Industrial revolution 4.0: implication to libraries and librarians

Abstract

Purpose

Industry 4.0 is a term for the so-called Fourth Industrial revolutions. It is the technological integration of cyber-physical systems (CPS) in the process of production. CPS enables internet-based process networking with all participants in the process of value creation. The industrial revolution is actually changing how we live, work and communicate. Many trades have highly been affected by 4IR, libraries are one of them. The libraries of twenty-first century are shifting their paradigms from traditional setup to modern information networking. As people and machines are connecting to each other at enormous speed, artificial intelligence, mobile computing, machine learning and automation of every trade have become a need of the day. Automation and artificial intelligence are change agents in 4IR that will make certain groups of employees redundant, replacing them with new workers with the needed skills or with machines that do the job cheaper. This paper aims to shed light on how the 4IR will “shape the future of education, gender, work and library services”. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the challenges being faced by the library and librarians in the age of Industrial 4.0 revolution in contemporary society. The purpose of this study is to review the past literature on Industrial Revolutions 4.0 in education and interlink them with Library services.

Design/methodology/approach

The current study performs a systematic and content-centric review of literature relevant to library services. The literature of this study is based on a six-stage approach to identify the design principles and technology trends of 4IR in education and Library services.

Findings

Industry 4.0 Revolution is the current trend of revolutionary technology, which has affected many services in this age of globalization. Similar, Library services have highly been affected by 4IR. An effort has been made to highlight the vari-ous challenges being faced by libraries and librarians in this age of information. Some solutions have been presented to the library professionals to overcome this technology to boost its services up to the entire satisfaction of the patrons.

Research limitations/implications

The strategic approach in this study can serve the academicians and practitioners in the field of librarianship as a stepping stone to develop a successful transition from traditional manufacturing into the industry 4.0.

Originality/value

The study is among the first to identify the challenges being faced by libraries and librarians in this age of Industrial revolutions.

Citation

Hussain, A. (2020), "Industrial revolution 4.0: implication to libraries and librarians", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 37 No. 1, pp. 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-05-2019-0033