Library Hi Tech

Publisher:: Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Publication date:: 2021-02-01

ISBN:: 0737-8831

Issue Number

Latest documents

Editorial
Information integration in libraries
Purpose: This paper investigates the latest achievements of studies on industrial information integration engineering (IIIE). Design/methodology/approach: This paper extends the research by Chen (2016) by reviewing studies from 2016 to 2019 in IEEE Xplore and Web of Science. Altogether, 970 papers related to IIIE are grouped into 27 research categories and reviewed. Findings: The results obtained in this study indicate that the number of research studies on IIIE rose drastically in the past three years compared with the findings in Chen (2016). Particularly, energy, engineering, industrial control, information and communications technologies, instrumentation, manufacturing and transportation are the hot topics. This change proves that the Internet of things (IoT) and IIIE have integrated closely by providing more applications, such as industrial Internet of things (IIoT), cyber-physical system (CPS), smart grids and smart manufacturing. This change also proves the research direction of IIIE identified by Chen (2016). Originality/value: The results present up-to-date development of IIIE and provide directions for future research on IIIE. The review identifies that energy, engineering, industrial control, information and communications technologies, instrumentation, manufacturing and transportation are the main fields that most of the reviewed papers focus on. Applications that integrate IoT and IIIE, including IIoT, CPS, smart grids and smart manufacturing, are attracting scholars' and practitioners' attention. Some new technologies, such as 5G and blockchain, have the potential to be integrated with IoT and IIIE.
Theoretical foundations and applications of cyber-physical systems: a literature review
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the current research on theoretical foundations and applications for CPS from 2017 to 2019 including the applications in library. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is designed in six parts as Introduction, Literature review, Theoretical foundations of CPS, Applications of CPS, CPS’s application in library and Conclusion. The authors review 70 papers and classify them as the above six parts. The authors collected 70 papers from 2017 to 2019 in the academic databases. Findings: This paper reviews 70 papers regarding theoretical foundations and applications for CPS from 2017 to 2019 in the academic databases aiming to provide scholars and practitioners with a comprehensive overview. The contents of the papers in each research category are summarized from theoretical foundations and applications including the CPS applications in library. Originality/value: A main contribution of this review paper is that it summarizes the current state-of-the-art theoretical foundations and applications for CPS and in libraries systematically.
A material delivery system built on Internet of Things and the role of libraries
Purpose: After the occurrence of natural disasters, the rapid and accurate delivery of geo-afforestation is the key to emergency rescue and is the fundamental solution to the “last mile” problem. It provides technical support for the territorial rapid and accurate delivery. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach: Through literature and theoretical research, combined with the research experience of scholars, the qualitative research method is adopted. The paper establishes a three-dimensional analysis framework, including disaster predictability, resource availability and transport accessibility, and proposes the integrated delivery triangular technical framework, including integrated monitoring analysis, the territorial virtual public storage and transportation. Findings: Based on the analysis of the factors affecting the effectiveness of emergency delivery, the paper establishes a three-dimensional analysis framework, including disaster predictability, resource availability and transport accessibility, and proposes the integrated delivery triangular technical framework, including integrated monitoring analysis, the territorial virtual public storage and transportation. The triangular technical characteristics and functions of emergency delivery are studied, providing theoretical basis and technical support for effective rescue and emergency planning. Originality/value: The territorial emergency delivery refers to the process of rapid and accurate delivery without relying on external territorial supplies. The paper establishes a three-dimensional analysis framework, including disaster predictability, resource availability and transport accessibility, and proposes the integrated delivery triangular technical framework, including integrated monitoring analysis, the territorial virtual public storage and transportation.
An IoT-based risk warning system for smart libraries
Purpose: When integrating smart elements offered by emergent technologies, libraries are facing the challenges of technological renovation and maintaining their operation using emerging technology. Given the importance of smart library, new technologies are needed in building new libraries or renovation of existing libraries. The purpose of this paper is to propose a risk warning system for library construction or renovation in the aspect of risk management. Design/methodology/approach: The proposed Internet of Things (IoT)-based system consists of sensors that automatically monitor the status of materials, equipment and construction activities in real time. AI techniques including case-based reasoning and fuzzy sets are applied. Findings: The proposed system can easily track material flow and visualize construction processes. The experiment shows that the proposed system can effectively detect, monitor and manage risks in construction projects including library construction. Originality/value: Compared with existing risk warning systems, the proposed IoT-based system requires less data for making dynamic predictions. The proposed system can be applied to new builds and renovation of libraries.
Uncovering diffusion trends in computer science and physics publications
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to trace the knowledge diffusion patterns between the publications of top journals of computer science and physics to uncover the knowledge diffusion trends. Design/methodology/approach: The degree of information flow between the disciplines is a measure of entropy and received citations. The entropy gives the uncertainty in the citation distribution of a journal; the more a journal is involved in spreading information or affected by other journals, its entropy increases. The citations from outside category give the degree of inter-disciplinarity index as the percentage of references made to papers of another discipline. In this study, the topic-related diffusion across computer science and physics scholarly communication network is studied to examine how the same research topic is studied and shared across disciplines. Findings: For three indicators, Shannon entropy, citations outside category (COC) and research keywords, a global view of information flow at the journal level between both disciplines is obtained. It is observed that computer science mostly cites knowledge published in physics journals as compared to physics journals that cite knowledge within the field. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that traces knowledge diffusion trends between computer science and physics publications at journal level using entropy, COC and research keywords.
Application of public blockchain to control the immutability of data in online scientific periodicals
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address the problem of content immutability and integrity of online scientific periodicals on the sites of small publishers that can be violated not only by the external hack of the publisher’s site but also by publisher’s and author’s misconduct or by submitting different versions of a periodical to different sites. Design/methodology/approach: The authors defined a list of requirements that verify online scientific publications immutability and integrity. Then, the authors analyzed existing projects and recently emerged information on security technologies and identified challenges met during the development and testing. The use of the public blockchain network Ethereum as a secure storage location for data was explained. Findings: The authors developed the method of checking online scientific periodicals for immutability and presented ecosystem architecture to control immutability and integrity of data. On the example of the online periodical “Istoriya”, it was demonstrated how the immutability of online scientific publication has been verified with the use of the public blockchain over a six-month period. First, operating results were evaluated; challenges hampering the implementation of the suggested ecosystem on Ethereum now were identified; and potential advantages of the suggested approach as compared to similar projects were discovered. Research limitations/implications: The considered prototype is not a ready-to-use system, but in future providing higher transparency and the development of general distributed ecosystem small publishers will have new opportunities for development given that the issues of scalability, reliability and operating speed on a public blockchain will be addressed. Introduction of the described ecosystem may even provoke some changes on such conservative market as that of publishing of academic papers. Originality/value: This research is one of the first attempts to expand digital object identifier technology with the use of additional verifications based on the data storage and search in the public blockchain. The suggested idea is the example of “blockchainified science” that was brought to implementation in a real online journal. This method has some advantages compared to Crossmark service.
Retrospective analysis of a sustainable 3D printing service in an academic library
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the sustainability of an academic library 3D printing service. Originally intended to introduce students to an emerging technology, the 3D printing service at the University of Florida (UF) libraries expanded to support teaching, learning and research, allowing faculty, staff and students to engage in the maker movement. Design/methodology/approach: This paper analyzed usage data collected by the library’s 3D printing service from April 2014 through March 2018. These data include the number of prints produced, amount of filament consumed, user academic demographics and whether it is for academic assignments, research or personal projects. Findings: The data show that the initial 3D printing service users were predominantly engineering students; however, over the four-year period, the service has built up a consistent and diverse user base and expanded the number and types of printers. With grants covering the purchase of the 3D printers and a modest charge for printing ($0.15 per gram of model weight), the 3D printing service has achieved a sustainable level. Originality/value: UF was one of the first academic libraries to offer 3D printing services and has collected four years of data to evaluate the sustainability of the service. These data demonstrate that the service is a valuable and sustainable asset, allowing students and researchers to visualize and innovate in such diverse fields as anthropology, archaeology, art, biology, chemistry and mathematics.
Making the future makers. Makerspace curriculum in library and information science graduate programs and continuing education
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore curriculum related to makerspaces and making within library and information science graduate programs and continuing education opportunities available to librarians. These findings are compared against prior assessments of makerspace-related educational offerings, as well as contrasted with recent practitioner survey results indicating the number of library practitioners involved in makerspace work and their needs. Design/methodology/approach: This paper employs content analysis to assess makerspace topics within American Library Association (ALA)-accredited library and information science Masters programs’ course catalogs and in continuing education opportunities for librarians. Findings: This work identified a total of eight courses from seven ALA-accredited Masters of Library Science programs relating to makerspace and making topics. A series of past and current makerspace-related continuing education opportunities were noted, with a variety of durations and structures, all offered in online format. As compared to prior research, these findings describe a notable increase in training and curriculum relating to library makerspaces. Research limitations/implications: A limitation of this work is the difficulty in assessing frequency of course offerings, details regarding special topics courses and the potential continuing education materials that may have been removed from the internet since their offering. Originality/value: Although significant research efforts have focused on makerspaces, little work has directly assessed the ongoing impact of the makerspace trend on library and information science graduate programs and continuing education opportunities.
A review of the open-access scenario in Afghanistan
Purpose: Open access movement is getting increased in Asia and the Pacific and has been started in the form of subject gateways, informal collections of articles on web pages and directories. Many Asian countries adopted the transition to Open Access journals and full-text repositories and digital libraries. Open access also helps to underprivilege countries to spread their research output. But third-world Islamic countries are far away from open access and its implementations. The purpose of this paper is to focus on open-access e-resource development in Afghanistan. Design/methodology/approach: The data were complemented by documentary analysis, and information retrieved from open-access databases like DOAR, DOAJ and OER Sites. Findings: The paper provides information about open-access development in Afghanistan and also focuses on the challenges for spreading OA awareness in Afghanistan. It suggests that how local people and universities can help to spread open-access movement. Social implications: This paper gives an idea about the educational system and other resources available in Afghanistan. Originality/value: This paper fulfills an identified need to study open-access development and status in Afghanistan.