Page 43 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.45, 2019

042 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.11, 2019

intelligent environment in the new civilization that replaces the industrial civilization (Toffler, 1984,
pp.244-256). “Megatrends” reveals a new knowledge network in the “crevice age”, and emphasizes
the need to create a “knowledge theory of value” to replace the “labor theory of value”, because people
are “inundated with information but eager for knowledge” (Naisbitt, 1984, pp.15-23). The “grown up
digital” is about “intelligent opening” of Net Generation (Tapscott, 1999, p.293). It has gone through
the social transformation from informatization to digitization, marked by the development from
information society and information economy to knowledge society and knowledge economy. The
essence is the social transformation that affects all industries. The social changes are shaping the way
that people and organizations work together. The economic changes are challenging traditional notions
of public service. And the technological changes are redefining what it means to be an information
professional (IFLA, 2018a). According to the systematic perspective, the outer layer of the era is the
social background, and the inner layer is the industry background. In terms of the role of backgrounds
in library transformation, it is certain that the professional background in the inner layer has a far
greater impact on the transformation than the social background in the outer layer.
As a social undertaking, the library was initially considered focused on documents, such as
document communication, document information, etc. Later, it was identified as information
service under the influence of information society and information economy, and knowledge
service under the influence of knowledge society and knowledge economy.
Today information and knowledge environment is undergoing profound changes. Big data,
artificial intelligence, Internet of things, cloud computing and other new technologies are
changing at speed, leading the digital era to a new one—the wisdom era, which directly affects the
librarianship. Therefore, according to the environment changes of the library transformation, this
paper divides it into three phases: information service era, pre-knowledge service era and post-
knowledge service era. Each era has its distinct representation, theoretical basis and influence on
library transformation (see Table 1).

Table 1. The environment changes of library transformation
Information service era Pre-knowledge service era post-knowledge service era
Information chain: “Data- Knowledge chain: “Data-Informa- Wisdom chain:“Data-Wisdom (D-
Information (D-I)”; tion-Knowledge-Wisdom (DIKW)”; W)”;
Marked by information techno- Information technology into New technology fusion with inte-
Important logy; Informationization and knowledge technology; lligent technology as the core; Interdis-
symbol network as the core; Unified Informatization into digitization; ciplinary comprehensive application;
information management and Knowledge Intensive Business Highly knowledgeable and flexible
information service Service intelligent service
Information economics; Theory Knowledge theory of value; New knowledge theory of value; New
Theoretical of information resources;Theory Theory of knowledge resources; theory of knowledge resource; New
basis of information management Theory of knowledge management theory of knowledge management
Promoting profound changes in Passive transformation; From Proactive transformation; Complete
Influence libraries; Activate innovation; change to transformation; New transformation; Generate new para-
on library Prepares for transformation types of librarianship; Innovation digms; Entered a new normal of deve-
transformation through change becomes the norm lopment