Purpose

The purpose of this study was to identify technological innovation in libraries and further examine the knowledge source and their effects during the technology life cycle (TLC).

Design/methodology/approach

This paper discusses the technological innovation taking place in libraries. Patent citation analysis was used to capture the trend of technological innovation associated with libraries.

Findings

The findings are as follows: (1) library technologies are now in the ascent phase of their life cycles; (2) private companies from the United States, Germany, France, Japan and the United Kingdom are the top-five owners of intellectual property rights associated with library technology and (3) patent data along with knowledge and technology indicators can be interpreted in the light of library development. The knowledge source with the highest degree of scientific and technological orientation was identified as basic material chemistry. The major technological categories that have received the greatest knowledge effect from library-associated technological innovation are chemistry, electrical engineering, instruments, mechanical engineering, with other fields (civil engineering and furniture, games) being subject to less effect.

Research limitations/implications

There are two research limitations in this study. First, the results use single informants, patents retrieved from United States Patent and Trademark Office, as the source of data. Second, this study uses patent citation measures for exploring the knowledge source and effect of technological innovation, these measures are only subjective for those new invention highly based technological advances. This study concludes that technological innovation for libraries will be characterized by an increasing role for science-intensive and interdisciplinary areas. This study also suggests that organizational learning facilitates innovation. Therefore, a library hoping to co-evolve with dynamic environment through technological innovation should improve its organizational learning processes.

Practical implications

Theories of technology-push and demand-pull were examined in relation to technological innovation taking place in libraries. The TLC analysis indicated that library technology is mainly in the ascent stage, suggesting that libraries have not achieved the strongest technological transformation. The findings suggest that the importance of demand-pull and technology-push vary over the TLC of libraries.

Social implications

To survive in a dynamic environment library must be able to cope with increasing complexity and high-speed technological change. It is pivotal to integrate the views of users (as customers), software houses or design companies (as suppliers) as well as other libraries (as communities) into the sustainable development strategy of a library. In these contexts, libraries with the capacity to innovate will be able to respond to new demands faster and to invent and provide new services better than noninnovative libraries.

Originality/value

Analysis based on the technological innovation perspective to identify the future development of libraries is still lacking. This paper seeks to identify the technological innovation employed in libraries to accommodate the 21st century model of information-seeking behavior. This study identifies a variety of factors that have influenced the transformation of library services, and these include technology developments and new demands from library users. To illustrate the driving forces of technology-push in libraries, this paper examines holistic-patented technologies invented for libraries.

中文翻译：

---

图书馆技术创新

目的

本研究的目的是确定图书馆的技术创新，并进一步检查技术生命周期 (TLC) 中的知识来源及其影响。

设计/方法/方法

本文讨论了图书馆中发生的技术创新。专利引用分析被用来捕捉与图书馆相关的技术创新趋势。

发现

研究结果如下：（1）图书馆技术正处于生命周期的上升阶段；(2) 来自美国、德国、法国、日本和英国的私营公司是与图书馆技术相关的知识产权的前五名所有者和 (3) 专利数据以及知识和技术指标可以在图书馆发展之光。科技导向程度最高的知识来源被确定为基础材料化学。受图书馆相关技术创新影响最大的主要技术类别是化学、电气工程、仪器仪表、机械工程，其他领域（土木工程和家具、游戏）受到的影响较小。

研究限制/影响

本研究有两个研究局限性。首先，结果使用从美国专利商标局检索到的单一知情人专利作为数据来源。其次，本研究使用专利引证衡量技术创新的知识来源和影响，这些衡量标准仅对高度基于技术进步的新发明具有主观性。本研究得出的结论是，图书馆的技术创新将在科学密集型和跨学科领域发挥越来越大的作用。这项研究还表明，组织学习有助于创新。因此，希望通过技术创新与动态环境共同进化的图书馆应该改进其组织学习过程。

实际影响

技术推动和需求拉动理论与图书馆中发生的技术创新有关。TLC分析表明图书馆技术主要处于上升阶段，表明图书馆还没有实现最强的技术改造。研究结果表明，需求拉动和技术推动的重要性在图书馆的 TLC 上有所不同。

社会影响

为了在动态环境中生存，图书馆必须能够应对日益增加的复杂性和高速的技术变革。将用户（作为客户）、软件公司或设计公司（作为供应商）以及其他图书馆（作为社区）的观点整合到图书馆的可持续发展战略中至关重要。在这些背景下，具有创新能力的图书馆将能够比非创新图书馆更快地响应新需求，并更好地发明和提供新服务。

原创性/价值

还缺乏基于技术创新视角来识别图书馆未来发展的分析。本文旨在确定图书馆采用的技术创新，以适应 21 世纪的信息搜索行为模式。本研究确定了影响图书馆服务转型的各种因素，其中包括技术发展和图书馆用户的新需求。为了说明图书馆技术推动的驱动力，本文考察了为图书馆发明的整体专利技术。