White papers & Published articles

New Zealand's Otago Museum is set to become the first museum in Australasia to have all its collection items audited and tracked using sophisticated RFID technology.

White paper on Cost-benefit analysis of using RFID technology in a Museum environment

Benefits of RFID for Museum and Art Gallery collections

Smart Tags In Storage Systems, published in the Journal of the Australian Registrars Committee, Volume No. 50, Winter Issue July 2005

Smart Solutions for Art Security and Beyond, published in The Australian Art Market Report Issue 16, Winter 2005

Gallery gadgets help Mona Lisa keep her smile, Sydney Morning Herald, June 22 2007.

Review of machine-readable technology for Museum collections.

In 2008 the London Museums Hub commissioned Julian Tomlin to conduct a review of machine-readable labelling systems across the heritage sector to evaluate the benefits of this technology both as a collections management tool and as a means of providing user access to collections information. The study focuses on the use of machine-readable technologies eg Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and bar coding as methods to control object movements, update locations, enhance security and facilitate access to information associated with an object or collection of objects.

The report contains a technological overview (covering 1D and 3D barcodes, RFID tags and readers), a review, decision-making charts, ten case studies, and a list of installations and suppliers. Whilst the review provides an overview of the technologies, it doesn't expand on the different types of RFID solutions available i.e. High Frequency (HF) vs Ultra High Frequency (UHF). A range of case studies are presented, but these are not critically evaluated as to their relative merits.