Page 36 - Journal of Library Science in China 2020 Vol.46

Construction of smart libraries with new generation

service platforms: Business reengineering and data
management

〇a ∗
SHAO Bo , SHAN Zhen & WANG Yi
School of Information Management, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China

Abstract
With the comprehensive enhancement of data awareness in the information age, library, as an
essential support for scientific research and cultural development, should accelerates the digital
and smart transformation of its service and business management. Taking the implementation of
the new generation library service platform as an opportunity, this paper reviews the history of the
reengineering of library business in China and explores the approaches and main contents of the
process in the context of big data, including the reengineering of acquisition process, collection mode,
service process and library personnel. In the context of smart library construction, we shall innovate
the concept of library services, provide integrated reader services and resource discovery services,
reconstruct academic services, and enhance data management. Looking from the perspective of the
macro-planning of libraries nationwide, library alliances also need to be reconstructed and upgraded
to smart library consortia. This paper argues that libraries as a whole shall jump out of the traditional
literature service scope, focus on the entire process of data collection, organization, mining and
application with smart computing of data as the core, and regard data service as the priority of library
services in the new era.

Keywords
Smart library, Business reengineering, Data service, Library alliance, Librarian

In the era of big data, the new generation of technology, with artificial intelligence, Internet of
Things and cloud computing as its core, has driven profound changes in libraries, reshaping the
service mode, user behavior, the direction of resource development, and the roles of librarians.
During the transformation of the library, business restructuring and organizational reorganization
become key elements of smart library construction, and data management and services will become
the major task of the library. At the same time, modern research is becoming data-intensive (Hey,
Tansley, & Tolle, 2009), hence the analysis and processing of massive data is also an important
achievement of scientific discovery, which fully demonstrates the trend and tendency of the
development of library data management and services.
According to the report of Development and access to information 2019 by International
Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA, 2019), libraries have long been at

* Correspondence should be addressed to SHAO Bo, Email: shao@nju.edu.cn, ORCID: 0000-0002-6528-
5196.