Internet of Things and its applications in libraries: a literature review
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-01-2018-0014 |
| Pages | 67-77 |
| Published date | 22 August 2018 |
| Date | 22 August 2018 |
| Author | Xueling Liang |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information user studies,Metadata,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Internet of Things and its
applications in libraries: a
literature review
Xueling Liang
Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
Shanghai, China
Abstract
Purpose –Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging paradigm that draws academia and industry attention in
the past few years. The purpose of this paper is to review the current research on IoT in library operation, and
report the future trends and research challenges as well.
Design/methodology/approach –To conduct this research, the literature on IoT and its application in
libraries was retrieved from major databases such as Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, Scopus and Inspec for the
period between 2010 and 2018.
Findings –This study identifies IoT potential impact on libraries, and excavates some valuable literature on
IoT and its application in libraries from managerial perspective, especially focuses on library service
innovation in IoT era.
Originality/value –The IoT application in libraries is a new subject. This study provides an overview
of IoT application in libraries. The findings of this study contribute to the research on IoT and its role in
library management.
Keywords Academic libraries, Library management, Internet of Things, Service innovation, RFID,
IoT application
Paper type Literature review
1. Introduction
The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the cyber-physical systems through which any object
can be connected anytime and anywhere (Atzori et al., 2010; Xu et al., 2014; Dijkman et al.
2015; Li et al., 2015).
Nowadays, the IoT gains more attention from academia, industry and government due to
its potential impact on society, environment and economy. According to McKinsey &
Company (2015): “The Internet of Things has a total potential economic impact of
$3.9 trillion to $11.1 trillion per year in 2025, the value of this impact would be equivalent to
about 11 percent of the world economy in 2025.”The IoT devices worldwide will up to 26bn,
IoT market will up to $1.9 trillion, total investment for smart cities worldwide will up to
$120bn by 2020 (CAICT, 2016). Many countries focus on IoT strategies. In the USA, IoT is
considered as one of the six “disruptive civil technologies”for its potential impacts on
the nation. In China, IoT is in the list of the China’s 12th Five Year Plan (2011–2015)
(Atzori et al., 2010). “Sensing China”project was launched in 2010 (Li et al., 2015). The IoT
center was established in Shanghai (Gubbi et al., 2013). In the UK, the government has
launched projects to develop IoT; in Europe, the IoT European Research Cluster FP7 has
proposed a number of IoT projects and created an international IoT forum to develop a joint
strategic and technical vision for the use of IoT; in Japan, u-Japan and i-Japan projects are
used for daily lives; and in Korea, radio frequency identification (RFID) and “New IT
Strategy”program are used to enhance the IoT infrastructure development (Li et al., 2015).
The IoT as the Future Internet will bring profound changes to everyone and everything;
meanwhile, the arising opportunities and challenges are enormous. It is stressed that
“to the extent everyday objects will become information security risks, the IoT could
distribute those risks far more widely than the Internet has to date”(Atzori et al., 2010).
Received 23 January 2018
Revised 26 May 2018
13 June 2018
Accepted 15 June 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
IoT and its
applications
in libraries
LibraryHi Tech
Vol.38 No. 1, 2020
pp.67-77
©EmeraldPublishingLimited
0737-8831
DOI10.1108/LHT-01-2018-0014
67
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