Page 14 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 42

SU Xinning / Opportunities and challenges faced by digital libraries in the big data era 013

base, strategy library and other intelligence library products. Moreover, video information of
popular science, education and culture should also become an important product of digital libraries,
such as encyclopedic knowledge, popular science lecture videos, history and culture lecture videos,
excellent course videos of primary, secondary and tertiary schools, etc.
(2) Digital library analysis products
In the big data era we are never short of information, but we are short of knowledge to solve
complicated problems, and also processing, analysis, summary, and conclusion of information
received from multiple channels. Information analysis products should be targeted as the high-end
products of future digital library information service. Therefore, digital libraries should focus on
analyzing user behaviors, understanding user needs, mastering the topics and academic fields of
user concern, combining the information collection of cutting-edge field with scientific analysis,
and determining the developing trend of cutting-edge field and science. In addition, user behavior
analysis can summarize and spread user experience, and find the special user behaviors. Resource
utilization analysis can understand the value of the resources, find the shortage of resources, and
obtain the law of related resource utilization.
(3) Digital library service mode
The service mode of digital libraries has gradually transformed from the passive service mode
of traditional libraries to current self-service mode. Under the big data environment, however,
this self-service mode usually causes users lost in the sea of information, and cannot get (let
alone get in time) the most needed information. As a result, digital libraries must replace the
past passive service mode with active and recommending service mode. They can actively make
recommendations according to user behaviors, add key recommendations about hot topics or
events, strengthen the topic-specific information services, and so on.
In addition, the digital reference and consultation services of digital libraries also call for rapid
development. The future of digital reference platforms is both digital and smart. For example,
the combination of automatic response, interchanged answer, and expert reply, and the seamless
automatic conversion, make the reference platforms become users’ mentors in their work, study
and research. From the aspect of the types of provided information, digital libraries shall transform
from providing mainly literatures to providing multivariate information, such as cultural heritage,
case studies, comprehensive analysis, government information, audios, images and videos, and
even urban social information, etc.

2.4 Find the position of digital libraries

In the big data era, digital libraries should break through the way of thinking of traditional libraries
and think by numbers from digital library architecture to digital library service concept and work
priority. This requires each digital librarian to adapt to the big data era, and welcome the challenges