that back. The readership of Salon.com is probably still saturated with info-techie types.

I’m happy to report that the WordPress installation on libraryrfid.org was a success. I still need to import this Typepad content and grab some design templates to make look a bit better. I have a few free days this month to work on it so it should be up and running very soon.

Stay tuned for reports on:
*Australian library RFID - new privacy guidelines, and the National Library releases an RFP
*A new installation for Bibliotheca
*Microsoft enters the RFID market
*the beta release of RF-DUMP - software for your laptop to read and write tags
*U.S. House Sub-committee hearings on RFID privacy issues
*More developments on RFID-enabled mobile phones

The WordPress install on the domain is going slowly, but my techie friend will continue working on it during my absence. As of 3pm PST today I am off on vacation. I won’t be updating the blog while I’m away — sorry for the extended void. Once we get multiple contributors we can avoid ever going “dark” again.

Good news. I’ve tapped a techie friend to help with porting of this blog to its own domain. This is scheduled to occur on Weds July 6. It will be in testing mode for several days (perhaps weeks?) before the official move. Consider this another early warning that you’ll need to update your bookmarks and/or aggregators to www.libraryrfid.org (not .com — that’s Flashscan’s domain).

Unfortunately the comments area of this blog is getting spammed, so I’ve turned of temporarily turned off that feature. Hopefully I can get a workaround in place soon.

Updates to the blog will be sporadic in the next month. I’m off to ALA and then on to vacation. I’ll have the laptop & wireless card with me but I make no guarentees as to frequency of posting.

I’ve put my subject-to-change schedule below, in case anybody wants to hook up for coffee/drinks/whatnot in Orlando.
(more…)

Due to a late-breaking request to speak about RFID privacy issues to public library trustees, I’m going to be missing the last part of the following session. Would anybody attending the whole session be willing to write a summary for the blog?

Sunday June 27 1:30pm-3:30pm
Tiny Trackers: The Use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology by Libraries and Booksellers
Rosen Centre Hotel, Salon 9/10

Please let me know ASAP.

An astute reader pointed out an error in my post about increased read ranges (many thanks!). That post should have read 11 meters not 11′. Yes, that’s about 33 feet. Do keep in mind that many of these developments pertain to commericial RFID equipment and haven’t yet been implemented by the library RFID vendors. Yet, it is still food for thought.

My to-do list for this blog:

• fix the Netscape problem
• port the site to it’s own domain name under Movable Type
• allow multiple contributors
• link to bibliography of Library RFID publications
• get my blogroll onto the main page (ps — can anybody who knows how to do that send me the instructions? i find the ones at bloglines a bit arcane. thanks!)

Just so you all know what’s in store. No promises on timeline, however.

A thousand apologies for the typos in the last post — serves me right for posting while babysitting a busy toddler. It figures my messy post would be there on the day Jessamyn links to the blog.

Also, apologies to the Netscape users out there. I’ve figured out why the left column isn’t rendering for you folks. It’s going to take me a couple of days to find time to make the fix, so please bear with me.