Too strange. Just last night I was telling Melanie that Salem State College, where she teaches, should install an RFID (radio-frequency ID tag) system that would allow the library to know exactly what books are where. We had just been discussing the frustration that a book misplaced on the shelves of a library is as good as lost because it can’t be found. (I have a little knowledge in this area because I worked in the Canton, Mass., Public Library in high school.) I then noted that the Vatican Library could use the technology because they have millions of items, many of which have yet to be indexed and cataloged.
Imagine my surprise when I saw this article online today.
Custodians of the Vatican library, fed up with having to spend a month a year putting wayward items from their collection of 1.6m volumes and manuscripts back where they belong, are tagging them with microchips.
Right now I’m thinking very hard about lottery numbers.
(It is an interesting story, nonetheless.)
