RFID Technology as a Potential Electronic Security System: An Assessment from Twenty-four Academic Libraries of India

Abstract

The paper provides the various benefits and problems of using RFID technology. It also presents the factors that deal with adopting other advanced ESSs to enhance library materials’ security and services in today’s technological advancement. A structured questionnaire was prepared and circulated to librarians from 24 academic libraries across India in both physical and online formats. The investigator collected all 24 completed questionnaires physically and online and judged them to be valid, yielding a 100% response rate. In the data interpretation analysis, all 24 completed surveys were included. The study’s findings reveal RFID usefulness insecurity by controlling theft, unethical losses, and missing items. The findings showed that the potential uses of RFID in Indian libraries are slow compared to that of the libraries of developed countries and some of the developing countries, including the RFID system kiosk is user-friendly for PWD users. Finally, library professionals find that the future of libraries lies in RFID technology, so the cost should be brought down to improve ROI by the mass adoption of this technology in a developing country like India. It is suggested that universities and institutions understudy should realize the benefits of RFID technology and incorporate related updated tools in the security and multipurpose uses in the libraries to enhance the services for the users and security for the materials. The study is significant because it represents one of the earliest works to shed light on the current level of the use of RFID technology by librarians of studied libraries of Universities/ Institutes in developing countries like India and how they are providing RFID based security and services, which are currently in the developing stage. The major limitation of the study is the sample size.