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NISO Issues RFID Best Practices Document

Baltimore, MD -- January 16, 2008 -- The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) has issued RFID in US Libraries, containing Recommended Practices to facilitate the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) in library applications. The scope of the document is limited to item identification--that is, the implementation of RFID for books and other materials--and specifically excludes its use with regard to the identification of people. RFID in US Libraries (NISO RP-6-2008), which is freely available from the NISO website (www.niso.org), was prepared by NISO's RFID Working Group, chaired by Dr. Vinod Chachra, CEO of VTLS Inc., and composed of RFID hardware manufacturers, solution providers (software and integration), library RFID users, book jobbers and processors, and related organizations. Members of the Working Group included: Livia Bitner (Baker & Taylor), Brian Green (EDItEUR), Jim Lichtenberg (Book Industry Study Group), Alastair McArthur (Tagsys), Allan McWilliams (Baltimore County Public Library), Louise Schaper (Fayetteville Public Library), Paul Sevcik (3M Library Systems), Paul Simon (Checkpoint Systems, Inc.), and Marty Withrow (OCLC).
"The RFID Working Group took on a very difficult challenge," said Todd Carpenter, NISO Managing Director. "The best outcome would be one that achieves true interoperability while protecting personal privacy, supporting advanced functionality, facilitating security, protecting against vandalism, and allowing the RFID tag to be used in the entire lifecycle of the book and other library materials."

Dr. Chachra noted, "I believe that our working group has met this difficult challenge and addressed the issues mentioned by Todd Carpenter. The new NISO RFID Data Model helps achieve interoperability within the library industry and application isolation across industries. The model is flexible and extensible, allowing for future innovations. I am very proud of the members of the working group for their significant contributions and their willingness to compromise for the common good of all libraries. As a result, the model provides an excellent framework for international cooperation."

The NISO recommendations for best practices aim to promote procedures that do the following:

  • Allow an RFID tag to be installed at the earliest point and used throughout the lifecycle of the book, from publisher/printer to distributor, jobber, library (shelving, circulating, sorting, reshelving, inventory, and theft deterrence), and interlibrary loan, and continuing on to secondary markets such as secondhand books, returned books, and discarded/recycled books.
  • Allow for true interoperability among libraries, where a tag in one library can be used seamlessly by another, even if the libraries have different suppliers for tags, hardware, and software.
  • Protect the personal privacy of individuals while supporting the functions that allow users to reap the benefits of this technology.
  • Permit the extension of these standards and procedures for global interoperability.
  • Remain relevant and functional with evolving technologies.

About the National Information Standards Organization (NISO)
NISO fosters the development and maintenance of standards that facilitate the creation, persistent management, and effective interchange of information so that it can be trusted for use in research and learning. To fulfill this mission, NISO engages libraries, publishers, information aggregators, and other organizations that support learning, research, and scholarship through the creation, organization, management, and curation of knowledge. NISO works with intersecting communities of interest and across the entire lifecycle of an information standard. NISO is a not-for-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). More information about NISO is available on its website: www.niso.org.

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