There's one thing that has always always bothered me about libraries and that's how ridiculously easy it is to steal from them. I found this out at an early age. I was sitting in the school library completely absorbed in reading (I think it was a Tamora Pierce novel, one of the Circle of Magic books maybe) when I was startled by the bell. I stuffed the book in my bag and ran off to catch the bus since missing the bus was a particular issue for me. By particular, I mean particularly recurrent. I finished the book at home and promptly forgot about it. When I did remember it, I realized it was now way overdue since I checked it out a month ago. (This is another particularly recurrent issue of mine. Also, why I never ever have change.) I turned it in with a heavy heart and shamefacedly shied away from the library for a few days until boredom got the best of me. When I finally faced the music and asked about my fine, I was surprised to find I never had one. I had never checked it out in the first place. I had this book for probably over a month and there were no repercussions. I wisely accepted my good luck and never spoke to anyone about it out of guilt.
The thing that gets me to this day is that the library had security sensors. I only knew what they were from my dad tripping them at stores all the time (because he has magnetized steel toed shoes, not because he was a thief, at least I don't think so). They never went off. The librarian didn't seem surprised that they wouldn't. They were useless sensors on purpose! Dummy sensors!
I digress. It makes my skin crawl to think that people are stealing things they can generally check out for free. It seems like the ultimate abuse of privileges. So any technology that improves the level of graft in public libraries makes me a happy camper. Hence the following video thing. It is another commercial video (though this is actually a slide show I guess) that displays why we should all buy RFID tag systems, but it goes further into depth with some of the technology talked about in previously videos as well as some technical information that might be more interesting/decipherable to people more technologically minded than myself. It also takes anti-theft measures to insane levels which I thoroughly enjoyed. I want to work at the library that employs facial recognition software!
References
Bhargava, H., Campbell, A., Das, A. M., Haines, B., Kleinschmidt, &
J.Thornton, F. (2006). RFID security. Rockland, MA: Syngress Publishing.
Pandian, M. P. (2010). RFID for
libraries: A practical guide. Oxford: Chandos.
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