RFID Follows Art

Dec 16, 2009A collection-management system (CMS) integrated with radio frequency identification technology could allow art galleries and museums to track thousands of valuable items quickly, as well as automatically update movement information.

Smarttrack RFID, which designs track-and-trace systems specifically for museums and art galleries, and Vernon Systems, a CMS developer, will enable users to fast-track collection audits and stock-takes, improve collection preservation through reduced handling, and locate misplaced items quickly.

The integrated system has already been tested at institutions across Australia, including the National Museum of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales and the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) library.

Doug Rogan, Smarttrack's business development manager, says extensive testing was carried out to assess tag readability and the system's functionality with galleries' existing storage systems, which are often quite different.

"In one case, there was a number of matted works on paper stacked on top of each other on a metal shelf," Rogan says. "We tagged each artwork in the stack and had excellent tag-read results, except for the artwork on the bottom of the stack. This was due to its close proximity to the metal shelf. By ensuring sufficient air space—using a sheet of 5-millimeter Corflute [a lightweight corrugated plastic material]—at the bottom of this pile, we resolved this issue."

Other lessons learned included the need for near-field antennas (due to the amount of works on paper stacked on top of each other), and the addition of battery-assisted passive personnel tags to identify object handlers as items were tracked.

RFID has been employed for tracking rare and valuable artworks in the past. In 2007, Kuala Lumpur's National Museum launched a project to track millions of artifacts and relics (see RFID Helps Malaysian Museums Track Artifacts). The museum's staff used an RFID interrogator to register each item in its database and encode information to that item's tag. Once it was returned to its shelf, the item was scanned and its information was linked in the database.

Earlier this year, traveling exhibits manager Arts and Exhibition International began utilizing RFID to protect the treasure of King Tutankhamun's tomb as the artifacts were displayed around the world (see RFID Protects Tut's Treasures). Readers detected signals from each tag, and then transferred the data via an Ethernet connection to the server, where software translated and stored that information.

But Rogan says the Vernon/Smarttrack system will enable museums and art galleries to achieve fully automated collection tracking, while retaining all location information within core collection-management systems.

International Conservation Services (ICS), a New South Wales company that conserves, restores and manages valuable artworks, began using the integrated system to track high-value objects and works on its premises. The project's goal, says Julian Bickersteth, ICS' managing director, is to improve the visibility of all objects and artworks in its care, in order to assist with internal tracking procedures, enhance security and potentially reduce insurance costs.

"The software and hardware provided everything we required, pretty much out of the box, and took just one day to load the software and provide training," Bickersteth states. "It has given us much greater visibility of the objects we hold at any given time. We can be nearly 100 percent certain now that we have an accurate and up-to-date inventory of the objects and artworks that we hold, and where they are, which provides greater clarity about our insurance liabilities."

Bickersteth adds, "We still need to work out the actual dollars, but at this stage, we would expect the return on investment to be at least 100 percent per annum, purely based on staff time savings. In the longer term, we might expect even greater returns if we can persuade our insurers that the system reduces the level of risk to the objects and artworks."

At this stage, ICS has a small set-up, using a single CS101 handheld interrogator from Convergence Systems Ltd. (CSL) and a few hundred ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) EPC Gen 2 tags provided by UPM Raflatac. Tagged objects are read by the handheld reader, which is connected to the network via Wi-Fi. Information is sent to the Smarttrack database server, and all object records with changed locations are written to a movement file. Vernon's CMS reads that file and updates the location information. The new data is then transmitted back to the Smarttrack database in a second movement file.

Information can also be updated while the system is offline. Tagged objects are read by the handheld interrogator, with location changes made using Smarttrack's mobile software. The handheld device is then connected to a PC via USB, to synchronize with the Smarttrack database, where information is then sent as a movement file, as outlined above.

"Items continuously come and go from ICS, so the number of tagged items will vary depending on the objects and artworks we hold at any given time," Bickersteth says. "We will continue to acquire additional tags, and may include Smarttrack portals in a number of high-traffic doorways in the future."

Another organization that is watching the project with interest is New Zealand's Otago Museum, which currently seeks lottery funding to install the system. The organization has been in discussion with Smarttrack about being the first museum in New Zealand to utilize the system, and possibly the largest test site in Australasia.

According to Clare Wilson, the museum's director of exhibitions, development and planning, by adopting the Smarttrack system, Otago Museum would become a market leader in tracking technology, and would act as a reference site for colleagues, both locally and internationally.

"RFID tagging of collections has many benefits in cost, time, efficiency and accuracy of collection management," Wilson explains. "The ability to read many tags at once in a few seconds greatly reduces the time resources needed for collection inventory. Because the tags can be read through many types of packing material, line-of-sight and object handling are not necessary to identify objects. Over time, the saving in staff resources will be enormous, meaning resources can be reallocated to other collection care, conservation and research needs."

Manual record errors would also be reduced, Wilson says, as would the time required to locate any of the 2 million items in the museum's collection. But most important, she notes, the collection's security would be greatly enhanced.

"No object could leave the Otago Museum storage areas without having a change of location updated in the Vernon database automatically," Wilson says. "This report would then be checked for authenticity and approved."

Otago Museum is currently auditing its collection, Rogan indicates, which would be an ideal time to adopt RFID tracking. "They move their collections a lot, for exhibitions, research or loans, and want to automate tracking as it is currently a labor-intensive process," he says. "We would expect it to receive a return on investment within 12 months, based on significantly reduced labor costs associated with tracking objects."

What's more, because it is integrated with the collection-management system, it would avoid problems with the CMS not being regularly updated regarding the movement of items, which can result in location information being weeks or months out of date.

Initially, Rogan says, Otago Museum would have 26 fixed readers throughout its facility, with 100,000 objects tagged initially. But eventually, he adds, 1 million items would likely be tagged.