Page 12 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.47, 2021

RAO Quan / National smart library system: opening a new chapter for the transformation toward smart libraries 011

[18]
to transform the public cultural service and the cultural industry in an all-round way” . In May
2020, the Cultural Reform Office of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China
issued the Notice on the Construction of National Cultural Big Data System, which considered “the
construction of national cultural big data system” as “a major basic project of cultural construction
in the new era”. It further clarified the policy of “opening up cultural undertakings and industries,
making cultural production and consumption barrier-free, integrating culture, science and
technology, connecting cultural domains and operations, and promoting achievements of cultural
[19]
digitalization to be networked and intelligent” .
In regard to opportunities and challenges brought by the development of the smart society, some
libraries at home and abroad make exploration in smart space planning, smart library building,
smart operation management, smart service innovation and so on. The application of AI technology
has made positive progress in fields such as automatic sorting and delivery of documents, face
recognition, non-inductive borrowing, robot navigation, virtual narration and simulated experience,
which improves the efficiency of operation management and users’ experience in online and
offline learning and reading. For example, the British Library, the University of Chicago Library
(United States), the Meiji University Library (Japan) and the Suzhou Second Library have built
the intelligent repository system, which can realize the intelligent management of automatic
storage, retrieval, sorting and delivery through intelligent shelves and robots. Tens of thousands
of books can be processed in an intelligent way every day. With the support of intelligent
technologies such as RFID perception and computer vision, the smart checking robot developed
by the Nanjing University Library can check books automatically, accurately and reliably. It can
[20]
check over 20, 000 books per hour and the missed reading rate is less than 1% . The Westport
Library in Connecticut (United States), the Mount Saint Vincent University Library (Canada)
and the Shanghai Library have introduced interactive robots that integrate face recognition, users
welcoming, narration, intelligent interaction, book retrieval, information query and other functions
into one, providing humanized accompanying guidance for readers.
At the same time, libraries began to unite with social forces to provide solutions to the
application of intelligent technology in some library operations and services. For example, the
NLC cooperated with publishing institutions and enterprises to create an immersive reading
experience based on 5G, panoramic video, holograms and other new technologies. Exhibitions
of high-quality collections were transformed into holographic image resources, and 360-degree
screens, VR glasses and other technological equipment were used to provide the public with
panoramic interactive reading experience. The new library of the Jiangxi Province cooperated
with high-tech enterprises to build smart reading space, which could recognize users’ faces and
push resources through big data analysis to achieve “each one has his/her own preference”. The
Shanghai Library Association, together with high-tech enterprises, promoted the deployment of the
third-generation open service platform of digital libraries based on “micro-service” in libraries of
all levels in Shanghai, accelerating the construction of smart libraries.