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The purpose of this paper is to explore how robots are being used in libraries and information centers to transform their services and what are the future possibilities and trends in the application of robots in libraries.

Through a review of the literature, this paper analyzes various library websites and consults literature relating to the use of telepresence robots in libraries; the current application of robots in libraries has been enumerated along with case studies of libraries currently adopting telepresence robots.

With the practical examples of libraries using different types of robots, this study summarizes diverse activities of artificial intelligence-mediated robots. The uses of telepresence technology in libraries help to enhance library services, reach new users and provide a more inclusive and accessible library experience. Telepresence robots enhance the quality and accessibility of library services, expand library outreach and provide new opportunities for virtual engagement and programming. The application of telepresence robots in libraries can offer many benefits, but there are also several challenges that libraries must address to ensure successful implementation.

This study will motivate libraries and library professionals to take advantage of adopting telepresence robots in library and information center services and further accelerate library operations in the right direction.

This paper highlights how the introduction of telepresence robots in libraries improves services and productivity and creates a more engaging environment for the user group. The benefits and challenges of using robots in the library and the future trend in the application of telepresence robots in libraries are also discussed.

Library assistants were originally considered to be professional librarians in the making, and were trained accordingly. With the expansion of libraries and librarianship, Britain's “apprenticeship” system of qualification gave way to formal library school education, and a new category of “non‐professional staff” was created, of people who were unwilling or unable to proceed to graduate‐level qualification. The development of non‐professional certificates of competence in the UK is described against parallel developments in the US, Canada and Australia; the COMLA training modules are also examined. The theoretical and practical issues surrounding training are discussed, training schemes and qualifications in the four countries analysed, and the relative merits of in‐house training and external certificate programmes argued.

The subject of this paper is wearable computing technology. The purpose of this paper is to determine its potential in libraries to meet the needs of both users and librarians. The specific goals include: description of the main features of wearable computing from the perspective of its potential usefulness in libraries; analysis of areas of wearable computing use in public institutions; discussion of the potential of wearable computing for library users; and discussion of the potential of wearable computing for librarians to determine its potential in libraries to meet the needs of users and librarians.

The method of subject literature overview was used. The state of research from the period 2008 to 2018 on the use of wearable computing in libraries was established based on a search of selected sources Web of Science, Scopus, Elsevier and Emerald databases and LISTA database.

Wearable computing can be used in many areas of library activities to serve the needs of users and librarians. In the context of services for users, wearable computing can be used, among others, to help users navigate the library, to provide resources in new and interesting forms, and in education and entertainment. For the needs of librarians, additional data provided via wearable devices can accelerate the process of cataloguing resources and increase motivation to work via gamification options and features that make it possible to measure personal work efficiency. Librarians can also use the data obtained wearable computing devices to more quickly track, identify, select and organize resources. As with users, librarians can also use wearable computing in their education.

The paper is a viewpoint based on subject literature. It presents only a sketch of potential wearable computing applications in libraries. The aim of the paper is to initiate further discussion on the possibilities of using wearable devices to improve both services for users and internal library processes. The author’s hope is that the concepts presented here will be tested in practice by librarians, which will allow further development of research on this subject.

The results can be widely used in practice as a framework for the implementation of wearable computing solutions in libraries.

The paper can help to facilitate the debate on the role of the implementation of new technologies in libraries.

The issue of the use of wearable computing has not yet been widely discussed in library and information science journals. In the very few publications on similar topics, only the perspective on the application of new solutions in services for users is presented. This paper also shows the potential for improving libraries’ internal processes with the use of wearable computing.

For a variety of reasons, librarians are continually obliged to examine the extent to which their bookstocks are used. This obligation may arise out of simple curiosity, to provide comparisons with other time periods or other institutions, or to measure the extent to which prescribed objectives are being reached. Increasingly, because space is limited and some means must be devised of selecting material for relegation to a less expensive form of storage or for withdrawal completely, the criterion set for relegation is usually one of use.

This study aims to ascertain the information professionals’ perceptions and attitudes towards the application of linked data (LD) technologies in libraries in the context of a developing country. It also explores the Pakistani information professionals’ level of familiarity with LD concepts, plans and efforts in its application, along with its potential benefits.

An online questionnaire survey was used to identify the information professionals’ perceived level of familiarity with LD concepts and benefits to implement LD in libraries, and their plans and efforts to adopt LD technologies. A questionnaire was developed to meet the objective of the study and collect data from the purposefully selected professionals (N = 86) working in university libraries in Pakistan. SPSS was used to analyse the data set.

Findings show that LD application in libraries is still not common among Pakistani information professionals. They have a moderate level of understanding with semantic Web (SW) and LD key concepts. The respondents were positive about the potential benefits of implementing LD technology in libraries, such as assisting patrons to discover relevant information, enriching traditional bibliographic records, enhancing the visibility and discoverability of library data and improving the users’ overall search experiences that may foster future developments. Overall, the respondents’ institutions were on different levels of planning – from working on a plan to having a finalized plan. The findings emphasized establishing the SW’s potential in library services.

There are certain limitations of this study. Firstly, the population is Pakistani information professionals who are purposefully selected. Secondly, the findings reveal that the respondents’ understanding with LD concepts, opinions about LD, plans and efforts to its application along with its potential benefits in libraries are self-perceived and not tested in any way and they were not actually implementing these technologies in their institutions because of a lack of best practices. It is a quantitative study and it will serve as a baseline study, even though there is a need to conduct more in-depth qualitative studies in the information environment to explore the phenomenon.

This study will guide information professionals and policymakers to take initiatives towards the implementation of LD technology in libraries. It may also lead to further research to understand the perceptions of information professionals so that appropriate training and advocacy programmes can be developed to promote LD initiatives in libraries.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first known empirical study in the context of a developing country. It clearly demonstrates the Pakistani information professionals’ perceptions regarding the library LD and associated plans along with potential benefits to implement it.

Intellectual access to recorded information has been a major preoccupation of librarians and various methods have been used to evaluate library programmes. Statistical methods have been used recently in library evaluation and management. Managing the physical availability of books can contribute to greater effectiveness in dealing with such matters as library space, book acquisition, cost effectiveness in budgeting, staffing assignments and other aspects of library service that would make the book readily available to the user. This study uses quantitative analysis to determine in‐library book use at the University of Calabar. It was found that many people use the library for various reasons, especially during examination periods, other than for reading library books. These range from reading recommended texts to leisure reading. More use is made of the library materials for research purposes where there are current journals.

The purpose of this study is to introduce the concept of big data and provide a comprehensive overview to readers to understand big data application framework in libraries.

The authors first used the text analysis and inductive analysis method to understand the concept of big data, summarize the challenges and opportunities of applying big data in libraries and further propose the big data application framework in libraries. Then they used questionnaire survey method to collect data from librarians to assess the feasibility of applying big data application framework in libraries.

The challenges of applying big data in libraries mainly include data accuracy, data reduction and compression, data confidentiality and security and big data processing system and technology. The opportunities of applying big data in libraries mainly include enrich the library database, enhance the skills of librarians, promote interlibrary loan service and provide personalized knowledge service. Big data application framework in libraries can be considered from five dimensions: human resource, literature resource, technology support, service innovation and infrastructure construction. Most libraries think that the big data application framework is feasible and tend to apply big data application framework. The main obstacles to prevent them from applying big data application framework is the human resource and information technology level.

This research offers several implications and practical solutions for libraries to apply big data application framework.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework of applying the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to the intelligent evacuation protocol in libraries at emergency situations.

The authors conducted field investigations on eight libraries in Wuhan, China, analyzed the characteristics of crowd gathering in libraries and the problems of the libraries’ existing evacuation plans. Therefore, an IoT-based intelligent evacuation protocol in libraries was proposed. Its basic structure consisted of five components: the information base, the protocol base, the IoT sensors, the information fusion system and the intelligent evacuation protocol generation system. In the information fusion system, Dempster–Shafer (D-S) evidence theory was employed as the information fusion algorithm to fuse the multi-sensor information at multiple time points, so as to reduce the uncertainty of disaster prediction. The authors also conducted a case study on the Library L in Wuhan, China. A specific evacuation route was generated for a fire and the crowd evacuation was simulated by the software Patherfind.

The proposed IoT-based evacuation protocol has four distinguishing features: scenario corresponding, precise evacuation, dynamic correction and intelligent decision-making. The case study shows that the proposed protocol is feasible in practice, indicating that the IoT technologies have great potential to be successfully applied to the safety management in libraries.

The software and hardware requirements as well as the Internet network requirements of IoT technologies need to be further discussed.

The proposed IoT-based intelligent evacuation protocol can be widely used in libraries, which is one of the inspirations for the use of IoT technologies in modern constructers.

The application of IoT technologies in libraries is a brand-new topic that has drawn much attention in academia recently. The crowd safety management in libraries is of great significance, and there is little professional literature on it. This paper proposes an IoT-based intelligent evacuation protocol, aiming at improving the safety management in libraries at emergency situations.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize a library use study of the central and community branches of a Canadian public library. An exit survey documented the in-branch activities of users as a part of a library strategic planning process. Survey results were used in combination with branch statistics, postal code circulation statistics, neighbourhood demographics and other data sources to document the in-library use of the two facilities.

Questionnaires were administered to library users 15 years of age or older at the exits of the central and community branches. The survey collected data on their activities and services used during their current visit. Additional sources such as branch-level statistics, furniture tally sheets, photographs, Canada Census data and circulation analysis by patron postal code and lending branch were used during the analysis stage.

Both branches are heavily used but in different ways. Branch circulation and gate count per square foot of floor space were high relative to other Canadian libraries. Patron visits to the community branch were short in duration, in line with previous public library studies. User visit duration and in-library activities within the main branch somewhat resembled those of the central branch of a larger library system but likely for different reasons.

The study was exploratory. Data were collected during two coinciding days of library operation, a Thursday and a Saturday, and may not be representative of the underlying population. The study was limited in scope as it was a community service project for undergraduate university students.

Branch library use surveys, in combination with library statistics and demographics, can provide useful insights concerning in-library patron behaviour when the use of ethnographic techniques is not feasible.

The study explored differences and similarities in user behaviour in two types of library facilities, a central and a community branch. Few published studies make such a direct comparison. The study explored the perceived benefits received by patrons from public library use and incorporated branch statistics, circulation analysis and Census data.

Libraries in Africa are adopting technology at a fast pace. However, literature has provided enough evidence of the many challenges libraries on the continent are facing in the use of the adopted information technology of which information systems (ISs) are major components. Literature also does not provide evidence of IS standard, policy or guideline at both national and international levels as a benchmark for the use of these systems. Therefore, this paper aims to propose an IS standard guideline as a guide for libraries in Africa to develop IS policies, standards or guidelines to help in effective use of IS in libraries.

The researchers based their proposed standard guideline on the findings from their earlier research works and evidence from other existing literature as has been reviewed in this paper.

Findings from the literature revealed that libraries in Africa face a number of challenges in the use of IS which can be categorised into four main areas, namely, financial challenges, technological and infrastructural challenges, human resource challenges and organizational challenges.

This paper proposed an IS standard guideline to serve as a guide for libraries in Africa to develop IS policies, standards or guidelines to help in effective use of IS in libraries.