Located in Changsha City, Hunan Province, China, Changsha County Library has a total construction area of 13,000 square meters, a physical collection of 600,000 volumes, 1 million ebooks, and 16 digital resource bases. It is divided into different parts to serve customers, such as the children's area, e-reading room, 24-hour self-service, etc.
The Intech AI library project recently went off without a hitch in Changsha County Library. A large number of AI-based cameras were installed on the library ceiling to capture the item’s image on a shelf for further identification by Intech AI inventory system.
Library staff were really pleased with the implementation of Intech AI library project. Since using the Intech inventory system, the speed and accuracy of library inventory have risen to the next level they were unexpected.
Automating complex inventory task
As we know, library inventory management is a time-intensive, detail-oriented process, so Intech AI inventory system combines with the camera to capture an image of each book spine on the shelf, and the AI algorithms can automatically identify the book in the captured image, and accurately extract, analyze the needed content (i.e. book title, author names, ISBN, and other relevant information such as descriptions or genres). This information will be sent to the library inventory system without any human intervention for efficient inventory management. This AI-powered system makes inventory management done much faster and with fewer error.
Shelving guide and wrong prompt
Shelving is also time-consuming in library daily tasks. Sometimes the books on the shelf are out of order or placed in the incorrect position. In this case, Intech AI inventory system can categorize books by genre or subject matter, and then librarians can follow the indication generated by the system to shelve the books. It also offers real-time detection of misplaced books to remind staff to put those books back where they belong. The Intech AI inventory system makes shelving a faster and easier process.
Inventory report
The AI inventory system can analyze each stocktaking result, and aggregate data including the number of books in the stocktaking task, the wrong shelf rate, the wrong order rate, etc., and provide staff with an at-a-glance inventory report of an area.
In addition to providing more convenience for staff administration, making the switch to AI has a big impact on the customer experience.
Increase resource accessibility
The common issue faced by customers is that it’s easy to retrieve materials on LMS, but hard to find them on shelf. With the AI-powered inventory system, now there is just one step to help customers find and access the resources they need. Entering the title of the materials on the OPAC search station, patrons can immediately get the material’s specific location from the library system, including the details of floor, area, shelf, shelf layer, and call number. It was a really nice point that impressed customers.
Mobile app supported
Intech also develops mobile clients, such as apps or mini programs, which facilitate customers to access library resources with their mobile tools. Therefore, customers can browse library resources at any time and anywhere.
Personalized recommendations
Acting as critical referrers of information, Intech AI inventory system recommends personal suggestions for reading materials to individual users based on their preferences and borrowing history. It also analyzes library borrowing data and generates a report of popular collection sections, popular book lists, and new arrivals for users.
As artificial intelligence grows by leaps and bounds, the application of AI tech in library inventory management become both increasingly commonplace and capable. Intech will continue to offer innovative solutions to help libraries to take their services to new heights.
Next：Intech Rolled Out An AI Inventory Solution in Nanjing Pukou District Library
