PURPOSE: To shorten the time from the indication of lending to the actual discharge of an article by providing an article conveying device with a bar code and deciding whether an article to be lent is correct or not, or genuine or not by data read by the bar code reader when the article is taken out of an article storage shelf.

CONSTITUTION: The article conveying device 51 is provided with the bar code 34 and when the article is taken out of the article conveying device 51 or article storage shelf 50, a bar code for identification which is stuck on the article is read; and a lent article decision means decides whether the article to be lent is correct or not, or genuine or not from the read data of the bar code reader 34. Therefore, when the article is taken out of the article storage shelf 50 by the conveying device 51, it is decided whether or not the article is lent or not. Consequently, the response time from the lending indication to the actual lending is shortened.