Research on the development path of university smart library based on the Internet of things

Regarding the development of the Internet of things, it truly is a 1990's child. It was born out of the book ‘the road ahead’, written by Bill Gates and published in 1995. In 2005, the International Telecommunication Union's ITU Internet reports 2005: the Internet of things formally introduced the concept of the Internet of things. In China, we consider 2009 as the starting point, when the then-Chinese premier Wen Jiabao visited the industry research institute in Wuxi, Jiangsu, and gave important instructions to the Internet of things industry. Earlier in the same year, the idea of a ‘smarter planet’ was introduced by IBM overseas, which received a very positive response from the US government and moved up to a national strategy. In 2011, the Chinese Information Ministry formally issued ‘The Internet of things Twelve-Five development plan’. The Internet of things has risen to our national development strategy, and several guidelines and regulatory policies have been followed about the development of the Internet of things industry.

The Internet of things is an important part of the next generation of information technology. As its name suggests, the Internet of things is the internet that all things are connected. This has two meanings: first, the core and basis of the Internet of things is still the internet, the Internet of things is the extension and expansion of the internet network; second, the extension and expansion of the clients include exchange or communication of information between any articles and items. Using the combined application of Intelligent sense, recognition technology, pervasive computing, and ubiquitous networks, are called the third wave of information industry development after computers and the internet. The Internet of things is the application and expansion of the internet, and is not so much the network but rather services and applications. The core of the Internet of things is not the network. The network is neither its means nor is it an information sharing system. Information sharing is its means. The Internet of things is a perception and interaction system for the physical world. The development of the Internet of things is inseparable from the Internet, but it is not an extension of the Internet. The Internet of things being a collaborative, division of labour, organised social attribute architecture, it is concerned with the coordination between manufacturing links, the integration between industries, and the marginal effect of the deep integration of research, production, and financing, which promotes the formation of zero marginal cost, becomes an operator of intelligent manufacturing multi-format, and becomes an economic operation platform. Therefore, application innovation is essential to the development of Internet of things, with user experience-focused innovation 2.0 as its soul.

The emergence of the Internet of things technology had a huge impact on the operation and management mode of university libraries. Along with the development of modern information technology, China is ushering in a university ‘smart library’ construction and development boom. Many university libraries seize the opportunity, use advanced internet technology to provide readers with a variety of innovative services, and give readers a brand new feeling. The ‘wisdom’ of smart libraries mainly relies on the internet and Internet of things technology, and the core issue is how to enhance the ability to perceive information and process big data. The perception technology applied to the construction of smart libraries includes GPS, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, face recognition technology, laser scanning technology, etc. With the support of these technologies, the library has changed from a traditional fixed mode to a smart library, the original single independent device, through the Internet of things, to achieve the intelligent identification, transmission, service and management of human operating objects, material connection networks, and network feedback information to users. The trend will continue and develop further. The flexible application of IoT technology to the construction and management of smart libraries can not only bring readers a more convenient, high-quality, and efficient reading experience but also improve the management level of the library, reduce operating costs, and improve the efficiency on all fronts.

With the advancement of intelligence, in recent years, the Internet of things technology has more in-depth penetration into the construction of smart libraries, such as brushing face attendance, swiping cards to fetch water, book flow positioning, etc., which has greatly enriched the services of the library. The analysis of the concept and related technologies of the Internet of things, and the application of the Internet of things in academic library management will certainly help to promote the scientific development of smart library management in colleges and universities.

Li and Guo [1] believe that smart library came into being in the form of intelligent technology-driven, social development needs, and user needs transformation, which is an inevitable trend in the future development of university libraries and is also an important part of smart campuses and smart cities. Chu [2] proposes that libraries operated by traditional technologies can no longer provide users’ needs. With the development of emerging intelligent industries, smart libraries begin to play a role. Zhang [3] believes that RFID technology in the Internet of things architecture can intelligently manage library bibliography, which greatly reduces the bibliographic false detection rate, improves the bibliographic recall rate, provides effective help for library managers, and can also help library managers. Readers are provided with a higher level of service. Li and Li [4] believe that in the current smart library construction process, it is very important to use the Internet of things technology to create a linkage management system. Zhang's [5] understanding of a smart library is that its innovation is not an independent concept or entity, but an aggregation process closely related to governance, resources, and services. It is not only a process but also a concept and mechanism. Dasha [6] found in practice that the Internet of things technology has a great role in promoting the construction of smart libraries. In the process of building smart libraries, the use of Internet of things technology can make certain adjustments and improvements according to the needs of readers. Provide readers with a more targeted and high-quality reading experience. Dou [7] believes that smart libraries can use the Internet of things to speed up the construction of resource and technology sharing systems, effectively realise information exchange and sharing, and enrich library collection resources. Zhou [8] suggested that the library management should actively change the development concept, actively embrace the Internet of things environment, and effectively promote smart libraries in the Internet of things environment through three innovative paths: innovative concept models, innovative cooperation models, and innovative service teams. Intelligent and modern development, improve the quality of library management services and provide users with the best book lending and reading experience. Wang and Guan [9] analysed the system modules of the smart campus library and believed that the construction space of the smart campus library is still very large. It is necessary to synchronise the Internet of things technology, improve the branches and operation standards of each system and integrate the smart library. Efforts are on to integratethe construction process of the smart campus to improve the overall service capability of the campus. Zhao [10] believes that the combined development of the current Internet of things technology and smart libraries can realise the connection between books and people and the connection between books and books, thus improving the efficiency of resource utilisation in smart libraries. Yang and Dong [11] divided the research and development of smart libraries in China into the initial stage (2010–2012), the development stage (2013–2016) and the mature stage (2017–present). Wu [12] studied the status quo of intelligent services of university libraries in Dalian and proposed development strategies. By reflecting on the professional and technological progress of libraries, Buerger [13] believes that libraries in the future should provide readers with more intelligent services through strong alliances, structured division of labour and the development of intelligent networks. Aleksandar [14] utilised the smart library recommendation system to improve users’ motivation for continuous reading and learning and improve library service quality.

Kim and Abbas [15] believe that the main service goal of a smart library was to meet the personalised needs of users, and expounded the library 2.0 functions in the Web 2.0 environment, especially the functions of user-based behaviour analysis and knowledge management. Han [16] believes that smart library services mainly provide intelligent management and humanised services to users through intelligent sensing technologies such as the Internet of things. Mohammed and Younis [17] proposed the construction of a smart library management system based on RFID technology to facilitate the retrieval and borrowing of readers and the daily work of librarians and elaborated the concept, principle and application method of RFID technology in the library management system. Du and Liu [18] introduced the current development status of the Internet of things and its role in the smart library system from the concept and characteristics and expounded on the cost problem, structure and layout, technical standard and other problems in the application. Chu and Li [19] put forward that a smart library can fully perceive readers’ location, psychology and requirements in three dimensions with the help of an intelligent system, and provide various precise services according to readers’ needs. It is pointed out that there is a lack of practical application of specific technologies in the construction of smart libraries in China at present. Based on discussing the development process and characteristics of smart libraries, this paper analyses the application and value of RFID, the Internet of things, 3D virtual technology and data mining technology in smart libraries, as well as the requirements for the construction of smart librarians. Li and Dong [20] believe that a smart library should be a new type of green, efficient, comprehensive and interconnected library that gives full play to the advantages of new information technologies such as the Internet of things and human wisdom, communicates the physical and virtual space of library. Cao et al. [21] proposed that a smart library is to provide a way to perceive users and analyses user behaviours through the latest technology, to meet user needs. Chu and Duan [22] believe that smart libraries mainly provide knowledge and information service support for the modern development of cities and campuses, and strive to improve the service quality and level based on keeping the basic functions of libraries unchanged. Fu [23] expounded on the promotion effect of artificial intelligence technologies such as image recognition, RFID recognition and speech recognition on library services and management. Yan [24] believes that smart library puts forward higher intelligent requirements for technology, management and service based on the development of the digital library. The core of a smart library is to combine advanced science and technology with human intelligence, create an interactive and sharing environment, automatically perceive the needs of users, and have the ability of independent service.

With the advancement of the Internet of things, our university libraries have experienced the digital revolution. However, the integrated digital library of open hardware and software can only achieve document digitisation, data storage management and organisation, effective data access, query text-file search, publishing and transmission of digital data on the internet and other functions. The library collection management and service are still in the manual processing stage and this is an urgent problem for the university library. There are three aspects in the study of the Internet of things based smart library in China universities.

4.1

Combine part of the university library's digital infrastructures with the Internet of things to make the traditional library's circulation transition from manual to automatic. It includes automated checking in and checking out, automatic sorting and even automatic shelving

With the steady development of China's college libraries, the number of people served is huge. The traditional manual-based service is far behind the ever-growing demands from the teacher and the student readers. This requires part of the digital infrastructures to be able to incorporate the Internet of things, so the library circulation work can be made towards automation. Start from automated checking in and checking out, rise to automated sorting and automated shelving. To achieve this goal, among various schemes of the Internet of things based on automated systems, RFID technology RFID is more reasonable. With the help of RFID identification, fast inventory, self-checking in and checking out, fully automated sorting and other functions can be achieved. The introduction of such systems would make room for more university library development.

4.1.1

Introduction to smart library management systems and overview of its implementation in the university library

RFID is a wireless system with a simple composition of three parts: a reader, electronic tags and middleware, such as an antenna. It reads and writes data through radio signals recognition of sensing and communication technologies, without any mechanical or optical connections between the recognition system and objects being recognised. Its structure is demonstrated in Figure 1.

Fig. 1

With its excellent characteristics, RFID technology played a significant role in several areas. RFID technology is favoured by the university smart libraries and became an important component in the library systems due to the operation characteristics of these libraries. University library business includes library collection and reader circulation two components. Each volume is subject to catalogue, label and shelving by a librarian before a reader can search, retrieve and check it out.

The Internet of things based smart library management system can be set in two parts: front reception and backstage function. The front desk's functions include self-checking, searching, management of current issues and back issues in the reading room, management of the electronic reading room and entrance monitoring. The backstage function is to assist library staff to complete cataloging and circulation, collection, processing, electronic labelling, card processing, book inventory and rearranging misplaced books. The Internet of things front desk of the university library system are composed of five subsystems: (1) Self-registration system. The self-registration system simplifies the manual processing of complex procedures. Readers can get a library card and recharge the card. For overdue cases, the system automatically debits the card, which meets the individual needs of readers, saves readers time and allows convenient handling of the card; (2) Self-service system. The self-service system can scan the collections and books, identify and process checking in and checking out. It allows readers to process multiple checking in one transaction; (3) Subsystem of periodicals of current and past issues, plus the electronic reading room. The RFID device is used to identify the reader on the library card, collect and store the reader's information such as the time spent in the periodical reading room daily; (4) Intelligent navigation system. The intelligent navigation system can improve the library's organisational structure and management, and implement precise allocation and navigation query of the library collections. Readers can use this system to look up specific kinds of books and their shelving location and access the needed books easily; (5) Security system for access control. It mainly consists of RFID circuits, sound and light alarms, a security door-type antenna and a camera system that is used to monitor the books equipped with RFID tags. When unchecked books leave the library, the sound and light alarm will be set off and the camera system will be triggered at the same time. The access security will be greatly improved. The backstage subsystem consists of:

4.1.1.1

An electronic label converting system

This system can perform a quick barcode scan on books, write the barcode data conversion to electronic chips and automatic tag-stripping and book-tagging to achieve the conversion from the barcode to RFID tag;

4.1.1.2

Library workstation system

The library workstation system can help the librarians to efficiently catalogue, process and tag books as well as issue cards and checkbooks; (3) Collection inventory system. This system can accurately scan the collection, shelving and performing statistics, query and inventory.

4.1.2

The advantage of RFID smart library management system in the university library

Considering the characteristics of the library business process and that of RFID technologies, it's easy to conclude that RFID smart library management system has many advantages in the university library:

4.1.2.1

High investment return

To implement an RFID system in a library, a large collection of data need to be entered in the chips. The cost of RFID chips became an important bottleneck. But the operation hardware wear and maintenance cost of the RFID chips are significantly reduced. It has the characteristic of ‘one time cost, long-term use’ and thus benefits with a high return on investment.

4.1.2.2

Simple implementation and easy to use

RFID systems are easy to instal, debug and maintain. In addition, the current libraries have pretty much been in the stage of barcode technology-based computer system management. Therefore, with just a tag-switching system the RFID system can be made to link seamlessly with the existing library management system. This is the reason why RFID technology can be successfully used in the field of the university library and is accepted widely.

4.2

Part of the university library's digital infrastructure to be upgraded for cloud computing to have the capability of infrastructure service, management and control platform, and intelligent service

Cloud computing smart library systems in colleges and universities are private cloud e-commerce systems with internet content service. Users, whether online or in the library, have access to the service of borrowing, purchasing, e-book subscribing and article excerpting, etc. It also offers personal digital libraries, library personal digital space and library community digital space and other services.

The overview of the university library upgrade from digital infrastructure to cloud computing is demonstrated in Figure 2. It is based on the RFID smart library management system as well as two existing digital library infrastructures in the university and bridged with a private cloud computing platform.

Fig. 2

After the computer, Internet and mobile communication, the Internet of things has been gradually known, accepted and loved. Along with the continued growth and development of the Internet of things technology, smart library management businesses have increased service values multiple times. This paper analysed the decisive role that the Internet of things plays in the development of smart libraries in colleges and universities. We fervently hope there will be more university libraries that will start moving towards ‘university smart library’ in its true meaning.