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RFID for Asset Management at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
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The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in The Netherlands has been giving considerable attention to their collection registry system for many years. This system is able to give an overview of all the objects that are available in the museum and provides an information source for external users. Next to the unique identification number, several other features have been integrated into the system.
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Examples include providing the condition of valuable assets, the restoration status and location. In order to be able to populate the system with accurate data, the museum will start with a project titled ‘Project: The Physical Control of Prints’. Over 15,000 prints from the collection, dating back from 1400 A.D. to today, will be photographed and RF-ID tagged. Helicon in accordance with Omron and Philips have developed the concept. The name for the system is ‘Talking-Tag® system’.
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In the existing system, the necessity to handle assets for identification often results in damage. Each item has to be lifted, taken out from its packaging, turned, twisted, etc., in order to retrieve the identification number. Damage can vary from abrasion caused by friction to breakage caused by falling. The importance to address this problem, linked with the traditional method of registration is widely acknowledged and has resulted in the development and use of more advanced technologies e.g. barcode. However, with all systems used at present, it is still necessary to have visual access to the identity label. In case of barcode, the label has to be manoeuvred in such a way that a beam of light can reach the label. Also any damage to the label will make the information irretrievable.
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Hardware When using the Talking-Tag system, the antenna can read and write information on the tag and link it to the existing database. There is no need to open the storage or transit container and it is impossible to move an object from one location to another, without it being tracked. Stacked reading makes it possible to keep track of movements of larger quantities of objects. In order to develop, test and fine-tune the system, it was tested in situ in several Dutch museums, including the Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Kröller Müller Museum in Otterlo, Stedelijk Museum and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The durability of the tag was tested by means of accelerated aging within a laboratory environment.
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Manuals and procedures With the Talking-Tag system a manual is provided. In this manual guidelines are given for the position on the objects where a Talking-Tag. can be attached. Also several methods for the attaching itself are given. The Talking-Tag. system comes with software that is capable of communication with every database orientated registration package worldwide. The information on the Talking-Tag is standardised, with the translation comes from the interface software.
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