Exploring new challenges for libraries under impact of Artificial Intelligence and Industry 4.0

1. NEW TRENDS & SKILLS
IN LIBRARY AUTOMATION
Impact of Artificial intelligence and Industry 4.0
Mokhtar BEN HENDA
Bordeaux Montaigne University
February 6th, 2020

2. Alexandria lib
OPAC
eBooks
Smart Library
Stone Clay Tablet Manuscript Book Typewriter Digital

3. General overview
 Libraries have always invented new systems to adapt to their
time
 Librarians have always succeeded to control the evolution of
their profession
 With AI, the systems and the needs start escaping human
control. AI is taking over decision power (Deep Learning)
 The first warning : 1995, 61st IFLA General Conference:
 “While we cannot be certain about the future for our library
services, we can and should be developing a vision which
encompasses and enriches the potential of the Internet. If we do not
do that, then others will; and they will do it less well.” (Chris Batt)

4. Libraries: Key questions
 In our modern era, do the following citations express
virtual or concrete reality?
 “The public library is a catalyst for change, facilitating
social, economic and cultural development and supports
communities to take advantage of the opportunities
afforded them by a modern society” [Michael Ring T.D.Minister for Rural and
Community Development, Ireland]
 “It is the library’s obligation to be at the edge of different
uses of culture and uses of technology” [Manager of Library and Citizen Service at
Roskilde Libraries in Denmark]
 How ICT and Smart systems are changing the
information landscape?
 How Libraries & librarians manage their digital
upskilling?

5. Libraries facing challenges
 Challenging new user needs oriented towards:
 Transition from print to digital,
 Full text through added-value services of digital
libraries,
 New delivery systems based on distant access & Push
technologies.

6. Libraries facing challenges
 Challenging emergence of new
categories of library management
systems (LMS)
 From Integrated LMS to cloud-based
LMS
 From SQL DB to linked data (WoT,
IoT…)
 From metadata repositories to full
text digital collections (eBooks,
Digital Libraries, Open Archives)

7. Libraries facing challenges
Challenging new cataloguing/indexing
standards:
 From ISBD, DC to RDA, FRBR…
 From manual to automated cataloging by
scanning a book's ISBN
 From manual to automated indexing by
importing online keywords registries
 RDA (Resource Description Access) - has more flexibility for machine-
based cataloging designed for the digital world
 RDF (Resource Description Framework) - graphe destiné à décrire de
façon formelle les ressources Web et leurs métadonnées
 FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) - founded
for RDA

8. Libraries facing challenges
Challenging new searching services:
 From Reference Libraries to Google/Web
services
 From keyword search to full text search
 From index searching to ontology
searching

9. Libraries facing challenges
 Librarians are also facing upskilling challenges:
 From reference librarians to Chatbots, Intelligent
search agents
 New professional skills  new “competency
profiles”  New job qualifications description:
– Data Creator,
– Data Curator,
– Data analysts,
– Data Scientist,
– Research Coordinator/Manager,
– Digital Preservation Librarian,
– Repository Manager,
– Subject Librarian,
– etc.

10. Libraries facing challenges
 Are libraries progressively renouncing to their
position as the top source of information?
 An observed dissention between libraries and
users:
 Perception of libraries as passive and rigid
institutions,
 Libraries are perceived as only or mostly lending
books,
 A belief that users could do without libraries and
librarians,
 Disintermediation and self-service : it is easier and
more rewarding to “Google” than to visit a library.
 Need for new sophisticated library service
models:
 Library 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 based on Web 2.0, 3.0, 4.0

11. Reminder: Library 2.0
 User-centered: participate in the creation of
the content and services
 Communally innovative: libraries as a
community service
 Socially rich: users' presences with
(a)synchronous ways for communication

12. Reminder: Library 3.0
 Borderless library:
 Virtual complement to the physical
library space,
 Library collections widely accessible,
searchable and usable regardless of
physical location
 A semantic relationship between all
available web content, including the
Invisible Web
 Deeply relying on:
 Semantic web,
 Cloud computing,
 Mobile devices,

13. Tending to Library 4.0 (smart library)
 Library 1.0: delivering commodity
 Library 2.0: producing collaborative products
 Library 3.0: providing semantic services
 Library 4.0: will add a new mode : knowledge experience
(immersion in ideas and thoughts)
 Intelligent library,
 Massive data library, Augmented reality library,
 Context-aware library,
 Infinite creative space
 Library 4.0 is one of the generation-4.0 revolutions

14. Some generation 4.0 revolutions
 Web 4.0:
 Reading, writing, and executing
simultaneously, intelligence-based agents,
connected web, ubiquitous web, intelligence
connections, and intelligence-based web.
 Library 4.0:
 Intelligence, massive data, augmented
reality, context aware, cutting-edge displays,
and infinite creative space.
 Industry 4.0:
 Intelligence, Makerspace, Context-Aware
Technology, Open Source, Big Data, Cloud
Service, Augmented Reality, State-of-the-art
Display, and Librarian 4.0 (new skills).

17. Intelligence in the libraries of the future
 The users’ search behavior
has developed in different
directions than the library
“inventory culture”:
 The online smart “Google
style”
 Libraries are constrained to
integrate innovative
technologies:
 Big Data & Analytics
 AI
 Block-chains
 Augmented Reality
 …

18. Big Data in Library 4.0
 Big Data applications in libraries:
 Data analysis (i.e. collecting, cleaning up,
integrating and processing),
 Data visualization (presentation and
communication).
 Consequences:
 Analyzing large data holdings to offer new or
improved services,
 Providing better research material and results
 Limiting factors:
 Lack of qualified skilled staff & infrastructure,
 Data protection and copyright
 Funding problems.

19. Artificial intelligence in Library 4.0
 Libraries need add an intelligence
layer to their current applications and
systems:
 AI can predict users behaviors and take
decisions to cope with their needs,
 AI applications perform smart delivery
of information to the user,
 AI can perform relevant books
acquisitions …

20. Artificial intelligence in Library 4.0
 AI and deep learning are key
research and publication topics:
 AI is a high rate publication focus,
 AI attracts new and more diverse
audiences to Libraries,
 AI provides faster, better user
experiences.

21. Artificial intelligence in Library 4.0
 Major criticism raised by
librarians against AI:
 1. AI (robots) will replace human
librarians. (38% of jobs in the next
15 years).
 2. Human creativity and empathy
would no longer be necessary due
to the efficiency of AI,
 3. AI would magnify injustices (can
be manipulated),
 4. AI might threaten data privacy
Artificial Intelligence in the Library: Advantages, Challenges and Tradition. An Ex Libris
Whitepaper, 2017

22. Blockchain emerging technology
 A means of improving
digital badges, facilitating
the transfer, authority, and
reputation of awarded
badges and other digital
credentials.
 Could eventually transform
access to content and
intellectual property,
controlling how many
times a user can access,
share, or copy something,

23. Blockchains in library 4.0
 Blockchain technology could be used in
libraries :
 to build an enhanced metadata system for
libraries:
 to connect networks of libraries and universities
as an inter-Planetary File System (IPFS) to
validate the credentials of a given copy of any
website
 to support document borrowing service & inter-
library loan service
 to facilitate the indexing and sharing of
community resources in a sharing network.
 to secure intellectual property.
Blockchain in the Library? Researchers Explore Potential Applications, Jessica Leigh Brown Feb 1, 2018

24. Internet of things (IoT) in library 4.0
 Connecting everyday devices and
transferring data between them
using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)
 Providing books strict and
permanent control,
 automating a book return system,
 tracking room usage,
 monitoring humidity levels
 The main obstacle for IoT is a
high price for RFID equipment
Book-O-Mat, a self-service
kiosk which is monitored from
the main library to track
usage and identify usage
trends and make
recommendations.
A book return system, with an
automatic sorter,
When a customer returns a
book, the system detects it,
confirms its acceptance, and
then using special conveyers
puts the book into the right
bin

25. Augmented reality in Library 4.0
 Useful and relevant for :
 Augmented books,
 Guided tours,
 Searching for Media / Additional Information,
 Gamification,
 Shelf Maintenance,
 Most of applications are still prototypes:
 myLibrARy: University of Applied Sciences
Potsdam [access to all of the library's resources]
 ShelvAR: Miami University in Oxford, Ohio :
[supports librarians to identify books in the
wrong place and for inventory].
 LibrARi: an image-based AR app for mobile
devices that supports users on finding books in
the bookshelf
• librARi is an image based augmented reality
application, which allows user to search books with
AR interaction.
• The location of the books is pointed on the physical
space by augmenting pointers.
• The app also allows to find out related books,
which can be again pointed to locate it.
Imagine impact on Dewey or CDU classification ?!!!
http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2299/paper4.pdf

26. Library 4.0 challenged by Industry 4.0

27. Library 4.0 challenged by Industry 4.0
 What is I4.0 revolution?
 Merging technologies in a number of fields :
– Robotics, artificial intelligence,
nanotechnology, quantum computing,
biotechnology, the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D
printing, autonomous vehicles....
 Impact on Library 4.0:
 For libraries: a shift from “knowing your
collection” to “knowing your connection”.
 For Librarians: a shift from “knowledge of
collection” to the “knowledge of the users”,

28. Library 4.0 challenged by Industry 4.0
 4 strategic actions to be taken by
the library leaders to cope with I4.0:
1. Reshaping the organizational
behavior,
2. Redesigning new business model,
3. Restructuring business process flow,
4. Remaking the job descriptions and
roles: study and remake the new
context of job descriptions and
roles at every rank of staff

29. Data management technologies on the rise

30. Libraries new trends and challenges
 Nearly universal Internet access in public libraries,
 But not every library needs the same technologies.
 Graying of profession (63% of librarians are > 45 old),
 Budget cutbacks,
 Less spending on books, but higher circulation,
 More and bigger electronic resources to buy,
 Audiovisual spending is growing,
 24/7/365 access and assistance,
 Buildings – need flexible, tech-friendly spaces,
 Focus on adaptive devices and web design,
 Trainings for end-users.

31. Major issues to solve
 Copyright,
 Confidentiality – privacy, etc.
 Access for all – “digital divide”,
 Library budgets,
 Archiving of digital resources (patrimonial &
long-term access),
 Easy access interfaces,
 Cooperation among libraries,
 International library standards (IFLA
standards: FRBR, RDA, LRM…).

32. Strategic action plan
 Key areas for libraries to develop into action plans:
 Work with stakeholders such as user communities and colleagues in other
professional groups to undertake more analysis of key trends that affect
them and their institutions.
 Consultation with users, to develop more clarity around the print-to-
electronic shift and how it is likely to develop over time, in order to inform
strategy and policy formulation.
 Investigate the possibilities of developing collaborations to create
meaningful online scholarly venues to complement library physical spaces.
 Review local responses to the shift from collections to services in order to
position the library effectively in the institution.
 Carry out more work examining the significance of key developments such
as artificial intelligence, machine learning, internet of things, digital
humanities and other areas and begin to develop services in these areas.
 Develop ways of making the preservation of born-digital materials one of
the major priorities of the library community, and how these can be
coordinated.
 Consider the balance between collaboration and competition with other
institutional professional services departments as well as external providers
in relation to new and existing services.
 Review the library’s current staff skills base in the light of these
recommendations

33. Staff skills updating framework
 Three core questions around an updating
strategy:
1. What are the trends over the next “n” years that
are likely to impact library work?
2. What areas of service development do we
anticipate over the next “n” years?
3. What are the future capabilities required to
achieve these strategic and service development
objectives?
Many framework models exist!

34. Staff skills updating framework
 Four main stages:
1. An analysis of the current workforce
including quantitative data, capabilities
and skills, and more contextual
information for opportunities for
redeployment and human resource
policies.
2. A process of identifying future needs
through a consultation process with
stakeholders or just an environmental
scans.
3. Identification of gaps between future
needs and current capabilities.
4. Formulation of plans for workforce
development to address gaps, ranging
from training programs to creation of
new positions and services
Source: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2264&context=iatul

35. Types of librarian work ICT requirements
 Archives and preservation:
 Knowledge of scanning techniques and
digital file formats;
 Knowledge of automated archival
collections management systems;
 Knowledge of XML schemas and the
use of XML editors;
 Knowledge of UNIMARC format and
Encoded Archival Description (EAD).
 Web and social media:
 Experience creating, editing, and
management collaborative SharePoint
sites to coordinate operations,
documentation, and training;
 Experience creating and maintaining
web-based content management tools
;
 Proficiency with some CMS;
 Experience with basic HTML coding
and ability to manipulate code.
 Collection, cataloging, circulation:
– Knowledge of institutional repository
platforms; Classification systems, MARC
formats, RDA tools; electronic resource
licensing and management; data
visualization tools.
 Reference and research:
– Ability to incorporate emerging
technologies into research support;
– Knowledge of integrated library systems
and library applications;
– Familiarity with LIS softwares;
– Knowledge of open information resources.
 Training and motivation:
– Ability to develop online learning
materials;
– Current/emerging trends in information
literacy instruction and technologies.

36. Library skills for job opportunities
 Special profiles are + & + searched for hiring:
 Data librarianship : being familiar with basic data analytics
programming concepts and technologies.
 Programming activities, implementing the data management system
or the appropriate search algorithms.
 Process & tools of data analysis,
 Tools commonly used to manage large-scale databases:
– Data mining.
– Data visualizations.
– Data conversion, import/export.
– Date encoding (Unicode, UTF, ASCII,…).

37. Library skills for job opportunities
 Digital collections management: understanding collection objectives and
user needs and the systems to satisfy them;
 Ability to create a digital asset management system.
 Database management expertise (among various database options: SQL export).
 Digital preservation best practices.
 Subject-specific taxonomies and controlled vocabulary using Open source
software (eg. SKOS, VocBench, ThManager, Protégé…)
 Unique characteristics and cataloging requirements of various media types.
 Basic project management skills and software (Trello, LiquidPlanner,…)
 Monitor online resources: E-newsletters, blogs and podcasts, discussion lists for
relevant Special Interest Groups (SIGs), Push technologies (ISD: information
selective dissemination)…
The stronger your IT skills, the easier it will be to grow
your data librarian career.

38. Conclusion
 In general, library staff and management
demonstrate a positive approach to adopting
advanced technologies,
 However, there is a gap between their
willingness and ability to embrace technologies
changes in their workflows, services, and skills,
 The gap is particularly due to local reasons
(budget cutting, skills upgrading opportunities),
 Libraries have succeeded the shift to digital
libraries (from reference to full text). Now they
need face the challenge of physical user
presence and services diversity.