RFID and the LMS – why do you need both?

As we have seen, RFID – at least currently – is not a self-contained library product. It simply provides an alternative method of accessing an LMS, enabling library staff and customers to exploit the benefits of the technology – no need for line of sight, rapid read of multiple items – and so making the LMS more user friendly and able to carry out a wider range of tasks.

Some library managers have queried why, if this is the case, RFID has to be developed in a specific way for application in libraries if it simply provides what is a ‘front end’ to an existing technology – and some of them, to a greater or lesser degree, have been successful; for example, through the use of generic terminals for self-service.

Others have questioned the split between RFID and LMS, and wondered why suppliers do not simply integrate the technologies into one product – an RFID-enabled LMS. There are certainly examples of companies that provide both technologies – VTLS in the USA, and DS in the UK being two companies that supply both LMS and RFID systems, although their provision of one does not preclude supply of the other by another company. Similarly, some LMS suppliers have formed strategic partnerships with RFID suppliers, and vice versa, but have understandably not limited themselves to those liaisons, as their existing customers may well wish to choose a system that falls outside such arrangements.

Either way, it is very likely at present that most libraries will have to deal with two different companies (at least) when installing an RFID system. The reason for this perhaps relates rather more to the current commercial state of the library technology market than to the technology itself. It would be possible to develop a fully integrated RFID-enabled LMS, but it appears to require a level of investment and development which neither LMS nor RFID suppliers currently wish, or are able, to contemplate.