The application of RFID technology in collection management

collections have always been the material basis for all business activities of museums, and the quantity and quality of collections determine the size and status of museums. Then, the importance of collection management in museum construction is self-evident. The management of collections directly affects the utilization rate of collections, the level of exhibitions and scientific research, and also directly affects the social influence of museums.

With the development of science and technology, informatization, digitalization, and intelligence have gradually become an inevitable trend in all walks of life with computer work as the focus. Achieve breakthroughs in key areas such as radio frequency identification (RFID) and sensor networks, information technology applications and digital content, and form a number of technologies and products with independent intellectual property rights, basically meeting the needs of domestic application technologies and products. As a result, the combination of informatization and cultural museums has become the direction of discussion and practice by cultural museum workers in recent years. Museums around the world have applied radio frequency identification technology (RFID) to museum collection management to promote collection management informatization and intelligent construction.

At present, the search, statistics, storage and inventory work of collections are mainly done manually. When extracting a certain cultural relic or inventory of cultural relics, it is often necessary for the warehouse manager to search and move back and forth in front of the cultural relic shelves by relying on memory or holding a thick account book. This kind of manual repetitive work not only has low work efficiency, but also easily causes damage to cultural relics.

Based on the established collection of cultural relics database through RFID technology, attach RFID electronic tags to each collection, write a unique identification code corresponding to the collection information, and install UHF RFID access doors at the entrance of the warehouse (as shown in the figure below) ) and other facilities for the collection of collection and personnel information, and finally record the entry and exit of collections and personnel entry and exit through application software, automatically identify the entry and exit of collections, and dynamically track and record them to realize non-contact intelligence of collections management.

When wanting to pick up a collection, the warehouse keeper only needs to use the search function of the handheld to easily find the desired collection; use the monitoring software of the system to display the current location information of the collection in real time. When the label information of a certain collection is found, the software will send out an alarm prompt to find the corresponding collection.

When searching, counting, and counting the collections, the warehouse manager only needs to scan in front of the cultural relics cabinet with an RFID Reader to know the relevant information of the collections within the effective distance. This kind of non-contact management can not only reduce the work intensity of warehouse managers, greatly improve the efficiency of collection management, but also reduce unnecessary damage to cultural relics.

The Kunstmuseum St.Gallen Art Museum in Switzerland applies RFID technology to the analysis of audience interest behavior. The special gloves worn by the audience are equipped with RFID tags and wireless biosensors, which can record which artwork the audience is viewing at any time, and the viewing time of each artwork. By comparing the location and biological data, the researchers can measure the audience's Biological and cognitive responses to each artwork to better serve audiences at different levels.

The Malaysian Museum Authority uses RFID technology to help more effectively manage cultural relics and better identify and track clothing, ceramics, weapons and artwork on display, while RFID systems can help track the entry and exit of cultural relics across museums.

Nanjing Museum applied RFID technology in the field of museum collection management, completed the import of 240,000 pieces of collection data, imported and processed 3.8T image data, and supported the export of more than 20 kinds of documents such as vouchers, account books, cards, inventories, etc. contactless management.

According to the particularity of its site museum, Qinshihuang Mausoleum Museum adopts active tags to realize the dynamic management, inventory and information query of cultural relics, and strengthen the management of personnel entering and leaving the warehouse.

The biggest problem of RFID technology in collection management is the selection of exhibit RFID tags. Because of the rich collection and different shapes, the choice of RFID electronic tags is particularly important for the protection of cultural relics. This requires the warehouse manager to be aware of the collections, and to "tailor-made" appropriate labels for the collections according to the type, nature, quantity, size, etc. of the collections under management.