An active labeling system for labeling at least one component of a telecommunication system, comprising: at least one electrically addressable active label device having a display driver operably connected to a display medium, the active label device configured to form on the display medium indicia that remain static and visible when the active label device is unpowered, and wherein the display medium is disposed on one of the least one telecommunication system component; a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag having an integrated circuit chip and an antenna system and disposed on or adjacent the active label device, with the IC chip electrically connected to the device display driver; and a RFID reader adapted to communicate with the RFID tag via RF reader signals that contain information about the at least one telecommunication system component ("component information"), wherein the component information is provided to the display driver via the RFID tag to form on the display medium one or more of the indicia that is/are representative of the component information; wherein: the at least one component includes a patch panel shelf assembly that supports a plurality of patch panel modules supported by the shelf assembly; the patch panel modules includes a plurality of ports; and the display medium is arranged on the shelf assembly and displays the one or more indicia representative of component information relating to the plurality of ports. at least one electrically addressable active label device having a display driver operably connected to a display medium, the active label device configured to form on the display medium indicia that remain static and visible when the active label device is unpowered, and wherein the display medium is disposed on one of the least one telecommunication system component; a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag having an integrated circuit chip and an antenna system and disposed on or adjacent the active label device, with the IC chip electrically connected to the device display driver; and a RFID reader adapted to communicate with the RFID tag via RF reader signals that contain information about the at least one telecommunication system component ("component information"), wherein the component information is provided to the display driver via the RFID tag to form on the display medium one or more of the indicia that is/are representative of the component information; wherein: the at least one component includes a patch panel shelf assembly that supports a plurality of patch panel modules supported by the shelf assembly; the patch panel modules includes a plurality of ports; and the display medium is arranged on the shelf assembly and displays the one or more indicia representative of component information relating to the plurality of ports. the at least one component includes a patch panel shelf assembly that supports a plurality of patch panel modules supported by the shelf assembly; the patch panel modules includes a plurality of ports; and the display medium is arranged on the shelf assembly and displays the one or more indicia representative of component information relating to the plurality of ports.