Page 28 - Journal of Library Science in China 2020 Vol.46

LI Yuhai, JIN Zhe, LI Jiahui & LI Jue / Five questions in the construction of smart library in China 027

There are three major problems in the construction of smart library. First, the goals are not clear.
For example, there are still doubts over: how to intelligently perceive users’ needs, so as to provide
ubiquitous, accurate and satisfactory services; what conditions the physical space of a smart
library shall have to provide smart services; what the key technologies and construction standards
of the smart library are. Second, the requirements for librarians are not clear. To be specific, in
the process of transformation and upgrading from digital to smart: what types of professional
knowledge should librarians have; it is necessary to recruit and train talents for the construction
of smart library; and what types of professional talents shall be recruited. Third, at the business
level, the smart transformation of management, service, publicity and other existing activities are
not clear. For example, it is not clear in terms of how to carry out in-depth semantic mining with
existing digital resources, so that they can be discovered by users through smart perception and be
ready for smart recommendation; how to transfer literature resources and embedded disciplinary
services to smart library; and what new services the smart library will bring. In addition, the
smart transformation of the library also needs to be accomplished based on the real conditions of
the library contexts. The construction strategy is not static or uniform. Another challenge to be
addressed is how to address general and specific characteristics in the construction of smart library
is.
Until now, many researchers at home and abroad have expressed their views on the construction
of smart library. In China, some scholars and university libraries have put forward plans or
strategies for the construction of smart library. SONG and DUAN (2018) put forward a conceptual
model of smart library construction in the context of smart society construction, and advocated
that the construction of smart library shall not only follow the development ideas of smart society,
but also strengthen the macro-ecology of joint construction and sharing between libraries and
the interconnected micro-ecologies within libraries. Nanjing University Library has built a smart
service system covering three aspects: physical venues, information service platforms, and smart
services, and has launched a series of smart library services since 2012 (K. L. SHEN & SHAO,
2015). YAO, YU, and XIANG (2016) based on the practice of the construction of the new smart
library in Ningbo Library, designed a relatively complete seven-layer smart library framework
including the layers for carrier, basic support, perception, data, application support, application and
service.
In foreign countries, research on the construction of smart library usually focuses on the
technological application in the construction process. In February 2010, the Smart Libraries
Newsletter of the American Library Association (ALA) set up a column on “Technical development
of smart libraries” to introduce the latest development trends of smart library related technologies
(Wilson & Vincent, 2010). Other countries have also designed in-library positioning systems, seat
reservation systems and other systems for the convenience of management. The University of
Jaume I in Spain uses the Geographic Information System (GIS) to locate the library collection.
Readers can input the information of the books they need on mobile devices, then the system will