LATESS: Library Anti-Theft Electronic Surveillance System

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Library is one of the most important services on the school’s campus. It provides a serene atmosphere for studies as well as a multitude of resources for research and learning. Unfortunately, this opportunity is abused by some individuals who steal books, causing others who need them to be found wanting and incurs unnecessary costs on the school to replace those materials. In this project, we propose the use of an Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) system to identify and keep track of books in the library. The proposed system would use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to raise an alarm when a book is being taken out of the library without having gone through the required procedures put in place for the borrowing of books. An alarm serves to notify the security guards and library staff stationed for quick alert and response to the book theft as well as to deter individuals from attempting to do so. If implemented correctly, a very high accuracy of detection can be achieved. The proposed system is limited in that it cannot prevent a student from borrowing a book without return, and some individuals may find a way to tamper with the tags to avoid being detected by the EAS system.

Keywords: RFID, library, books, tamper, alert, surveillance, theft