Page 7 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 44

006 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.10, 2018

translating software (Baidu translate, 2017), automatic wiki editor (Banerjee & Mitra, 2016), and
Dr. Robot. Even some lawyers may be superseded by artificial intelligence (Mangan, 2017). The
inconceivable is turning out to be inevitable.
Seizing the opportunities of technological reforms, all the countries are advancing big data,
cloud computing, mobile Internet, IoT and artificial intelligence. For example, since 2013, China
has released Opinions on the Orderly Development of IoT, Executive Summary of Big Data
Development, Opinions on Developing Information Industry with the Help of cloud computing,
Opinions on the Orderly Development of mobile Internet, Plan of the Development of New
Generation Artificial Intelligence, Action Plan of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6). In line with
methods adopted by the Oxford report, it is estimated that 90% catalogers, 90% subject librarians,
and 90% information analysts would be replaced or have to take up new work by 2020, 2025 and
2030 respectively.
Maybe not all the predictions are approved. Moreover, the future development is indeterminate.
As the report Research Libraries, Risk and Systemic Change (Michalko, Malpas, & Arcolio, 2010)
by the OCLC pointed out, some changes were “almost certain” and had a potential catastrophic
impact. Therefore, we should overcome relying on traditions to confront the gray rhino (Wucker,
2017), find out the trend of changes, utilize the subversion and insights brought by reforms to
consider and design innovatively the essence and services of the profession, and take measures in
advance to create a brand-new future for users and ourselves.

1 From information era to data era

The creation, distribution and utilization of knowledge that the library focuses on is transforming
from information era to data era.

1.1 The new normal state of knowledge and scholarly communication

The following changes have become the normal state for scholarly and research libraries.
1) Information resources become digitalized comprehensively. In 2013, Springer, the
international publisher, declared that all of its journals would be published digitally first from
1996 and digitalized all the back issues from 2004; all of its books would be published digitally
first from 2006 and digitalized all the books published from 2011. Thus, all of its publications are
digitalized and published e-first (Kwong, 2013). In fact, this has become the basic publishing mode
internationally in science and technology publications (such as journals, books, patents, conference
proceedings, dissertations). In accordance, digital resources have been the main body of acquisition
and main object of utilization in scholarly and research libraries including in China.
2) Knowledge becomes rich media oriented. In nature, information is multimedia and rich media.
Sounds, videos, looks, shapes, images, charts and data reflect the original nature and society. It is