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The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of higher education students’ experiences in using smartphones for learning purposes, and their perceptions of the suitability of smartphones for learning.

A qualitative research method is applied to data collection and analysis by following the grounded theory approach. Data were gathered by an online focus group involving Library and Information Science (LIS) students from University of Hong Kong and University of Tsukuba (Japan).

LIS students at both universities regularly use smartphones for communication, socializing, entertainment and other daily information needs. The findings show that LIS students commonly use smartphones for learning and consider smartphones to be very useful for their academic work. They use smartphones to access course materials, search library catalog, discuss course assignments with peers, take notes, etc. Although both academic libraries involved offer a variety of services for mobile devices, these services are still not used frequently. A major barrier to using smartphone for academic learning is the smartphone’s small screen.

The study relies on a convenience sample, restricted to students from two universities, one from Hong Kong and the other from Japan. Further research on a larger sample is recommended.

The study adds to the knowledge of smartphone actual use for learning purposes and provides study participants’ insights on the usefulness of smartphones for learning.

The purpose of this study is to examine and compare the different roles and expectations of the school librarians as information literacy (IL) instructors between Hong Kong, Japan, Shanghai, South Korea, and Taipei. School librarians are not merely managers of the school libraries nowadays; they are also expected to serve as administrators, teaching consultants, information specialists and IL teachers, etc. Unfortunately, in many countries, especially in Asia, there has always been a lack of understanding on the parts of the classroom teachers and school administration about their role as IL specialists in the public school system.

The school librarians in Hong Kong, Japan, Shanghai, South Korea and Taipei were invited to take part in a questionnaire survey. A total number of 466 self-completed questionnaires were collected from all 5 regions.

The results indicated that the school librarians in both Taipei and South Korea outperformed the other regions, in terms of the scope and extent of duties and responsibilities these school librarians undertook as IL skills instructors. The staffing and organizational structures amongst the school libraries in Taipei also tended to be far more affluent and “departmentalized” in comparison to the other four regions. Results also indicated that the amount of IL instructions carried out by the school librarians were directly proportional to the frequencies of collaborations the school librarians carried out with other subject teachers as well as the extent the librarians themselves could contribute to the curriculum as both information consultants and curriculum facilitators. Finally, the amount and level of reference duties performed by these school librarians for supporting the teaching of other subject teachers was another factor contributing to the overall success of IL instructions programmes being carried out.

The complex interactions of global trend and local responses in education system cannot easily be understood without the use of comparative studies (Arnove and Torres, 1999). The value of comparative studies lies in its potentials in highlighting the strengths and deficiencies of the education systems being examined and thereby identifying valuable features of both foreign and local systems, as well as exposing defects for necessary improvements. Nevertheless, there has been a lack of cross-regional comparative research on IL programmes carried out via school libraries in East Asia. This study aims to provide a cross-analysis of empirical data collected in five different regions in East Asia for examining the issues of the role of the school librarians as IL skills specialists, by looking at their relationships with other colleagues as well as their role as curriculum facilitator within the school community as a whole.

This research conducts bibliometric analyses and network mapping on smart libraries worldwide. It examines publication profiles, identifies the most cited publications and preferred sources and considers the cooperation of the authors, organizations and countries worldwide. The research also highlights keyword trends and clusters and finds new developments and emerging trends from the co-cited references network.

A total of 264 records with 1,200 citations were extracted from the Web of Science database from 2003 to 2021. The trends in the smart library were analyzed and visualized using BibExcel, VOSviewer, Biblioshiny and CiteSpace.

The People’s Republic of China had the most publications (119), the most citations (374), the highest H-index (12) and the highest total link strength (TLS = 25). Wuhan University had the highest H-index (6). Chiu, Dickson K. W. (H-index = 4, TLS = 22) and Lo, Patrick (H-index = 4, TLS = 21) from the University of Hong Kong had the highest H-indices and were the most cooperative authors. Library Hi Tech was the most preferred journal. “Mobile library” was the most frequently used keyword. “Mobile context” was the largest cluster on the research front.

This study helps librarians, scientists and funders understand smart library trends.

There are several studies and solid background research on smart libraries. However, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to conduct bibliometric analyses and network mapping on smart libraries around the globe.