Page 13 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.47, 2021

012 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.13, 2021

The smart transformation has become the common choice of libraries all over the world
in the face of historical opportunities and challenges in the new developmental stage of
informationization. The exploration in some areas and libraries has accumulated experience and
laid a foundation for us to carry out the overall planning, top-level design and deployment of the
smart transformation of libraries in a larger scope.

3 Preliminary thinking on the construction of National Smart Library
System

The National Digital Library Project has built a platform for inter-library communication and
resource sharing across the country. On this basis, the National Smart Library System will further
transform and upgrade, reorganize operations, integrate resources, create knowledge service
ecology and provide smart services.
(1) Understanding and definition of the smart library
In recent years, the research and discussion on smart libraries has been deepening. The smart
library is not only a new developmental form of libraries adapting to technological changes but
also a new concept facing the future. On the one hand, it requires libraries to further improve
the management level and service efficiency by means of intelligent technology to provide more
convenient and efficient support for users to obtain knowledge and information. On the other hand,
it stresses that libraries should focus on the needs of users’ intellectual activities and provide more
professional and accurate knowledge and information services proactively. Its core lies in the
improvement of “library smartness” in knowledge organization, processing, storage, dissemination
and service with the extensive application of intelligent technology such as 5G, big data, cloud
computing and block chains so as to fully activate “user smartness” in the process of innovation
and creation, and ultimately serve the construction and development of the smart society.
To sum up, smart library at least contains the following four features: first, intelligent
management of the whole process of library operations. At the development stage of smart libraries,
the content and structure of library operations need to be restructured to realize the automated
and integrated management of information all through the life cycle, to promote efficiency of
management of library operations and to liberate librarians from a mass of simple transactional
work to provide professional knowledge and information geared to high-level learning and reading
needs. The second feature is the multi-dimensional integration of knowledge resources covering
the entire network. At the stage of smart libraries, the construction of library resources will break
the paradigm of integration and sharing within the industry. It will further realize the processing,
revealing, automatic semantic linking and integrative management services of multi-source
knowledge such as network raw resources, scientific data, open access resources and personal
resources, which forms the multi-dimensional system of knowledge resources covering the entire
network. The third feature is the universal connectivity of knowledge service chain. At the stage