Industry Public library Company Singapore's network of 40 public libraries has 2 million registered members, and over 10 million library items ranging from books to magazines to music CDs and DVDs. Employees 800 IT staff The library is supported by a small team. Annual IT Budget NLB declined to reveal exact figures, but did note that its revenue for fiscal year 2004, ended Mar. 31, 2005, was S$125 million (US$78.4 million).

With a network of 40 public libraries, 2 million registered members, and over 10 million library items ranging from books to magazines to music CDs and DVDs, the NLB recognized that monitoring and managing the movement of its inventory can be a tedious task.

So it developed the library management system to track, distribute, circulate and administer the flow of library materials using RFID technology. The system allows fundamental functions of a library such as item borrowing and returns, sorting and even theft detection, to be fully integrated and automated.

Borrowers can also read books on loan via the Internet. Over 1.5 million logons were recorded on its eLibraryHub site in the library's fiscal year 2004, ended Mar. 31, 2005.

Last year, it further suited up its IT infrastructure with Web-enabled terminals to provide better security and management. These kiosks have built-in cameras which capture the faces of library users when they check out their loan items. The pictures can then be used to resolve disputes, cutting down the time library staff previously took to search through records.

The NLB's willingness to try out less mature technologies such as the open-source Linux platform and grid computing, is further proof of its commitment to use technology to improve its efficiencies.

On being named a ZDNet Asia Smart50 company, Chan Ping Wah, the NLB's assistant chief executive, said: "We are certainly very pleased to be given such a recognition.

"It is our aim to make our library services convenient and accessible to our users with the help of technology. We are proud to say that we have reduced dramatically the transaction time of book borrowing, returning, sorting and processing."

And it is with IT firmly in mind that the NLB continues to look to the future.

It unveiled a five-year roadmap last year, outlining a strategy to build a framework to make information accessible and enable knowledge to be developed and shared.

Chan explained: "With our Library 2010 plan, we will continue to leverage on IT to further improve our business processes and build on our digital library infrastructure. We will continue to further explore the use of RFID to achieve greater efficiency in our services and backend processes."