MOHD KAMIR YUSOF, Andrew Abel, Md Yazid Saman and Mohd Nordin Abdul Rahman
The purpose of this paper is to first review the implementation of automatic identification and data capture) technologies in library/information science, focusing on barcode…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to first review the implementation of automatic identification and data capture) technologies in library/information science, focusing on barcode technology, radio frequency identification (RFID) and near field communication (NFC). This paper then presents S-Library, a new android-based application, to enable users to perform a wide range of information science-related transactions, such as borrowing, searching, returning and viewing transaction records.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents the design process and the database and software components. For analysis, the authors used application testing, and also usability testing, with a questionnaire distributed to 343 users.
Findings
The implementation of NFC technology means that S-Library has a number of technical advantages over other approaches. It was also shown with user acceptance testing that there was a high degree of user satisfaction with S-Library.
Research limitations/implications
Although the findings combine technical assessment and usability testing and are extremely positive, further user evaluation could be performed. In addition, S-Library does not currently read existing RFID tags, which would improve the application further.
Practical implications
The system proposed here shows that S-Library is a feasible approach taken to improve the library transaction experience and that it can replace and improve upon older technologies.
Originality/value
This paper provides a first successful demonstration of a functioning and tested android and NFC-based library transaction system and shows that this approach generates a high degree of user reliability.