AU2002100103A4 - Object and document management system - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 Complete Specification Innovation Patent OBJECT AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of implementation.

2 OBJECT AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM The present invention relates to a system for the efficient management of documents or other objects which require storage between periods of intermittent acquisition or use by a number of authorised users, by means of attachment thereto of electronically coded labels which can be read, programmed and detected by electromagnetic means at a distance, by the use of equipment for the automated reading or programming of such labels, and the use of appropriate data flows between elements of the system, a data base and a data base management system incorporating computing means.

In one particular application, the objects may be books or various forms of recorded media, which may be stored within, or borrowed from, a library.

For convenience, the invention will be described in relation to provision of library services, but it is to be understood it is not thereby limited to that application.

The growth in demand for library, and related services has lead to the need to identify robust and cost effective ways to automate library management.

Some means for automation of library management are currently known. For example many libraries use barcodes, with fixed or mobile readers, or character recognising instruments, to assist in book identification at checkout and return.

Libraries also use theft detection systems to deter the unauthorised removal of books from them. Frequently, however, the theft detection means are disconnected from the book identification mechanisms, with the result that inventory control suffers from weaknesses to be discussed later.

For efficiency of library operations there have been attempts to introduce self service facilities for book checkout, but these are often of a nature in which the security aspects are capable of abuse and defeat by users. Such abuse takes the form of users at self service stations checking out one book openly, but deactivating the theft control mechanisms in another book without placing that book through the checkout operation. It is therefore an advantage to incorporate 3 book alarm setting and resetting within the checkout process, so that it is practically impossible for one action to be performed independently of the other.

Moreover small powerful magnets, which can be used to disable some theft systems, are now widely and cheaply available. In consequence, closer integration of the theft detection, means, the book identification means, and the checkout of the books, and the adoption of theft detection means not prone to such interference by users, are both desirable.

In addition, currently, patrons normally have to bring books for return to the library. The possibility of being able to return books remotely offers many advantages.

It is also important to have a library database fully informed of all transactions in an up to date way. It is desirable to know at the location of books, at least to within discrete regions, at all times. It is also desirable to be able to update borrower privileges immediately upon return of borrowed items.

In all of these moves towards greater automation, appropriate location of library data and design of data flows between elements of a comprehensive system, is required.

Most of the equipment and operational procedures should be designed for use of library clientele rather than library staff. In consequence, equipment should be robust, and procedures should be simple and not lend themselves to accidental or deliberate mis-performance.

In pursuit of this last objective, electromagnetic fields used in communication with the book labels should be shaped so that when necessary one book at a time is processed and other books are not accidentally effected by stray fields.

Most commonly, books are identified by means of an electromagnetically remotely interrogatable electronic label placed therein containing a unique identification code.

4 Because of the relative ease with which electric fields can be screened or diverted by conducting objects, most of the coupling to electromagnetic book labels is via magnetic field, for which return flux paths must be provided.

As all operations should be made as automatic as possible, the great majority of the equipment should be connected to a library computing system and database, and data flows should be designed so that a number of objectives are met. One is the efficient and secure signalling over electromagnetic coupling links to and from the electronic book labels. Another is the provision of comprehensive signalling means between fixed elements of the system. The third is the provision of an appropriate range of signalling methodologies for mobile elements of the system. Another requirement is for privacy, in that some library materials are of a sensitive nature, and borrower data should not be recorded in the book tag, and some book identification details should not be transmitted via insecure means, although both may be known to the library manager.

It is an objective of this invention to provide for all of these needs. Yet another objective is that of provision of convenience to patrons, when patron identification depends on automated means. Determining the identity of patrons without the need for them to open purses or wallets is desirable.

Accurate determination of the location of books within libraries is vital to efficient operation. Books are sometimes misplaced on shelves; indeed unscrupulous patrons do this to render some materials effectively unavailable to other users and so more readily available to themselves.

To ensure that books are where they should be, it is desirable to install shelf management systems which will efficiently detect the location of books within library shelves so that misplaced books can be detected. In such endeavours it is vital that systems which have the capacity for reading a multiplicity of tags simultaneously present in the interrogation field be provided.

A similar capacity is needed in book return operations as patrons, even when instructed not to do so, will present a multiplicity of books to a return chute.

It is an objective of this invention to describe a structure of a fully automated library system and the data management operations within it.

In its principal aspect the invention describes a collection of automated patron and library material identification systems, interfaced to a library database and controlling computer, which allows secure control of library materials and the efficient and management of user borrower privileges.

In another aspect, the invention describes a series of data flows between elements which gives integrity and efficiency of data transfer, management of information between data channels which recognises their capacity, and provides security for sensitive information. In yet another aspect, the invention describes the integration of theft detection and checkout operations which makes user attempts to corrupt these processes ineffective, and also minimises chance of error in use.

Data flows which describe timely update of database in respect of book location and user privileges are provided. A multiple tag reading capability for book labels and theft detection and book return and sorting is provided.

Many of the principles of the remote interrogation and programming of electromagnetically coded labels are described in the disclosures of PCT 00043, PCT AU/92 00143, PCT AU 92/00477, PCT AU 97/00428 and PCT AU 98/00017, PCT AU/97 00385 and PCTAU99/01165, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by cross reference.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein: Figures 1 is an illustration showing elements of an efficient library management system.

6 Figure 2 shows a library book with an electronic label attached.

Figure 3 shows one form of electronic label.

Figure 4 shows a self service library book checkout station.

Figure 5 shows one design of a book label reading plate.

Figure 6 shows electronic article surveillance gates for patron entry and exit from the library.

Figure 7 shows elements of a book return chute.

Figure 8 illustrates a book sorting station for use within a library.

Figure 9 illustrates data flows between elements of the library management system.

Figure 10 shows possible forms of a library transaction records.

Figure 11 shows various forms of data storage within book labels.

Figure 1 shows elements of an automated library system containing a stock of library books from which books 1 from book storage 2 are selected by patrons for checkout at a checkout station 3 adjacent to which is a pile of books 4 waiting to be checked out and a pile of books 5 already checked out. The checkout station is furnished with a patron identity plate 6 on which may be placed the patron's purse or wallet 7 containing a remotely interrogatable user identification label, or on which may be placed the label 8 after it has been removed from such purse or wallet.

For the checkout operation books are placed in reader-programmer receptacle 9. On return, either within or adjacent to the library, books are placed in a return chute 10, and after return may be sorted by library staff at sorting station 11.

Upon removal of checked out books from the library, patrons pass through EAS gates 12 via exit path 13.

If desired, books may be returned at a remote return station 14 from which books 15 may be conveyed back to the library by library staff via conveying means 16 while data pertaining to the returned books may be transferred by wired or wireless links 17 or by physically transported memory device 18.

The entire operation is linked to a computer and database 19 via communication paths 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26. The computer 19 may accept data also through data card reader 27 forming a part of it. Periodically, the location of I within shelving 2 may be monitored by shelf management unit 28.

We are going to leave integer 29 as unused.

Figure 2 indicates a library book 30 to which is attached an electronically coded label 31. In one form of the invention this label may be read-only, but in a preferred form of the invention the data within the label may be changed by remote programming by electromagnetic means. In yet another preferred form of the invention the label contains integrated means for being set into an armed or un-armed condition, that condition being detectable by EAS gates 12 shown in Figure 1, and that condition being set or reset in the checkout process at checkout station 3 while a book is inserted in receptacle 9.

Figure 3 shows a form of electronic label 31 suitable for magnetic field coupling.

In a preferred form of the invention, the label is formed on a thin plastic body 32 and has thereon a conducting spiral coil 33 attached via two terminals to microcircuit 34. The microcircuit is preferably a multiple-read remotely programmable and interrogatable electronic label incorporating a theft detection facility, and may be placed in an armed or disarmed state. In one form of the invention the label, while in the armed state, will emit, as well as, instead of, or 8 prior to transmitting the main part of its reply signal, a special electromagnetic signal indicating an alarm condition.

In another form of the invention the label may, at low values of electromagnetic field, not operate as a data carrying electromagnetically programmable and interrogatable microcircuit, but may operate as a linearly responding tuned circuit, the presence of which may be detected by EAS gates. The resonant frequency and quality factor of that tuned circuit may, however, be set by changes made within the label memory while it is operating at the power level for which it becomes a programmable data carrying microcircuit. The general principles by means of which these features may be achieved has been outlined in PCT AU 97 00428 Presence and Data Labels and PCT AU 99 01165 Object and Document Control System.

Integer 35 has been left unused.

Figure 4 illustrates an automated checkout station for patron use. In a preferred form of the invention, the station contains the video display unit 36, and a microcontroller unit (not shown), both interfaced to a keyboard 37. Patrons may identify themselves to the station by means of patron identification cards 38 which may take the form of electromagnetically interrogatable coded labels and which may be placed in patron wallet or purse 39 which may be placed on label reading plate 40. In operation, books from the pile 41 are placed one by one in the receptacle 42 and then removed once checkout has been effected and announced by a display unit 36 to be placed on checked out pile 43.

During the checkout operation, the book accession and the patron identification number is read, so that a checkout transaction record is sent by communication channel 44 to library control computer 19.

In a preferred form of the invention, at the same time as the above operations are being performed, the alarm facility contained within the electronic label, which is normally set for all un-borrowed books within the library may be, while the book is in receptacle 42 and using the same electromagnetic fields as are 9 used to communicate with the digital data on the label, disabled by programming means. In addition, further information indicative of the transaction record which is being sent to the control computer may be recorded within the label. The details of the data flows in these operations will be discussed in relation to Figure Figure 5 shows another preferred form of communication system between an interrogator and the label. In this embodiment a book 45 containing electronic label 46 is placed on desktop 47 which has a electromagnetically transparent region under which is positioned an antenna system 48 with a return flux path confining region 49. The structure is suitable for generating relatively confined magnetic fields with coupling to tags, which operate at or near the frequency of 13.56 MHz popular in this application. This structure has the advantage of architectural neatness, although the location of books within the field region is less positive than that shown in Figure 4.

The principles in the design of Figure 5, that is of confining electromagnetic fields as far as practicable by metallic boundaries and the provision of a return flux path for the magnetic field, may also be adopted in the receptacle 42 of Figure 4, but in a modified geometry, the required modifications being readily apparent to those skilled in the art.

Figure 6 shows a form of electronic article surveillance gates 50 with an exit or entrance path 51 through which patrons with their books may pass. The electromagnetic antennas within the gates 50 are energised by interrogators 52 to generate electromagnetic fields which in one embodiment of the invention may excite the electromagnetic label to a level at which emits an alarm signal, or in another embodiment of the invention may measure the impedance of mutual coupling of antennas over a range of frequencies so that the low power detection of tuned circuits may be effected.

In a preferred form of the invention, when high power signals are used, to better satisfy electromagnetic compatibility regulations, antennas within panes 53 and 56, or alternatively within panes 54 and 55, may be excited in opposite phase so as to produce approximate far field cancellation, without near field cancellation. Interrogators 52 communicate with one another via communication path 57 so that such phasing may be affected, and may also communicate with the central computer via communication channel 58 so that the frequency of alarm conditions may be monitored by the central computer. When a label in an armed state is detected passing through the gates a visible or audible alarm may be raised within alarm device 59 mounted on or adjacent to the gates.

Figure 7 shows the arrangement of an electromagnetic interrogation field and confinement structure surrounding a book chute which may be contained within book return 10 or 14 illustrated in Figure 1. Upon return, books are placed in entrance aperture 60 to slide down inclined path 61 and emerge at exit aperture 62. For electromagnetic field confinement purposes metallic box 63 may surround a portion of the path and may contain electromagnetic antennas for generation of the fields which communicate with the book labels. The use of such metallic electromagnetic field confinement structure has the property that at the popular interrogation frequency for this application of 13.56 MHz, very little of the fields exit the apertures at the ends of the box, and in consequence do not interact with a pile of returned books which may accumulate below the exit aperture 62, or be awaiting entry to entrance aperture We have kept integers 64 69 unused.

In a preferred form of the invention the interrogator, not shown, connected to the book chute antenna system, may be capable of reading a multiplicity of labels simultaneously present in the interrogation field, as several books may have been deposited simultaneously by a patron.

In one form of the invention, books while in the chute are interrogated within the label, but no attempt is made to change the label data or alarmed conditon.

Reading the data makes it practicable to determine sufficient information about each returned book for the original borrowing transaction to be identified within the computer database, and appropriate consequential adjustment to the computer database to be made, to take note of the fact that a particular book 11 has been returned and is no longer considered to be in the possession of a particular patron, but is instead in possession of the library.

In one form of the invention books, while they are within the chute, may have their alarm condition re-enabled so that if they are subsequently removed from the library without having been again checked out, they will raise an alarm. In another preferred embodiment of the invention, this re-arming operation may be deferred until books are sorted as described below.

Figure 8 shows an outline of apparatus for book sorting. This operation may be conducted by library staff with the aid of varying degrees of automation. This illustration shows books 70 placed on a conveyer 71 beneath which is an interrogation antenna structure 72 and above which may be is a field confinement structure 73. Books may pass at a controlled speed through the electromagnetic field generated between the antenna structure 72 and the confinement structure 73. While in that field, their identification is determined, the alarm condition may be reset within the label, and information may be obtained by communication channel 74 from the computer and database 19 so that a series of sorting gates (not shown) may direct the library materials to bins which indicate their re-shelving location. A wide and obvious variety of reshelving locations, which are suitable to those familiar with library operations, may be provided for.

Integers 75 to 79 have remained unused.

Figure 9 shows the data flows, which take place between the computer and data base and elements of the automated library system in one preferred form of the invention.

The first data flow to be described is between the book 80 via electromagnetic propagation data path 81 to the reading and programming receptacle 9 or reading plate 47 of checkout station 82. Upon checkout a borrowing transaction record of the type discussed in relation to Figure 10 is sent to the computer and data base via data path 83. In the preferred form of the invention data path 83 is 12 a wired connection, but wireless connections or data card transportation may be used.

A potential data path 84 to EAS gates from library book 80 exists while the book is being transported through exit path 51 in which a book in an armed state will be detected. Such detection may be notified to the computer and data base via data path In its return journey, a returned book 86 may communicate via remote return station 87 via electromagnetic data path 88, or local return station 89 via electromagnetic data path 90, or sorting station 91, via electromagnetic data path 92.

In the communication with remote return station 87 or local return station 89, either part or whole of the label data may be read. After such return, a return transaction record of a type discussed in Figure 10 may be sent via communication path 93 or 94 to the computer and data base In the communication paths 93 and 94 a variety of data transmission mechanisms, including wired connection, wireless connection or transport of data memory, may be used. When wireless connection is used, privacy considerations may dictate that care in the construction of the return transaction record be used. Communication between the sorting station 91 and the computer and data base 95 can take place via communication path 96 to which the same considerations of variability and privacy may apply.

When books 97 within the library are to have via communication channel 98 their location checked by shelf management system 99, communication with the computer and database may be by communication path 100 for which a number of technologies may be used, and again security considerations may apply, but privacy conditions may not be so stringent.

Figure 10 illustrates the structure of suitable alternatives for borrowing and return transaction records which flow along data paths 83 and 94 of Figure 9.

13 The function of a borrowing transaction record is to convey to the data base all relevant information about a borrowing transaction. The reason for the provision of two alternatives is that record type one offers the benefits of simplicity, but requires a greater degree of transmission of information to the book label than does type 2.

In a borrowing transaction there is at least the transmission of data which will arm or disarm the alarm condition within the label. In addition there may be transmitted by data path 81 either a long transaction code which is sufficient in size to identify individually every borrowing transaction within the library, or a short transaction code which is sufficient to identify, in conjunction with information already present within the label, the borrowing transaction.

How this information sits within the book label is illustrated in Figure 11, and is to be discussed below.

Continuing with the discussion of Figure 10, the information which may be transmitted along data paths 93 or 94 in response to the return of the book, may be of the types shown for return transaction records type one and type two in Figure In the record type one, the information present contains an indication of what type of record it is, the long transaction code which may have been extracted from the label, and may contain also date and time stamps, and a return location indicator further identifying the return transaction, and, when the borrower is requested to provide his or her identification at the return station, and may also contain an indication of the borrower identifier, and, when a receipt is provided to the borrower, a receipt number or other particulars. It may be noted that it is not necessary in this system to transmit the book identification.

When, for simplicity in the construction of labels, the short transaction code has been at the checkout operation recorded thereon, the return transaction record type 2 is adopted. In this case, the long transaction code is replaced by the 14 short transaction code and by further information obtained from the label, sufficient for the data base itself to determine the full transaction record under which the book was originally borrowed. Generally this information may consist of a portion, but not the whole of, the book accession number.

The benefits of employing the return transaction record type 2 is that privacy of the borrower information and borrowed book information is assured, even in the case of use of electromagnetic communication channels, because the book itself is not fully identified, and no permanent translation of the supplied material into a book or user code is possible, except within the central computer and data base.

In support of these operations, Figure 11 shows two possible varieties of data storage within the label. In the first type 101, the label contains, upon checkout, the book accession number 102, the long transaction code 103, and indication 104 of which type of record, and alarm code digits 105.

Within the label data storage record 106 is of type 2, there is present again the book accession number 102 and a record type 104 and alarm setting bits 105, but in this case the long transaction code 103 is replaced by a short transaction code 107.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the long transaction code contains sufficiently many digits for it to uniquely identify every checkout transaction which takes place within the library within a time for which books are allowed to be borrowed. When, through the book having been returned, the checkout transaction is no longer considered to be in use, the long transaction code can be recycled.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the short transaction code may consist of only a small number of bits. In a preferred embodiment of the invention those bits may be chosen at random, but under the constraint that the combination of themselves and a selected portion of the book accession number used in determining the return transaction record, is never repeated. In the accomplishing of this result, communication between the checkout station and the central data base may be required.

In another embodiment of the invention, the short transaction code may have within it several bits which bear a constant relation to selected bits from the book accession number, the relation being not one of identity, and the relation being not generally known to persons other than the managers of the library system. This structure of the short transaction code will furnish the previously described privacy required in some circumstances in the type 2 return transaction record.

It will be appreciated that various alterations, modifications and/or additions may be introduced into the constructions and arrangements of parts previously described without departing from the spirit or ambit of the present invention.

Claims (4)

1. An item management system containing a set of borrowable, sharable or purchasable items, said items being attached to electronically readable or programmable labels containing a microcircuit and a label memory, a computer maintaining a data base which contains particulars of said items, at least one self service item checkout station, at least one item return station, wherein when an item is borrowed or purchased a borrowing or purchase transaction record is sent from checkout station to said computer and related information is recorded on said label, said borrowing or purchase transaction record containing a transaction record identifier, wherein the transaction record can be identified from information readable from the label.

2. An item management system as in claim 1 wherein said label contains an item identification code placed in a locked section of said label memory.

3. An item management system as in claim 1 wherein said label has an alarm facility, said alarm facility being armed or disarmed by information recorded into the label, said label being put into an armed state when the said related information is written into the label.

4. An item management system as in claim 1 wherein said microcircuit provides functions of a programmable data carrier and an electronic article surveillance device, said electronic article surveillance function being provided by emission of a special signal from the label when it is illuminated by electromagnetic fields of a sufficiently high power level. An item management system as in claim 1 wherein said system contains a shelf management unit, said shelf management unit containing a label reading interrogator with a capacity to read several labels simultaneously present in its electromagnetic field.