Library checkout in Provo may zip

The City Council will vote on the proposal Jan. 2. The cost is $485,786, with nearly half, or $200,000, going to buy microchip tags for each item in Provo's collection. Nelson said one reason Provo waited until now to buy the system was the cost of the tags, which are now down to between 60 cents and 90 cents each because suppliers have agreed on a standardized tag. The tags are reprogrammable now, too.

"When these systems first came out, this would have cost Provo a couple of million dollars to do," SirsiDynix executive sales consultant Dave King said.

Nelson said Provo also wanted to see if another system would develop that might threaten to make RFID obsolete in a few years. None has, and RFID is used throughout the world.

If it's approved, Nelson said he hopes to have the system in place by May 30, in time for the annual summer reading program crush.

Nelson said that after the purchase, the Provo library's rainy-day fund would still have about $3.5 million, enough almost to match a year's operating costs, which are $3.7 million.

Library directors in Salt Lake City and Logan praised the RFID technology.

"It has worked very well for self-checkout," said Chip Ward, assistant director of the Salt Lake City Public Library, which has had RFID for three years. "It allows people to go to a self-checkout station and get their books processed quickly without standing in line. They like that. It's very convenient. The only time they can't do that is if they need to renew a book or they have a book on hold waiting for them or if they have too many fines."

Ward said the system, provided by New Jersey-based Checkpoint Systems Inc., has failed to deliver on its promise to scan inventory on shelves.

USU has had the opposite problem with its 3M system in its new library, said John Elsweiler, associate director for public services. The university initially experienced some problems with the readers at the checkout stands but is thrilled with the system's capacity to scan inventory on shelves.

"We can go along and scan the shelves and make sure materials are where they are supposed to be," he said. "We've completely read our collection this year. We have over 600,000 volumes, so that's quite a bit of time if we're using eyes to do it."

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