A Ubiquitous Approach for Automated Library Book Location Management
Hanh H. Pham, Anthony J. Giordano, Lee Ann Miller, Joseph Giannitti, Mario Mena, Anthony DiNardi · 2018
In this paper, we propose a ubiquitous system called ABLM (Autonomous Book Location Management) for managing book locations in big libraries. This comprehensive system uses affordable devices such as Raspberry Pi with cameras to monitor book locations throughout a library. It can automatically detect book misplacements. It can also help users to locate a book in a library by visualizing its location on a map given the book ID. Our system ABLM includes a central software module running on a server which communicates via Wi-Fi Internet with monitor software modules running on Raspberry Pi and user software modules running on the library web pages or on the user smartphones. When a user makes a request to find the location of a book using the book ID the user software module processes it to define the book location and displays it on a dynamic library map. Our system also includes a camera attached to the Raspberry Pi which can be placed on wheeled robots that moves around the shelves to detect wrong placements of books. When the library book placement policy is violated it is reported to the central module at the server via the user module or the monitor module. The central module can analyze the recorded data on book misplacements and recommend specific segments and areas of shelves to be resorted of fixed. The proposed system is affordable as the total cost of all needed hardware devices including Raspberry Pi, its cameras, and the wheeled robot is under 900 USD. Our system is also portable and universal as it can plug-in into any existing library system and can accommodate any changes in library floor plans including reconfigurations of bookshelves.