Karl Lawrence of HarperCollins noted that chip technology is improving to the point where radio frequency identification tags -- in English, a tiny chip that can transmit information -- will soon be cost effective to bind into books. It is something like a bar code but more versatile because it can be "read" through boxes, and many of them can be read simultaneously. It can be used for inventory and receiving purposes as well as for security tags. One example of its use: a carton of newly arrived books can be scanned in an instant and identified immediately.