Tagging

The heart of the system is the chip, which can be fixed inside a book's back cover or directly onto CDs and videos. This chip is a programmable chip and has an antenna. Each paper-thin tag contains an engraved antenna and a microchip with a capacity of at least 64 bits. There are three types of tags: "read only", "WORM," and "read/write" (Boss 2003). "Chip is a "read only" if the identification is encoded at the time of manufacture and not rewritable. "WORM" (Write-Once-Read-Many) tags are programmed by the using organization, but without the ability to rewrite them later. "Read/write tags," which are chosen by most libraries, can have information changed or added. In libraries that use Library Radar, it is common to have part of the read/write tag secured against rewriting, e.g., the identification number of the item.