Intelligent Technologies in Library and Information Service Applications

Citation

Limb, P. (2002), "Intelligent Technologies in Library and Information Service Applications", The Electronic Library, Vol. 20 No. 6, pp. 519-520. https://doi.org/10.1108/el.2002.20.6.519.6

Lancaster and Warner present a comprehensive survey of artificial intelligence and expert system applications in libraries and other areas. They aim to explicate for librarians how these can be applied because the breadth of theoretical studies has not been matched by successful applications (which are “pitifully few”, p. 124) in libraries.

After a brief introduction outlining aims and methodologies, chapter one summarises library applications such as cataloguing, information retrieval, and reference. The next chapter addresses wider applications that are nevertheless still closely related to libraries, such as intelligent text processing, machine translation and intelligent agents. The third chapter briefly examines applications from still wider fields, including medical diagnosis and groupware, whilst chapter four even more briefly surveys what the authors call “general technologies”, such as speech recognition and visual images. The final chapter presents conclusions and future implications and includes some discussion of digital libraries. The book is completed by appendices (listing techniques used, such as the study questionnaire), a very detailed bibliography, and an author‐subject index.

The authors survey a wide range of the literature and assess important and different applications for library use. In this, they are successful. The dazzling array of high‐tech options and practical examples presented will hopefully help stimulate librarians to pay closer attention to the possibilities inherent in this field, though they will have to look elsewhere for more details of practicalities. The authors also are ever alert to false promises often accompanying writings on this topic and warn against over‐reliance on technology. “People do not become experts merely by having an expert knowledge base available to them” (p. 128). This is a useful and stimulating book, probably the only one of its kind at this stage. It can help lead information workers out of the maze of the myriad studies on the subject. It is still not clear to this reviewer precisely what can or should be expected by way of imminent developments to practically assist librarians. Even in the USA, one often finds in libraries and other information arenas a curious combination of the old‐fashioned and hi‐tech, and cases where new AI technologies serve more to clutter and distract. Let us hope that others pick up the challenge that Lancaster and Warner throw out to make these technologies more useful in libraries.