Abstract:

[Purpose/Significance] Because of the rapid digitalization and intelligentization during China's 15th Five-Year Plan period, university libraries are undergoing a profound transformation from traditional resource-oriented service institutions to integrated smart service systems. Although considerable progress has been made in the development of smart libraries, the existing studies are mainly concerned with specific technologies, functional modules, or localized service innovations. Therefore, insufficient attention is given to the internal structure of smart service systems and to the mechanisms through which different service elements interact to generate service value. As a consequence, the practical applications often suffer from fragmented element configurations and inadequate integration between service design and application scenario. To address these issues, this study introduces the perspective of smart ecosystem for exploring the basic composition and operational logic of smart services in university libraries. By constructing an analytical framework of element coupling and its scenario-based applications, this study seeks to surpass the technology-centered and function-centered approaches so as to provide a systematic explanation for the design, operation, and evolution of smart service systems. This framework is expected to deepen the theoretical understanding of smart library services and offer practical inspirations for university libraries in building sustainable and adaptive service ecosystems. [Method/Process] In this study, smart library services were regarded as a dynamic process consisting of demand generation, information representation, technological processing, service delivery, and feedback optimization. On this basis, smart services were broken down into four main categories: users, data, technology, and services. Then, the analysis was conducted in their interaction, coupling relationship, and dynamic reconfiguration mechanism. Instead of regarding smart services as a simple aggregation of technologies or service functions, this study emphasizes the networked relationships among the four categories. It identifies several basic coupling modes, including user-data coupling, data-technology coupling, technology-service coupling, and user-service coupling, and further extends them into a multi-element network structure with continuous interaction and feedback. Based on the correspondence between the user needs and the service generation process, four representative application scenarios were constructed: resource navigation, learning support, research assistance, and virtual interaction. Methodologically, this study combined theoretical analysis and case study. Shandong University Library was selected as the empirical case because of its continuous exploration of smart service innovation. By examining the practical applications, this study analyzes how the proposed coupling mechanisms were implemented in different scenarios. [Results/Conclusions] The findings indicate that smart services in university libraries are essentially ecosystem-based processes involving the collaboration of multiple parties, rather than merely technological outputs. Users, data, technology, and services interact to form a dynamic network, in which the service generation emerges from the continuous coupling and reconfiguration of multiple elements. Different service scenarios present different dominant coupling structures. Resource navigation mainly relies on the interaction among users, data, and technology to enhance knowledge discovery and resource matching; the learning support emphasizes the multi-element collaboration throughout the learning process; the research assistance reflects the integration of data and technological capabilities driven by user needs; and the virtual interaction highlights the role of technology empowerment in improving service accessibility. The case of Shandong University Library shows that the analytical framework proposed in this study can effectively explain the evolutionary process of smart services from element coupling to scenario construction and, ultimately, to ecosystem coordination. Nevertheless, this study still has certain limitations. As the empirical analysis is mainly based on a single institutional case, the discussion of large-scale inter-organizational collaboration is still limited. Future research may further explore the collaborative smart service ecosystems among multiple libraries, the advanced data governance mechanisms, and the deeper integration of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. Such research will help enhance the adaptability, sustainability, and overall effectiveness of smart service systems in university libraries.

Key words: smart ecosystem, smart library, element coupling, scenario-based application, 15th Five-Year Plan, AI