RFID Journal Staff asked 7 years ago Is it true that RFID is a better way than EM strips to secure library assets?
—Miha
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Miha,
Tattle-Tape is designed only to alert you if a book leaves a library without having been checked out. To my knowledge, Tattle-Tape does not identify individual books. It simply tells you that a non-checked-out book was removed. I have not seen it in action, but given that the strips go across a book's entire spine, I would assume it works well in triggering alarms.
RFID is being used in libraries, but it plays a much bigger role than Tattle-Tape. It can sound an alert if a book passes a gated exit without being checked out, like Tattle-Tape, but it can also tell you which book was removed since it identifies every book, DVD, CD and other item in the library. RFID is also used to speed up the checkout process, enable self-checkout, perform inventory counts of all books in a given section or the entire library, and allow librarians to quickly find a book out of place.
In other words, RFID can help you manage a library more efficiently and effectively, and also let you know if a book is removed without being checked out, whereas Tattle-Tape can only tell you the latter. I hope this answers your question.
—Mark Roberti, Founder and Editor, RFID Journal
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