Not as bizarre as they thought

This library system uses an RFID tag on each book so materials can be checked out quickly, reports an IT pilot fish working there.

"We also have self-checkout machines that patrons can use to check out their own books and discs," says fish. "The patron scans his library card, then places the books on a mat and the RFID pad underneath the mat reads the tags and checks out the books."

But one day a help-desk request comes in from a remote branch: Every time a patron uses a particular self-checkout computer, a book titled Bizarre Dinosaurs shows up on the list of checked-out books too -- but it's not a book the patron is getting.

Help desk tells the library staff to find the RFID tag that must be there somewhere. Maybe a prankster patron has taken the tag off and put it on the monitor or somewhere under the pad. Maybe the book is sitting on the table. In any case, find the tag and you'll solve the problem.

But the staff is adamant: There's no RFID tag anywhere at the self-checkout station, and the book is nowhere to be found either. Staffers insist that there must be something wrong with the computer.

Finally, after much back-and-forth, IT sends a tech down to the remote branch.

"Sure enough, there was no RFID tag on the monitor or the mat and the book wasn't sitting on the table either," fish says.

"The technician opened the cabinet door where the computer is kept, and found the book Bizarre Dinosaurs sitting right on top of the computer. She held it up to show the staff, and they admitted that they might not have looked hard enough."

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