Information integration in libraries
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-11-2017-0232 |
| Date | 19 March 2020 |
| Pages | 210-219 |
| Published date | 19 March 2020 |
| Author | Yong Chen |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information user studies,Metadata,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Information integration in
libraries
Yong Chen
Texas A&M International University, Laredo, Texas, USA
Abstract
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 IEEEXplore 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.
Keywords Information integration, Integration, Library, Digital library, Smart library, IoT, RFID, Big data
Paper type Literature review
1. Introduction
Libraries disclose and disseminate information, serving as the mediation of access to
information (W
ojcik, 2016). Physical library collections are valuable resources for knowledge
and learning (Yang et al., 2016). At present, reading materials, including text document,
image, audio, video and software, are getting more fragmented (Fortino et al., 2014).
Managing the inventories of these materials and the space for storing these materials
efficiently is a challenge for libraries (Tarique and Priya Rani, 2017;Yang et al., 2016). They
are expected to be more productive and highly efficient in collecting, managing and
preserving resources and providing specialized services to users by adopting latest
technologies. Particularly, time-consuming processes for checking books in and out need
replacement. The labor-intensive and time-consuming stock-taking processes need to be
automated. The running cost of libraries, the thefts and the number of missing or misplaced
items need to be reduced (Markakis et al., 2013).
For libraries, information means locations or objects in geographic space (Doerr and
Papagelis, 2007). Traditional tools and methods are not capable of processing fragmented
materials. Libraries need integrated access to various information sources with fast
deployment and low maintenance cost in a rapidly evolving environment (Christophides et al.,
2000). The Internet is changing the way people obtain information (Thanuskodi, 2012).
The integration of the Internet allows libraries to utilize new tools and methods for providing
information to users (Abdoulaye and Majid, 2000), such as digital resources, mobile service,
notification service and ubiquitous service on the basis of traditional service (Fortino et al.,
2014). Information integration can help libraries eliminate heterogeneity among different
documents, achieve sequential and systematic information resources according to users’
LHT
38,1
210
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0737-8831.htm
Received 16 November 2017
Revised 25 October 2019
Accepted 30 October 2019
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 38 No. 1, 2020
pp. 210-219
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/LHT-11-2017-0232
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