An IoT architectural implementation for smart individual reading spaces in public libraries
This project aims to satisfy (at least) the following main guidelines:
- Help and improve the interaction between library users and paper books
- Empower the environmental care
- Improve and make as easy as possible the users social interaction around the Book as the most powerful knowledge engine
- Create a smart relationship place
- Create the reading point of the future with local environmental improvements
Remain the fact that the most important aspect that should be enforced as much as possible is the assertion Book is the most powerful knowledge engine
Detailed lineguides
The following points are the main line-guide I refer to. These will be facets of the project I will try to explore and expand implementing following a high structured and modular approach. The first implementation - hopefully in a public library - will become a modularised IoT application easily applicable to other similar environments without too architectural modifications.
Experiences teach, anyway, that when the prototype of a project finishes, there are a lot of things that can be empowered, made better and costs of the modules can be drastically reduced in further implementations.
- Automated user recognition inside the library context
- Post-it: The digital local messaging mechanism for in-library message exchange
- Book-centered user experience improved and made easy with IoT and environmental automation
- Paper book annotation made easy without impacting the original books
- Smart book-selfie feature:"I read this book" progressive group images with interaction on GoodReads.com or individual images expressing the concept "I love this author"
- Environmental control including saving paper copies, reducing any kind of physical paper usage (e.g. page copies, energy harvesting space optimisation and more
- Direct-scan feature: The user can scan by itself the pages that he is interested
- Book lending and automated restitution system: Includes the notification to the other library users interested to read this book. Users can also accept that the other readers can message him while the Book is not available for lending (Post-it reader messages)
- Reading place lighting control and more
- Book annotation sharing
A last note on data
The smart reading place exchanges data, mostly related to books. These information are compatible and follows the standard of OPAC specifications:
The online public access catalog (often abbreviated as OPAC or simply library catalog) is an online database of materials held by a library or group of libraries. Users search a library catalog principally to locate books and other material available at a library. In simple language it is an electronic version of the card catalogue. OPAC is the gateway to library's collection.
As this project will be released as open source and also the OPAC system for public libraries is a Linux application available as open source software (worldwide diffused), opening this IoT modular system to the OPAC specifications probably represent the opportunity to create a smart reading environment with the widest possible flexibility.
References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_public_access_catalog and Librarian Opac