Supply chain management modelfor digital libraries

Huang Meng-xing, Xing Chun-xiao and Zhang YongResearch Institute of Information Technology, Tsinghua University,

Beijing, China

Abstract

Purpose – This paper seeks to create a novel management model for digital libraries which caneffectively respond to the challenges and culture posed by Google or other search engines.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper attempts to construct an advanced management modelfor a digital library which can have the advantages of Google, other search engines and libraries, yetavoid their inherent weakness. For that, the paper investigates and analyzes the advantages andweaknesses of Google and digital libraries at home and abroad, and makes reference to the theory ofsupply chain management (SCM) to construct a new management model for a digital library.

Findings – A supply chain for the digital library is constructed and a supply chain architecture fordigital libraries, their components and the running situations of content services flow, informationflow and funds flow in supply chain, is proposed. The components are described in detail. Then threekinds of service models are constructed and their service processes are analyzed.

Practical implications – The paper is one of the research findings of the National Key TechnologyR&D Program of China during the 11th Five-Year Plan Period (No. 2006BAH02A12): Digital ContentSupporting Technology Platform and will be applied to Chinese digital libraries construction.

Originality/value – The supply chain management model for a digital library which is blessed withthe advantages of Google and libraries but without their weaknesses is studied and presented for thefirst time. The model can provide a well-suited, highly efficient and one-stop-shop information andknowledge service for users.

Keywords Digital libraries, Supply chain management, Search engines

Paper type Research paper

1. IntroductionWith the development of information technology (IT) and the popularization ofnetwork applications, people nowadays obtain their required information andknowledge mainly by means of the internet. A digital library is an extensibleknowledge network system under internet environments and a community serviceorganization which can provide information and knowledge services for people andimprove civil education for all-round development. So digital libraries have beenemphasized by many countries and developed forcefully since the early 1990s. Butwith the development of search engines, especially Google, digital libraries are facedwith the threat and challenge of peripherization. Responding to this kind of threat andchallenge, many countries have begun to study and create advanced managementmodels for digital libraries, and all these models try to make reference to the

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This study is supported by the National Key Technology R&D Program of China during the 11thFive-Year Plan Period (No. 2006BAH02A12).

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Received 13 October 2008Revised 15 January 2009

Accepted 21 January 2009

The Electronic LibraryVol. 28 No. 1, 2010

pp. 29-37q Emerald Group Publishing Limited

0264-0473DOI 10.1108/02640471011023351

advantages of search engines and avoiding the inherent weakness of them, then torealize digital libraries’ culture and social value.

Google holds several advantages in comparison to digital libraries, so that peopletend to regard it as the first selection when querying recent information in particular.First, Google holds abundant resources. Besides a gigantic number of web pages anddata, Google has scanned millions of books of many public libraries and universitylibraries including Oxford, Harvard, Stanford, Michigan and so on, and has directlylinked plenty of libraries’ bibliographies by Library Link. Second, Google has highquality of service and favorable users’ experience. Google has a simple retrievalinterface and methods; moreover it can cope with high concurrency and full textretrieval functions, which also provides application programming interfaces (API), forexample ClientLogin API, AdScience API, Google’s free AdWords API, AJAX SearchAPI, Google Base data API, Google Search Appliance API and so on, to put up P2Pservices integration for users. Furthermore, as to funding human resources andtechniques, Google absolutely excels libraries. However, Google and other searchengines also have several disadvantages as follows. For instance, search engines bringserious “information diluting”. The full text retrieval methods of search engines resultin a low veracity of retrieval, because the useful information often hides in amongplenty of irrelevant material. On the other hand, it is difficult to capture the rapidincreasing network information for the current search engines, and Google and othersearch engines will invade civil culture. Moreover libraries have several advantagesover search engines, such as perfect metadata catalogues and targeted informationservices. To counteract those disadvantages, the Google library program has beeninitiated, which scans for libraries’ books, some historical newspapers and magazines,and tries to enter into some library’s functions, but despite this it cannot resolveGoogle’s inherent disadvantages.

The bottlenecks of the development of digital libraries cannot be solved onlydepending on resources digitalization of libraries or digital libraries themselves, so oneof the main issues of digital libraries’ development is how to construct an advancedmanagement model which can integrate the advantages of libraries and Google andother search engines and still provide highly efficient personalized and one-stop-shopinformation and knowledge services for users. Supply chain management (SCM) is anadvanced management model which can quickly meet personalized requirement ofusers and make up resource scarcity and strategy gap of organizations. In this paperthe theory of SCM is used for the operation of digital libraries, and a new managementmodel for digital library is presented.

2. Supply chain architecture for digital libraryAccording to the supply-chain operations reference-model (SCOR), supply chainarchitecture for a digital library is created and shown in Figure 1.

2.1 Components of digital library supply chainA digital library supply chain is mainly composed of content suppliers, digital libraryalliances (DLAs), content service providers and assistant parties.

2.1.1 Content suppliers. Content suppliers lie up-stream of the supply chain and arecontent manufacturers or creators who supply all kinds of media to digital libraries.Content suppliers mainly include copyrighters (authors and copyright owners),

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publishers, newspaper offices, publishing companies, colleges and universities,academic institutions media importers, professional databases, archive offices and websites.

2.1.2 Digital library alliances. Digital library alliances (DLA) are a core tier of thesupply chain and in charge of digital content producing, organizing, storing andmanaging. Any individual library cannot compete with Google in the amount ofinformation, funds, techniques and human resources, so constructing DLAs can tacklethese disadvantages by sharing resources and technologies. At the same time, thedistributing collaboration models of DLAs are obviously better than the centralizingunify one of Google; in addition information services integrating of every library canprovide users even more accurate information.

In so far as China is concerned, DLAs may be made up of the National DigitalLibrary of China, China Academic Digital Library & Information System (CADLIS),National Science Digital Library, National Electronic and Technology Library, partyschool libraries, military academy libraries, Social Science Library, labor unionlibraries, locality digital libraries, commercial digital libraries and so on. Similarinstitutions will form the DLAs in other countries.

Figure 1.Supply chain architecture

for digital library

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2.1.3 Content service providers. Content service providers lie down-stream of thesupply chain, and are service providing and laying out platforms providing digitalcontent of DLs to users by all kinds of channels and according to users’ requirement.Content service providers mainly include search engines, personalized andprofessional Web portals, digital TVs, broadcasts and mobile communicationfacilities. All of those services are integrated, and so content service providers can offerone-stop-shop services for users.

2.1.4 Assistant parties. Assistant parties of the digital library supply chain mainlyinclude third-party contractors, supervisory institutes and payment centers. Third-partycontractors chiefly involve the organizations which can provide techniques and fundssupporting digital libraries, such as digitalization service enterprises, rapid printingenterprises, special software providing enterprises and third-party logistics. Supervisoryinstitutes involve copyright bureaux, culture departments and certification authorities.Payment centers involve banks and financial institutions.

2.2 Relation among the nodes of digital library supply chainThe digital library supply chain is a value-added chain the same as an enterprisesupply chain which integrates each node of the supply chain into a whole by contentservice flow (logistics), information flow and fund flow.

2.2.1 Content service flow in digital library supply chain. Content service flow startsfrom the content suppliers, then is processed and organized by DLAs, and is finallyprovided to users by content service providers. Content services flow from up-streamto down-stream of the digital library supply chain, as illustrated in Figure 2.

2.2.2 Information flow in digital library supply chain. The digital library supplychain acts as a whole to provide users with their required content, and the guaranteethat the digital library supply chain can rapidly and accurately meet the requirement ofusers is that requirement information, content information, payment information,users’ information and copyright information can be effectively delivered among thenodes of the digital library supply chain. Information flow is bidirectional and isdepicted in Figure 3.

2.2.3 Fund flow in digital library supply chain. Besides libraries, the digital librarysupply chain also includes copyrighters, commercial digital libraries and enterprises.In addition, buying information resources, costly digitization, value-added services andindividuation services all need certain fees from users, especially from profitable users.The fees should be distributed among nodes and the flow is shown in Figure 4.

3. Service models for digital library supply chainWith respect to digital libraries, users are concerned about how to get their requiredinformation and knowledge from various information environments. The value andcompetence of DLs is mainly embodies in its quality of service (QoS), which is assured

Figure 2.Content service flow indigital library supplychain

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by service models. With reference to the service models of both local and librariesabroad as well as Google and combining the advantages of supply chain management,three kinds of information service model of the digital library supply chain areproposed. These comprise popular information service models, professionalinformation service models and personalized information service models.

3.1 Popular information service modelsPopular information service models are suitable for most people; users canconveniently query and obtain their interested information via information portals,public media (such as digital TVs and broadcasts) and mobile communicationfacilities. Popular information service models mainly involve information retrieval,online subscription on the web and multiform media information service.

3.1.1 Information retrieval. Information retrieval services of the digital librarysupply chain are similar to search engines where users can freely login to informationretrieval webs and input search terms, and look through subjects headings, titles andabstracts of he retrieved results and download resources. For some resources, usersmay need to pay. The process of this service model is shown in Figure 5.

3.1.2 Online subscription. Online subscription is an order service by which thedigital library supply chain delivers periodic digital or printed periodicals and copies of

Figure 4.Fund flow in digitallibrary supply chain

Figure 5.Information retrieval

services process

Figure 3.Information flow in digital

library supply chain

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ancient books (online print) to users. The process of this service model is shown inFigure 6.

3.1.3 Multiform media information services. Multiform media information servicemodels of the digital library supply chain make use of all kinds of media in people’sdaily life, such as digital TVs, broadcasts and mobile communication facilities to offerspecifically audio and video information services to users. To individuals, TVs andbroadcasts mostly offer users free services which mainly provide all-pervadingreading matter or culture education for all-round development. In addition, users canconveniently obtain information by mobile communication facilities and be chargedinformation fees from communication fees according to the amount of information. Theprocess of information services by mobile communication is shown in Figure 7.

3.2 Professional information service modelsProfessional information service models organize information services by professionalfields to improve supportiveness that information services can meet users’ requirementand tasks. According to the interacting degree between users and digital library supplychain, professional information service can be classified into professional informationportal services and professional information consulting services.

3.2.1 Professional information portal services. Resources in professional informationportals are strictly selected by experts or librarians, which conform to certain qualityand control criterion. Professional information portals have detailed metadata orcatalog databases and can direct users to obtain or look through their requiredinformation by describing resources of webs and offering links to resources.Professional information portal services mainly include professional bibliographies(databases) retrieval services, academic virtual-community, special topic forum,information retrieval on commission and specifically topic tracing services etc. Theprofessional information portal services process is illustrated in Figure 8.

3.2.2 Professional information consulting services. Professional information consultingservices adopt the advantages of traditional libraries which can communicate with usersin time. These kinds of professional services offer bi-directional interaction between users

Figure 6.Online subscriptionservices process

Figure 7.Process of informationservices by mobilecommunication

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and digital libraries. Professional information consulting service models are morecomplex than professional information portal service models, because the digital librarysupply chain is not only an information provider but also an information productsmanufacturer when it offers consulting services to enterprises or other users. The mostoutstanding characteristic of these service models are in providing value-added services.Professional information consulting service models mainly involve consultation on aspecial topic, specialized information consulting service, market analysis service,information analysis service and novelty retrieval services etc.

As illustrated in Figure 9, users raise a consulting question to the digital librarysupply chain system; firstly, the supply chain system searches for solutions in theconsulting knowledge base and deliveries a solution to users, If the consulting question isnew, then the system will automatically assign it to relevant consulting librarians orexperts of he digital library supply chain who will search, organize and analyzecorrelative literature to gain an appropriate solution and deliver it to users. Finally thesystem will save the consulting question and solution in the consulting knowledge base.

3.3 Personalized information service modelsPersonalized information services can provide targeted information services accordingto unique information requirements of each user, and apply various service strategies

Figure 9.Professional information

consulting servicesprocess

Figure 8.Professional information

portal services process

Figure 10.Personalized information

services process

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and provide various service contents for various users. The information is providedbased on users’ behaviors, habits, preferences, characteristics and specialrequirements. The experts of the Library and Information Technology Association(LITA) consider that personalized service is the uppermost developing trend of digitallibrary. The digital library supply chain can effectively provide personalizedinformation services which mainly include customized services and voluntaryrecommendation services. The service process shown in Figure 10.

4. ConclusionThe digital library supply chain integrates content sources, digital libraries, contentproviders, supervisory institutes and third-party contractors and through suchservices integration comes into being as a uniform information service system. Thisnew organizational style and service model differs from a traditional digital library asdigital library alliances are formed. The supply chain management model for a digitallibrary can be blessed with the advantages of libraries as well as he features of Googleand other search engines to provide a highly efficient, personalized and one-stop-shopinformation and knowledge services for users, that can effectively respond to thechallenges and culture of an ever-invading Google or other search engine.

Further reading

Adeyemi, B.M. (2002), “Problems and challenges of automating cataloguing processes at KDLlibrary, University of Ibadan”, African Journal of Library, Archives and InformationScience, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 213-22.

Fan, S.-m. and Wang, Y. (2004), “Customization: the inevitable trend of library services”, Journalof Sichuan Society for Library Science, Vol. 141 No. 5, pp. 36-8.

Huang, S.H., Sheoran, S.K. and Keskar, H. (2005), “Computer-assisted supply chain configurationbased on supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model”, Computers & IndustrialEngineering, Vol. 48 No. 2, pp. 377-94.

Huang, Z. (2005), “A new development phase of digital library: valuation and advices for Googleand European’s digital library plan”, Knowledge of Library and Information Science, Vol. 5No. 1, pp. 5-15.

Huntington, P., Fieldhouse, M., Gunter, B., Withey, R., Jamali, H.R., Dobrowolski, T. and Tenopir, C.(2008), “The Google generation: the information behavior of the researcher of the future”,ASLIB Proceedings, Vol. 60 No. 4, pp. 290-310.

Lopatin, L. (2006), “Library digitization projects, issues and guidelines – a survey of theliterature”, Library Hi Tech, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 273-89.

Ma, S.-h. (2002), “Solution for supporting operations management of supply chain”, ComputerIntegrated Manufacturing Systems, Vol. 8 No. 8, pp. 630-4.

Sandusky, R.J. (2002), “Digital library attributes: framing usability research”, in Blandford, A.and Buchanan, G. (Eds), Proceedings of the Workshop on Usability of Digital Libraries atJCDL’02, Portland, OR, 14-18 July, pp. 35-8.

Saracevic, T. and Covi, L. (2000), “Challenges for digital library evaluation”, in Kraft, D.H. (Ed.),ASIS 2000: Proceedings of the 63rd ASIS Annual Meeting, Vol. 37, Information Today,Medford, NJ, pp. 341-50.

Tian, G.-l. (2005), “Concepts of digital library”, Library Theory and Practice, Vol. 1 No. 1,pp. 28-31.

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Ward, P.L. (2003), “Management and the management of information, knowledge-based andlibrary services 2002”, Library Management, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 126-59.

Warwick, C., Terras, M., Galina, I., Huntington, P. and Pappa, N. (2008), “Library and informationresources and users of digital resources in the humanities”, Program: electronic library andinformation systems, Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 5-27.

About the authorsHuang Meng-xing is currently an assistant professor of the Research Institute of InformationTechnology at Tsinghua University in China. In 2007, he received his PhD degree from theCollege of Automation at Northwestern Polytechnical University in China. Research interestsinclude supply chain management, digital library, database and knowledge management. He haspublished over 30 articles in various journals. Huang Meng-xing is the corresponding author andcan be contacted at: huangmx@tsinghua.edu.cn

Xing Chun-xiao is currently a professor at the Research Institute of Information Technologyat Tsinghua University in China and a member of IEEE. He received his PhD degree from theCollege of Automation at Northwestern Polytechnical University in 1999. His research interestsinclude database, digital library, distributed multimedia systems, e-commerce and e-government.He has published over 200 academic papers in those fields.

Zhang Yong is an associate professor at the Research Institute of Information Technology atTsinghua University in China. He received his PhD degree from the Department of ComputerScience and Technology at Tsinghua University in 2002. From 2002 to 2005, he did his Postdocat the Unilever Centre for Molecular Informatics, Cambridge University, UK. His researchinterests are databases, Web science, e-Science and GIS.

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