The article I have chosen to discuss is “The little robot that lived at the library: How we built an emotive social robot to guide library customers to books”, by Minja Axelsson (2019). Described in the article is how they identified the need for a robot that could show customers to items and categories within the library, the creation of the robot, and the reactions and feedback provided by customers.
Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have slowly introduced into libraries over the past several decades. Butters (2006) describes automated systems that streamline the Returns process, from RFID tags, to smart chutes, which instantly take an item off a borrower’s card and turn the RFID tag’s security back on, to bin sorters, which involve conveyor belts dumping items into categorised bins. Boss (2010) identifies benefits of such systems as being: reduced labour costs, books are available to be reshelved quicker, and staff experience less injuries associated with repetitive strain.
The library service I work for has already implemented RFID, self-serve kiosks, and and smart chutes and bin sorters. While this streamlines the returns/lending process, it does not mean staff no longer interact with customers or books. It allows staff more time to assist customers with information requests, and it prevents staff from being overwhelmed by a lot of people returning 20 items at once. I believe that to some extent it also allows the service to pursue community-focused programming, with staff not being diverted as to deal with returns and lending rushes.
The future of robots in libraries I believe lies in further streamlining of processes, and also developing new ideas for library programmes.
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- Because of the robot described by Axelsson, customers no longer have to queue to speak to a librarian at Oodi Library, and staff are no longer diverted from tasks to show customers where a book is (2019).
- Singapore public libraries employ a shelf-reading robot to find misshelved books overnight and create a report for staff in the morning (Chin Liau, pp. 1-5, 2019), which means that customers have less instances of not being able to find a book, and (in my opinion) staff must have better mental health.
- Longmont Public Library have a robotic staff member designed by and for children on the Autism Spectrum (City of Longmont, Colorado, 2015), which assists these children to practice social skills and engage with the Library.
- Various libraries across Australia are investing in humanoid robots for their STEM programmes, which assist participants in learning how to code and enhancing their digital literacy (Cuong Nguyen, pp. 130-148, 2020)
Axelsson, M. (2019). The little robot that lived at the library [Blog post). Retrieved from https://towardsdatascience.com/the-little-robot-that-lived-at-the-library-90431f34ae2c
Boss, R. W. (2010). Materials Handling Systems for libraries. American Library Association. https://alair.ala.org/bitstream/handle/11213/258/Materials%20Handling%20Systems.pdf?sequence=95&isAllowed=y
Butters, A. (2006). Automated library processes: Achieving success with self-service loans and and returns. Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services, 20(1), 34-44.
City of Longmont, Colorado. (2015). Get to know the BiBlis. https://www.longmontcolorado.gov/departments/departments-e-m/library/just-for-children/bibli-the-library-robot
Cuong Nguyen, L. (2020). The impact of humanoid robots on Australian public libraries. Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 69(2), 130-148.
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