Internet of Things-based intelligent evacuation protocol in libraries
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-11-2017-0250 |
| Date | 11 January 2019 |
| Pages | 145-163 |
| Published date | 11 January 2019 |
| Author | Kefan Xie,Zimei Liu,Liuliu Fu,Benbu 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-based
intelligent evacuation protocol
in libraries
Kefan Xie and Zimei Liu
Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
Liuliu Fu
Department of Information Systems,
California State University, Los Angeles, California, USA, and
Benbu Liang
Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework of applying theInternet of Things
(IoT) technologies to the intelligent evacuation protocol in libraries at emergency situations.
Design/methodology/approach –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.
Findings –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.
Research limitations/implications –The software and hardware requirements as well as the Internet
network requirements of IoT technologies need to be further discussed.
Practical implications –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.
Originality/value –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.
Keywords Libraries, Internet of Things, Library science, Safety management, Evacuation simulation,
Intelligent evacuation protocol
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The Internet has takena giant leap forward from“Internet of communication”to “Internet of
Things (IoT),”making it possible to connectobjects and transfer data with or without human
intervention (Bi et al., 2014, 2018). Although IoT is still in its early stage (Cheng et al., 2018;
Xu et al., 2014), it has a hugepotential for libraries (Wójcik, 2016). With the IoT, libraries will
be able to add more value addition to their services and offer rich library experience for the
users. IoT can evenhelp in strengthening the ties betweenthe books and readers, and thereby
realizing Ranganathan’s 2nd law of library science “Every Person His or Her Book”
Received 29 November 2017
Revised 12 June 2018
21 October 2018
Accepted 24 October 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
This paper is supported by National Social Science Foundation of China (Project No. 15AGL021).
Intelligent
evacuation
protocol
LibraryHi Tech
Vol.38 No. 1, 2020
pp.145-163
©EmeraldPublishingLimited
0737-8831
DOI10.1108/LHT-11-2017-0250
145
(Pujar and Satyanarayana, 2015). There are some practical examples of IoT applications in
libraries service. In November 2014, Orlando Public Library implemented Bluubeam
technologyto send location triggered information to libraryusers. Users using the libraryapp
will get alert about library offers and events. One library utilized Bluubeam to advertise free
computer workshops and book sales. IoT applications improve the libraries service.
The rapid development of technologies also has an impact on safety management of
libraries. In emergencies, especially when libraries are densely populated, it is a highly
challengingtask to evacuatelibrarians and libraryusers to safe placesdue to the complexity of
the modern library layout. Hence, evacuation protocol is essential for libraries. Evacuation
protocol is developed to ensure the safest path and the most efficient evacuation time of
librariansand library users (Ibrahimet al., 2016). In a proper protocol, multiple exits, multi-flow
lanes and special technologies were designed to ensure full, fast and complete evacuation. In
addition, most of the modern libraries are equipped with safety devices such as monitoring
probes,smoke sensors, temperaturesensors and alarms,as well as emergency facilitiessuch as
emergency lights and evacuation signs (Liu and Zhu, 2014). These facilities play an important
role in disaster early warning and crowd evacuation. The full use of them contributes to
transferproperties in timeand evacuate librariansand library usersin an orderly manner,thus
minimizing the damage of potential accidents (Yu et al., 2016). In reality, however, these
facilitieshave not been fully utilized.Technologies need to be setup to integrate these facilities
into the evacuation protocol to implement the intelligent evacuation decision-making.
The new technology, IoT, is expected to bridge diverse technologies to enable latest
applications by connecting physical objects together in support of intelligent
decision-making (Al-Fuqaha et al., 2015; Mao et al., 2016; Xu, 2011; Xu et al., 2014; Xu and
Duan, 2018). The IoT is the key to implement intelligent evacuation protocols in libraries, by
connecting items with the Internet through the radio-frequency identification (RFID),
infrared sensors, global positioning system (GPS), laser scanners, smoke sensors and other
information sensing equipment to achieve intelligent crowd identification, positioning,
tracking, monitoring and management (Gokceli et al., 2017). This paper aims at establishing
a theoretical framework of applying IoT technologies to the intelligent evacuation protocol
in libraries, to improve the safety management in libraries when emergency occurs.
This paper is organized as follows. Related works are summarized in the second section.
In the third section, characteristics of crowd gathering and existing evacuation protocols in
libraries are analyzed. In the fourth section, the definition of the intelligent evacuation
protocol is given, and the features of the protocol are described. The basic structures and
information fusion algorithm of the IoT-based intelligent evacuation protocol in libraries are
elaborated in the fifth section. The proposed protocol is demonstrated in a fire situation in
the sixth section and the paper is concluded in the seventh section.
Related works
Definition of IoT
It is a challenge to define the IoT because of the newness of the domain. IoT is a
multi-discipline concept that many different aspects are involved of this issue (Chen, 2017; Xu
et al., 2018). IoT refers to the interconnection of physical objects, by equipping them with
sensors, actuators and a means to connect to the Internet (Dijkman et al., 2015). IoT is a
global-scale network that covers the usage of virtual objects or virtual things with attributes,
auto-IDs, and self-configuration, receptivity (Miorandi et al., 2012; Perera et al., 2014). Nolin and
Olson (2016) and Gubbi et al. (2013) described the general idea of the IoT. Many scholars
forecasted the development of as well as the potential risk of IoT (Barnaghi and Sheth, 2016;
Kantarci and Mouftah, 2014; Jayavardhana et al., 2013). IoT introduces a vision of a future
Internet where users, computing systems, and ev eryday objects possessing sensing and
actuating capabilities cooperate with unprecedented convenience and economic benefits
LHT
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