Radio-frequency identification (RFID) has been used for decades in other industries, like in car manufacturing and for commercial use as anti-theft systems. And while the technology could have applications in the book supply chain, it has never been put into practice. This month's host, Elizabeth Barker, and BookNet Canada Bibliographic Manager Tom Richardson discuss RFID's potential for tracking books and why the book industry will never adopt them.
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Transcript
Elizabeth: Hello, I'm Elizabeth Barker, your host for another discussion on dream identifiers. You might remember my episode from last March about ISNI, the International Standard Name Identifier, which has the potential to revolutionize the way we keep track of copyright and creative works, and could be easily adopted into the current framework of the industry. And yet no one is using it.
So why another instalment on identifiers that aren't being widely used? Because talking about identifiers is an outlet for my love of organization without coming into direct conflict with my dis-passion for cleaning.
This month's topic has been around for nearly a century, though not quite in its current form. But it has yet to make a lasting impression in the book industry, though other industries have seen its value. I'm talking about RFIDs, and because I'm talking about RFIDs, I've persuaded Tom Richardson, BookNet Canada's Bibliographic Manager, to join me for this month's episode.
I hope you're ready for some nerdy analogies to explain science. If so, let's get started.
Whether you know it or not, you've seen RFIDs at work — your work most likely. Fobs and ID cards are both examples of functioning RFID technology. You can expand that to leisure activities (and I use this with the loosest definition of the word) like running marathons to keep track of runners' times (usually it's in the bib). In the medical industry, RFIDs can be used to keep track of supplies or even if a employee has washed their hands. (I mean, you could get around that by waving your wristband in front of the faucet with the water running, but why go through all that trouble?) It's not a perfect technology but it's found uses across industries, including the book industry–if you've ever tried to steal a library book (and if you have, for shame, don't do that), RFIDs are sometimes embedded in the spine and give off a signal if a book is being booknapped. You'll also see it applied in warehouses in order to keep track of stock.
This is because it identifies unique data, which means you can track individual items amongst the bulk. If it had had different applications in the 40s, the crate in the final scene of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark would have lead to a tag attached to it that would have led to a better sequel.
Arguably the first applied use of RFIDs came in 1930s Britain. Known as IFF back in the day, (literally Identify Friend or Foe, the best identifier name of all time), British airplanes were equipped with a device that received and then transmitted back signals obtained from radar stations when they came within range. This would alert those on the ground whether a plane was a friend or a foe.
Uses for radiofrequency communications began to emerge from labs around the world, from the United States to Japan throughout the 50s and 60s. This was quickly followed by companies harnessing the technology for commercial use (such as anti-theft systems). Around the 70s, patents began popping up for both active systems (where a transponder relays a new signal when awoken, thus needing an energy source) and passive systems (where a transponder reflects a received signal). Many of these focused on uses in the car industry. The US government was more ambitious, though it also focused on cars–well trucks, for transporting and tracking nuclear items.
They all followed the same basic structure and used the following two elements: a tag (or transponder) that can receive a signal (and emit, as in the case of active systems) using an antenna, and a reader that can pick up the radiofrequency and transform it into readable/interpretable data. The system type and level of frequency determines effective use, and we'll quickly go over some of the differences in a moment, but please bear in mind that this is a fairly brief overview of a multi-faceted identifier and if you're interested, you should visit some of the sources we've listed in the episode notes.
So, the three frequencies types are low, high, and ultra-high.
Sometime in the 70s, low-frequency RFIDs began being used in the agriculture industry as a way to keep track of whether or not cows had been medicated. Animal tracking and identification is still the main use of low-frequency RFIDs to this day, primarily because low-frequency tags (usually in the range of 125 KHz and 134 KHz) can penetrate thin metallic materials and aren't impeded by high water content. Though they have long wavelengths, they have short ranges and need to remain relatively close the reader. If we were to quantify RFIDs with levels of magic powers–and I think we should–low-frequency RFIDs would be Sabrina the Teenage Witch-style of magic (and I'm talking the 90s Sabrina here) where it's a swish and point. You need eyes on it, but you can do some pretty neat things in the surrounding area, like unlock your car, identify humans and animals, keep track of items on sale or on the floor, etc.
Of course, you can go to the next level: high-frequency RFIDs (operating around 1.75 MHz to 13.56 MHz). These are what you'd find it you tried to commit the heinous crime of stealing library books. They're not as waterproof as their low-frequency counterparts, but the range increase makes up for it (up to about a metre). These are commonly used for transit tickets and general data transfers. This is more the Bewitched method of magical management. A swish of the nose from inside the kitchen and Gladys witnesses something strange on Stephen's front lawn.
Then we come to the ultra-high frequencies, which would seem better in every capacity except they're highly susceptible to electromagnetic interference from water, metals, basically everything the other tags can work around. However, these are the tags used in warehouses, as they can read multiple items at once and have a much larger range (up to 50 ft). They also read things faster, so they are often selected for processes that high-frequency tags could also perform. Here we're getting into the three witches of Macbeth territory, who just seem to know what is, was, and will be all at once.
Ultra-high frequency operates at 433 MHz and 860 to 960 MHz, which seems like a lot of radiation to be around, but there's one key factor to this: Radiofrequency radiation is not what you think. Yes, it is radiation–but it's non-ionizing radiation which means it's not "radioactive." There is no possibility of turning into the Hulk, but, of course, that's not to deter anyone from researching further if using RFIDs is of interest.
Now, I've only touched on its applications for the book industry, and that's because I wanted Tom Richardson, my colleague and knowledge machine, to weigh in on why this identifier, with all this history and potential, hasn't been able to extend its waves into the publishing industry like it has in the car or big data worlds.
Elizabeth: Thank you. I have some questions for you. What are your initial thoughts on RFIDs? Yeah.
Tom: Well, the ability to identify a book as a book is kind of a fundamental business problem. I mean, for warehousing, retail, libraries. So, tracking inventory is important, and if you add in credit cards and loyalty cards, phones, and so on, identification at a distance, you can...tracking of people into this is another type of inventory. Arguably, radio frequency tags can be a useful tool on this.
I mean, the only actual application I know of is Amazon seems to be experimenting with all of this in their Amazon Go stores where in addition to cameras and machine learning, some type of radio-frequency tagging is being employed. So, I guess if you'd like to buy products encased in pre-weight plastic containers along with other packaged goods without any human contact with a store representative, this is a good thing.
But fundamentally, I think it's...tagging's a good solution for big things like big warehouses, big retail, and big data and publishing with its bespoke product where for even large multinationals, the individual products sell and compared to these small numbers. The use case is pretty limited. Services around publishing, distribution, and retail probably can find it useful. And of course, libraries were early adopters of it. I can remember adding security strips to books and magazines in the early '80s.
Elizabeth: Tell me about the... Well, I mean, it makes sense, because for a library, you have to return the product, right? Like, that book is only out for a short period of time. So, there's be constant use. But when you're buying a book, theoretically you're taking it home. So, outside of a warehouse, there's not really much need, right?
Tom: Well, unless you were embedding information into the radio frequency tag and the consumer could use it, but they can't.
Elizabeth: Do you mean, like, you know, how when you're in a parking lot and you lose your car, and then you have to hit, like, the fob, and then it goes "boop-boop," and you're, like, "Oh, I parked in the itchy lot." So, could we do that for books where they just all of a sudden, like, light up and burst open to the page you left off on?
Tom: You could in theory, but, I mean, that would require probably people to at least have an app on their phone that would allow them to interact with your product. Now, how many people are going to install an app on their phone to allow them to interact with your radio frequency tags? You would have to have something very impressive on the other side of that tag.
Elizabeth: I don't know a book bursting open, would be kind of amazing. That is the bookmark of the future.
Tom: Okay. Honestly, I cannot see an actual application... I don't know how much... I know that radio frequency tags can contain a lot more information than, say, just an ISBN. But if that really can do anything, I mean, it just, you know, reflects some data back to its point of...anyway...
Elizabeth: Well, that's the problem. I've done all this research. I've read up on RFIDs. I think they're neat in themselves, but within the book industry, I'm very hard-pressed to find any sort of need with physical books outside of the initial stock, keeping track of stock.
I mean, for even ebooks, I don't really see, I mean, I guess if there's something on the tablet, but everyone uses a different device. You can't say with any certainty that everyone's going to use their phone and nor would they want their reading device necessarily tracked. I mean, maybe you do, I don't want to assume for you, but I certainly don't want more tracking.
Tom: But, okay. Okay. No, again, I don't really know enough about radio frequency tags to know 100% this for sure. And I'm sure that one could be set up to reflect a phone, because if you can set it up to the Presto can surely somebody else can do that, too, one way or another. But what would it be getting back and how would it be useful to the consumer?
Elizabeth: No, exactly. It wouldn't be. This is the point. It's so neat, but it's also limiting, because I, again, like, you don't need to... I think the problem with RFIDs is we're so immersed in this sort of tracking mentality that it's used to keep track of to find something that we can't really think outside the box and nor do we need to. I just, I don't know.
Tom: Well, I mean, I don't think it would be an inappropriate use of radio frequency tags as far as I know.
Elizabeth: Agreed.
Tom: So, okay. And the real reason I would think that more than anything else is I have yet to meet a publisher who is willing to spend the time and effort to put something very complex into the metadata for a very specific purpose. And I do not see a use case that would make a publisher spend that time here.
Elizabeth: So, I mean, outside of not coming up with ideas for them, but do you think cost of these are an issue? Because you do have to buy in bulk. There is an economy of scale. Do you think that one of the reasons that it wasn't adopted outside of the ISBN is that there is a cost associated? Well, more so than the ISBN. The ISBN costs money too.
Tom: Okay. I mean, video frequency tags need to... I mean, the minimum is stock arrives, the tag has to be added, unless it was added in the manufacture, which is always possible. Data has to be embedded in it in order for it to be meaningful. That could be as, you know, a relatively simple process, or it could be complicated. I don't know. I suspect it would be relatively simply done.
And then at a later stage there has to be some benefit for it being there. So, if you're talking to the warehouse, you know, tagging gets added, you know where the stock is because of that. Later the stock has moved around. You know it got moved because it's recorded, you know, like, in effect relatively remotely. You can always find the object and the object will be tracked throughout its time in your warehouse. That's a use case. That makes sense.
In a retail store similarly, you could stick a product in at one end, and then when it comes to checkout or a quick inventory or a variety of things, there could be an increase of time. I mean, if you're using scanners you would have to pick the book up, flip it over, scan the book, the radio frequency tag. You would walk past and perhaps with a wave or a scanner at something, and it would be enough to do it. There will be a difference of, what, a second and a half between the two events, and if enough volume's required you could save money. I don't know of many bookstores that need that savings. I don't know of many warehouses... I know warehouses, I think the use case is probably better, but I don't really... Scanning does it all.
Elizabeth: Yeah. And that's true. I mean, I guess if you look at something like Amazon's warehouse, which is the size of a small country, most of the time, losing track even with scanners is something that probably needs to be addressed. But in terms of your average bookstore, like brick and mortar size, I don't see much use of... I don't know.
Tom: Well, I don't know. We should be talking about hot technology that QR codes.
Elizabeth: We have credible information that within the Asian market, QR codes are super-hot right now and always.
Tom: Well, again, I mean, okay, what is the difference between radio frequency tag and a QR code? I mean, it's halfway between a barcode scan and a radio frequency tag. And the difference between them would be is you can embed more information into QR code or direct...link directly to the interweb.
Elizabeth: Well, I always thought of it more as a QR code will lead you to something digitally, whereas an RFID will actually lead you to something in the physical world.
Tom: Yeah. I don't know what the difference would be.
Elizabeth: That's how I understood it.
Tom: Well, I mean, I always just understood it as a radio frequency tag is sitting there embedded in an object doing nothing until somebody sends a radio frequency to it whereupon it reflects back information.
Elizabeth: Well, that's if it's active. There's a passive one, too.
Tom: What that information is... What...the difference between information being reflected back from what you might get from a QR code.
Elizabeth: Well, I mean the reflection is a passive... There's also active RFIDs where they create a whole new signal, and they send that out. So, I mean...
Tom: Okay. Then you have to have your book attached to a battery.
Elizabeth: Okay. So, I thought, okay, my next question actually had to do with big-sky ideas. And I kind of thought of a couple recently, and it has to do with libraries, because libraries are wonderful things, and I always talk about them.
But I was thinking about it and there's this article in the states right now circulating about someone hiding all of the books about, basically, it was, like, gun rights and things like...or, like, gun legislature for... I can't remember. Basically, they're books that are inconsistent with far-right ideologies.
But aside from political issues, hiding books or books ending up in the wrong spot, if we had RFID that didn't just track the book when it exited the library, but where it actually was on the shelf, it could maybe make a library staffer's life a lot easier, because they wouldn't have to...and even lead patrons to books automatically. Would that not be kind of a fun use of these things, or would you think it'd be too big data too, like, big brother-ish?
Tom: I'm not entirely... Okay. Looking at the second use case, finding books. Well, okay. You're in the middle of a library surrounded by a pile of passive or not passive RFID tags, with your scanner. I'm not sure if that's a use case that could possibly work. I mean, how would it... I mean, I guess when you got to the right book, right area, the scanner recognized that and let you know, and that might speed things up.
Elizabeth: Well, it's more like every book would have an individual signal as you would see in a warehouse. And so if it was misshelved, you would be able to identify where it is.
Tom: Okay. In that case, that seems more useful. I mean, there someone could, like, literally walk along with a scanner along the shelves, and a book that was out of sequence might...well, because the, you know, the coding should all be in sequence.
Well, from my time in libraries having shelved books in the '80s, I can tell you that most shelves are not particularly in close order. They are approximately right. Now, it could be a case of overkill, you know, where you're finding books that are out of sequence by one, and then the staff has to take time to arrange them perfectly. I mean, that would be really good I guess in its way. But...
Elizabeth: So, you mean it would actually increase work as opposed to make life easier?
Tom: That would be my guess.
Elizabeth: Okay. Here's my other one. So, this is kind of like a Goodread's model, so...
Tom: Also, did you know people have eyes? And as you go along, you can see the bar code on the bottom of the book to put there for that purpose, right? And somebody can see it's out of order. Just saying. I mean, again, I don't see it as a persuasive use case except for in the sense like in a very large library.
Elizabeth: Okay. But if you're, like, in an academic...like, a university library, and you're, like, "I have to find this book for class." And then it's been misshelved and you're, like, "Oh, no, I'm on floor four, and I have to go up. It's hiding on floor six." Maybe? Like...
Tom: That would require an active take to do that. And then you kind of got to wonder how does...okay, you would have what? A hundred thousand books, maybe more. And then each one has an individual tag on it, and somehow or another there's some sort of tracking system that knows where this tag is. That's a big data solution, and don't start putting chips into babies. That's all I can say.
Elizabeth: I have not heard that one before, and I'm never using it. Okay. Here's my other one. Goodread's model. So, similarly to, you know, using a site to sort of track what you've read, what if you had a library card that kept track of the books that you've read so that if you went to go check it out again, it's, like, you would be told that you've already read this, because some of us lose track in the series that we're reading. I'm just wondering if RFIDs could help us with this problem. Again, big-sky ideas, not sure if it would actually work.
Tom: Okay. Checkout. Have you heard of Checkout?
Elizabeth: I have. But Checkout doesn't tell me all the time about my history immediately.
Tom: No, but, I mean, that could be incorporated in Checkout, you know. You could be told at that time if anyone thought it was important... I mean, someone would have to, like, set up to do this. It would take a fair amount of effort to create this as a thing. I think it'd be easier to do a checkout. I mean, when you check the book out, and they tell you, "You know, you had this two months ago."
Elizabeth: "Would you like to read it again?"
Tom: I mean, are you intentionally taking it out again? I mean, and you would have to go, "Yes, I didn't finish reading it. I had it for six weeks, and I didn't read it." And you'd have to, like, admit to, like, you know, your scholar incompetence.
If you did it a checkout, someone could embarrass you potentially, but that would assume you're getting, like, human contact and, you know, you can just scan the book out yourself. It most likely is now...and you can use radio frequency tags for the same purpose. I mean, Toronto Public Library, you put it down on a thing that reads the code inside the book instead of, like, the, you know, the bar code on the book. But, so I don't see much difference at that point.
Elizabeth: It's true. It's because the secret is they're all in the spines.
Tom: The reason I don't think any of these ideas can work for consumers is, is you would have to have some sort of, like, device that was capable of interacting with the tags either by sending it...and we live in a capitalist market where there is not a controlled economy, which means that we can't all be using the same radio frequency tags. So, I might have a tracker that works in X, Y and Z but not in Y and H. So, what advantage does it give to me now?
Elizabeth: I mean, like, really, you would not be checking out books in Vancouver Public Library if you live in Toronto. So, I mean, it would be very, like, ecosystem-centric, you know? Again...
Tom: If you, too, would give me your phone when I joined, and it would be able to read the library?
Elizabeth: Yeah. It would be a burner phone of just scans.
Tom: I am just not seeing this. I just do not see this.
Elizabeth: I just feel the need to, like, stand up for the RFID, because it is neat. I can't think of a general solution to the publishing industry either, and I feel bad.
Tom: Okay. Well, I wasn't going to use this particular line, but I think tracking handcarts on route to hell might be aided by radio-frequency tagging. Okay? This is the perfect time for this big-sky idea of mine. The most interesting thing to my mind about radio-frequency tags are, is they are a useless idea from a decade ago that didn't get adopted, got a big play, and we have had a series of things that have come since then that, you know, require to think about them.
There were QR codes that we stuck on books a little while and put on our things, and discovered that, you know, people had to whip out their phone and find the right app, and then wave at the right way in order to get to things that they could gotten to quicker by just going to Chrome and putting in the book title and the publisher.
Elizabeth: I mean, as a big, dark secret, I find them very aesthetically displeasing, and I feel bad about that. But...
Tom: Book designers would agree with you. Yes, but they don't like the bar code either, and they're wrong about them.
Elizabeth: That's true. It's like illegal to not put bar code on.
Tom: So, we get sidetracked by these big ideas. I mean, most publishers are too busy trying to get the book out in order to even put the metadata together decently.
Elizabeth: That is very true.
Tom: And the reason why blockchain, spoiler alert, why will blockchain not work? It's because the metadata that underlie...that the publishers maintained to underlie blockchain will never be of sufficient quality to allow a transactional embedding of information the way that blockchain would require.
I mean, we will just never have that level of detail. Now, prove me wrong, prove me wrong. Just use Thema. That's all I ask. It's a simpler task than setting up RFID tags or other things. Just go out, use Thema. It's genuinely useful.
Elizabeth: I mean, I'm not going to fight you on that. I completely agree. It's just doesn't look as cool as waving something in the air and it magically beeping.
Tom: Have you heard of this thing called ebooks?
Elizabeth: Yes.
Tom: I can just be on my phone and go to a library or a retail site and put the book on my phone.
Elizabeth: That is true.
Tom: I don't need to wave anything.
Elizabeth: I mean, you could wave your phone around. That still kind of gets the same thing, but, like, nothing responds.
Tom: Is that magic enough?
Elizabeth: No.
Tom: Wouldn't it be even more magical if that ebook came with Thema coding, though?
Elizabeth: Oh, yes.
Tom: Will that add the magic?
Elizabeth: A hundred percent that would add the magic. I feel like that's why it's never going to happen.
Tom: You know, like, ebooks with Thema codes in bright letters on the cover.
Elizabeth: Okay. What if we had vending machines that took your library card and you waved the library card around, and then a book, like, burst forth from this vending machine?
Tom: I believe that actually has been done. LPG had a book vending machine at the Ireland airport. And a couple of used book places I think have, like, a "Put a buck in and get a random book out" type vending machines I've read about. So, people are using the vending machine idea.
But knowing people at LPG, I can say that one of the issues around that type of thing is stocking the container, also renting the container that does these actions for you is usually expensive, and then stocking it. It can be fairly difficult. I mean, it's a time-consuming thing. Okay. This is why the newsgroup and other companies exist in order to fulfil this type of, like, function is that that's a whole industry into itself.
But I'm just saying is, you know, like, large machines full of things, like drinks and stuff like this, require little men and women, people, people, just people in funny uniforms going around in large trucks stocking them, you know, hopefully, electric trucks. Can I just say it?
Elizabeth: Yeah, let's try and keep the emissions down. Fully agree, and also a little guilt trip here. I mean, so much effort goes into this. We should use book vending machines, just saying. But, no, you have a very good point. And that is, yes, these things exist. No, RFIDs are not really becoming our best thing. So, I mean, even...
Tom: We can't even talk about them without becoming ridiculous in terms of the stupidity, the ideas. So I think that kind of says it all.
Elizabeth: It's kind of true. I would never professionally put these forward. But I do think that publishers can support libraries more without adopting RFIDs. And that's just like you said, using Thema, using your metadata, telling stories in organizational ways so people know how to sell and communicate your book.
Tom: And library wholesalers really should continue to offer services like adding the correct tags for their libraries in the books and saving librarians time. I mean, it's not like they don't have a use, it's just...
Elizabeth: Yeah. And, I mean, I feel, too, that publishers should be communicating more with librarians in terms of what tags...like, they are re-cataloguing a lot of books right now. They're coming up with their own categories. I mean, Thema is so specific, and I just wonder if we actually had publishers adopt Thema if library staff wouldn't have to take that extra time to make it work for their systems.
Tom: I don't think the librarians are ever going to believe what a publisher tells them 100%.
Elizabeth: That hurts.
Tom: It does hurt.
Elizabeth: Why can't we all be friends?
Tom: Well, then you should not be so critical of how publishers use audience codes.
Elizabeth: Okay. Let's not ask for miracles here. There's no reading age zero to eight. That is not a thing, Tom.
Tom: There is not, agreed. I'm just saying.
Elizabeth: I wrote a whole blog post on it.
Tom: Trusting publishers to do things properly is one of the reasons why blockchain will not work, going back maybe... But it's also why radio-frequency tags would not have a good use case if publishers were in charge of it. It's one more finicky addition to their lives that fulfills what?
Elizabeth: Yeah. That's true. Anyway, thank you so much, Tom.
Tom: Okay, thank you.
Elizabeth: Thanks to Tom for speaking with me for this month's episode. You can find links to all the resources we used in the episode notes. I'd also like to take a moment to acknowledge that BookNet Canada staff, board, partners, and our makeshift podcast studio, operate upon the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee, Wendat, and Huron indigenous peoples, the original nations of this land. We endorse the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and support an ongoing shift from gatekeeping to space-making in the book industry. And we hope that our work, including this podcast, helps to create an environment that supports that shift. We'd also like to acknowledge the Government of Canada for their financial support to the Canada Book Fund. And of course, thanks to you for listening. Do not steal library books!
Highlights from The State of Publishing in Canada 2023.