Intelligent Information Management, 2012, 4, 207-211
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/iim.2012.45030 Published Online September 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/iim)
Research on Information Resource Integration of
University Libraries under the Mode of Knowledge
Management
Yu-Qiang Guo, Zheng-Yu Sha
Wuhan University of Technology Library, Wuhan, China
Received April 28, 2012; revised May 30, 2012; accepted June 10, 2012
ABSTRACT
On the grounds of expounding the situation of university library knowledge management and according to the charac-
teristics of knowledge management, the paper combines the development of resource integration of library of Wuhan
University of Technology, and analyzes the objects, trends and innovation of resource integration under the mode of
knowledge management.
Keywords: Knowledge Management; Resource Integration; University Library
1. Introduction
The core of knowledge management is “people-oriented,
service paramountcy”. Therefore, library information re-
source integration under the mode of knowledge man-
agement means to use the theory and methods of knowl-
edge management to guide library management and lots
of practices, to make library’s information resources to
form an organic whole, and offer high quality and effec-
tive information service to users, and ultimately realize
the philosophy of “readers first, service-oriented”.
2. University Library Knowledge
Management
2.1. Knowledge Management
Knowledge management refers to establish knowledge
system within the organization, acquire, create, organize,
disseminate, analyze, develop and utilize the explicit
knowledge and tacit knowledge in internal and external
organization and make knowledge resources be used ef-
fectively.
University library knowledge management is a knowl-
edge system based on knowledge management, which
consists of two elements: information resources and users.
Information resources refer to all kinds of library re-
sources including hypostatic library collection and virtual
library collection; users refer to the individuals or groups
who use library resources to meet their information
needs.
2.2. Practice of University Library Knowledge
Management
The attention of university libraries to knowledge man-
agement can be reflected in knowledge management
practices and trials of university libraries or academic
libraries. Knowledge management practices of university
libraries mainly have three types: repository-oriented
knowledge management, library staff-oriented knowl-
edge management, new technology-oriented knowledge
management.
The typical cases of repository-oriented knowledge
management mainly contain Ohio State University Li-
brary and MIT Library [1]. In 2001, knowledge man-
agement of Ohio State University Library advanced
through the participation in Knowledge Bank Plan, in
which library takes charge of managing knowledge bank
and university personnel or departments realize creating,
organizing, storing and using academic information
freely, promoting knowledge sharing, knowledge com-
munication and knowledge dissemination and making the
individuals get more closely with the organization.
Knowledge management of Ohio State University Li-
brary is a successful case of library knowledge manage-
ment. Knowledge management practice of MIT Library
is based on the establishment of open access DSpace, and
MIT Library currently is working with Columbia Uni-
versity, Cambridge University, Ohio State University and
other universities to set up inter-university Dspace alli-
ance, realizing knowledge sharing and co-management
between universities, and promoting the progress of open
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opyright © 2012 SciRes. IIM

Y.-Q. GUO, Z.-Y. SHA
208
access movement. Repository-oriented knowledge man-
agement focuses primarily on the using of knowledge
resource, although some university libraries are focusing
on the affinity of interface, but information resource-
based knowledge management rarely reflect the impor-
tance of library staffs and users in the knowledge man-
agement system.
Establish learning organization to manage library knowl-
edge resource belongs to library staff-oriented knowl-
edge management, and the typical cases include Library
of University of Arizona, Northern Illinois University
Library. University of Arizona establishes different func-
tion groups to take charge of specific work, focusing on
cultivating staffs’ abilities and advocating share and buil-
ding self-management team, utilizes users’ feedbacks to
improve working process, sets up internal evaluation me-
chanism, and initially forms a scientific knowledge man-
agement system of library staffs. Through the building of
knowledge management system, University of Arizona
not only promote the staffs’ abilities and improve library
workflow, but also reduce library costs and improve the
service quality. Staff-oriented knowledge management
lays emphasis on the management, lacking of effective
means to use knowledge resources.
Library resource integration is technology-oriented
knowledge management, integrates library resources into
a union knowledge management platform, and provides
one-time user authentication, one-stop search, original
document acquisition and some other knowledge services.
University libraries have carried out a lot of practice on
resource integration, and have introduced lots of resource
integration systems to manage internal resources. The
common resource integration systems include Ex Libris’
MetaLib/SFX, Web Feat’s Web Feat Prism, MUSE, El-
sevier’s Scopus, OCLC’s Worldcat, and duxiu academic
search.
3. University Library Information Resource
Integration
Information resource integration is the optimization com-
bination of digital resources, integrate, cluster and re-
structure the relatively independent data objects, function
structure and interactive relationship to recombine into a
new organic whole, and form a new information resource
system of better performance and more efficient. The
degree of integration can be directly related to the efficient
absorption and utilization. The model of library informa-
tion resource integration can be divided into two catego-
ries: resource-oriented information resource integration
and user-oriented information resource integration [2].
3.1. Resource-Oriented Information Resource
Integration
Resource-oriented information resource integration mainly
utilize database and data warehouse to organize a variety
of heterogeneous scattered information resources, opti-
mize the structure of information resource system, and
use artificial intelligence technology to offer integration
service. Integrated information resources can eliminate
the isolation between library collection resource, digital
resource and heterogeneous resource to become a more
systematic and professional system.
3.1.1. Ob j ects of Resou rce-Oriented Information
Resource Integration
The objects of resource-oriented information resource in-
tegration include hypostatic collection, virtual collection
and network free resource. Hypostatic collection mainly
refers to paper resource, electronic collection, self-built
characteristic database and multimedia resource; virtual
collection mainly refers to a variety of databases, network
free resource refers to the open access resource, including
academic news, academic conference information, expert
information, universities and research organizations, open-
access journals, free e-book, free software, shared cour-
seware, excelsior courses and researchers’ blogs.
The objects of resource-oriented information resource
integration should also include tacit knowledge. The con-
cept of explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge was ad-
vanced in 1958 by Michael Polanyi, physicist, chemist
and philosopher, from the philosophy. Tacit knowledge
refers to the knowledge we know but of unspeakable or
unexpressed, such as the human experience, skills and
cognitive ability. Library tacit knowledge has two sour-
ces: first, from the library staffs; Second, from the library
users. As a part of the objects of library resource integra-
tion under the mode of knowledge management, the key
to obtain tacit knowledge is how to makes tacit knowl-
edge explicit.
3.1.2. Development o f In tegration Mode
Faced with various information resources, users propose
new needs on library information service, demand one-
stop search on union platform for all resources to obtain
more relevant literature, more efficient full-text acquisi-
tion service, citation and references, authors, institutions
and other relevant information service.
Driven from these new requirements, Information re-
source integration develops from digital resource integra-
tion based on OPAC, digital resource integration based
on data source to digital resource integration based on
knowledge link, from directory service to full-text search
service, to resource integration service based on knowl-
edge unit and knowledge link.
Resource integration service based on knowledge unit
and knowledge link is more advanced model of informa-
tion resource integration. According to heritage and logic
of knowledge node, organize the relevant knowledge
units to form different knowledge sets of different use,
and finally form a knowledge network. OPAC-based inte-

Y.-Q. GUO, Z.-Y. SHA 209
gration and data source-based integration have matured
gradually, and university libraries pay more and more
attention to knowledge link-based integration. For exam-
ple, duxiu academic search platform is the resource inte-
gration platform based on knowledge link.
3.2. User-Oriented Information Resource
Integration
User-oriented information resource integration means in-
formation resource integration carried around users, to
form a dynamic mechanism of aggregating information
resource, information service and information utilization
activities, with the ultimate goal of becoming the support
platform for using information, extracting knowledge,
solving problems and optimizing user environment, in
order to enable users to get positive experiences during
the combination of information resources and individual
needs [3]. Specifically, user-oriented information resource
integration is not only the integration of information re-
source but also the integration of information service,
that is the organic integration of information resource
and service.
Such as RSS and My Library are the typical modes of
user-oriented information resource integration, and inte-
grate library information resources and service to provide
users with personalized service and information push
service. The typical feature is the interaction between
users and library.
The ultimate goal of information resource integration
is to improve the quality of information service. Al-
though the integration based on information resource can
bring convenience to users, but the level of users’ par-
ticipation in the process of integration is not high, results
in the mismatch between service and needs. In this case,
user-oriented information resource integration caused a
lot of concern in the circle of library. User-oriented in-
formation resource integration focuses on users’ experi-
ences, and integrates information resource and informa-
tion service according to users’ demands. In some ways,
resource-oriented integration is the basis of user-oriented
integration, and user-oriented information resource inte-
gration is the advanced process of resource-oriented in-
formation resource integration. Only resource-oriented
integration develops to certain extent, user-oriented in-
formation resource integration can be achieved. With the
development of technology and the update of conception,
information resource integration will develop towards an
integrated and comprehensive approach.
4. Practice of Information Resource
Integration of Library of Wuhan
University of Technology
Library of Wuhan University of Technology (WUT li-
brary) started to integrate information resources from
2005, and by 2009 have integrated information resource
three times. Generally the phase of resource integration,
that is information resource-oriented integration, is just
the early stage of information resource integration. Al-
though resource integration can provide personalized ser-
vice, the extent and scope of library service are still un-
satisfactory from the view of practical application. From
the second half of 2009, Library started to user-oriented
integration of subject information resource, and integra-
tion program has taken initial shape [4].
4.1. Information Resource-Oriented Integration
In the project of digital library construction started in
2005, in order to realizing co-construction and sharing
between 6 branch libraries and 22 college/department
reference rooms in library system, library introduced In-
terlib system in 2006. Library uses cluster management
solution to integrate OPAC resource. Interlib system in-
tegrates the resources of college/department reference
rooms and library to form a virtual library, realizing the
integration of information resource. Integration platform
integrates union certification, personal loan, online re-
newal, book recommendation, new books bulletin and
book reservation to provide user-oriented bibliography
search service.
In order to satisfy the needs of users, library completed
union search platform for CALIS resource in 2007. The
platform is based on data source integration, integrated
print resource, electronic resource and self-built resource
such as CD-ROMs attached books through metadata re-
pository, and provided union search and full-text service
through resource scheduling system. CALIS resource un-
ion search platform can retrieve the majority of library
resources, and integrate union user authentication system,
library portal, online reference service, interlibrary loan
system, library BBS, resource navigation, CALIS toolbar
features and personalized service such as my favorites,
search history, my discipline and resource list. Due to the
limitation of library resource integration and technology
development, CALIS resource union search platform has
become increasingly unable to meet the needs of users,
reflected as follows:
● The platform can not provide users with network
academic information resource because of the range of
integration.
● Technical defects. First, the platform can not inte-
grate all the resources available; second, problems exist in
recall ratio and precision ratio of the search results, and
union search result is inconsistent with single database
search result; third, the clutter sort of search results does
not reflect the correlation between resource and search
terms.

Y.-Q. GUO, Z.-Y. SHA
210
● Because of the resource integration based on data
source, search results do not reveal the knowledge rela-
tion of the resources, and the relationship of resources
can not display through search results.
Development of new technologies and changes of the
conception of resource integration provides the opportu-
nity to solve the problems in the original integration plat-
form. WUT library started to pay attention to knowledge
link-based resource integration platform from the first
half of 2009. After the search of MetaLib/SFX, Web Feat
Prism, MUSE, Scopus, Worldcat, and Duxiu academic
research, library introduced Duxiu academic research in
September, 2009. Duxiu academic research platform can
deeply retrieve the resources and the full-text contents
and provide document delivery service for the resources
outside the library.
There are some differences between Duxiu academic
research platform and CALIS resource union search plat-
form:
● Expand of collection range. Duxiu academic re-
search platform provides 21 kinds of resources including
knowledge, books, journals, newspapers, e-books, pat-
ents, standards, figures, entries, dictionaries, dissertations,
conference papers, blogs, forums, online papers, web pa-
ges, pictures, movies, music, yellow pages, and news [5].
In addition to the integration of academic resources, Du-
xiu academic research platform also integrated network
academic resources and personal resources.
● Technical solutions get better. Duxiu academic re-
search platform integrate different resources seamlessly,
offer the users with integrated service including book-
loaning and book-query in Interlib system, reference ser-
vice based on Duxiu academic research, document deliv-
ery service and personalized push service. The speed of
retrieval response has a significant improvement, and the
sort of search results is more scientific.
● The search result is a set of knowledge relation. Du-
xiu academic research integrates resources based on knowl-
edge link, and reveals the internal logic of the resource.
Therefore the search result is no longer linear, and be-
comes a set of books, journals, authors, web resources,
conferences, patents and standards. Through knowledge
units provided by search result, users can access relevant
information more quickly.
● Reveal resources more depth. Take book for exam-
ple, Duxiu academic research reveals catalogue informa-
tion including cover page, title page, copyright page,
preface page, directory page, probation page and back
cover page. Duxiu academic research also provides col-
lections, document delivery, recommendation and some
other access methods.
● Personalized service and learning organization ser-
vice become more active. Duxiu academic research intro-
duced my library, subject library, document mutual aid,
document market, my reference and other characteristic
services to address the needs of different types of read-
ers.
● Managing tacit knowledge and providing service.
Duxiu academic research has begun to make use of
user’s tacit knowledge to create knowledge. For example,
through the establishment of subject library, user can
collect subject data to do personal creation, and this is the
creation of tacit knowledge.
4.2. Second Phrase: User-Oriented Subject
Information Resource Integration
Resource integration under the mode of knowledge man-
agement not only integrates hypostatic collection, virtual
collection and network academic resources, but also in-
tegrates tacit knowledge resource. Duxiu academic re-
search involves in tacit knowledge just in subject library.
The key to make users’ tacit knowledge explicit and use
the knowledge by knowledge link is user participation.
User-oriented subject information resource integration
is the focus of WUT library research project and the
practice of resource integration under the mode of know-
ledge management. The project aims at the establishment
of interaction based on user-oriented information re-
source integration. The project clusters information users
through the behaviors of the users, divides the users into
different groups of the same or similar research topic,
enable them to create virtual research teams through the
network, and establish the interactions and links between
users and users, users and library. Users can communi-
cate with each other, interact with the library, and par-
ticipate in the construction of library resources. Library
mines the tacit knowledge through the participation and
using of the users, in order to achieve the purpose of
making tacit knowledge explicit.
User-oriented subject information resource integration
has the following characteristics:
● More features integrated. Knowledge Platform not
only integrates library knowledge resources, but also in-
tegrates the existing user authentication system, library
automation system, information retrieval system and re-
mote access system, and configures document manage-
ment function for users.
● More abundance of the content of information re-
source integration. The platform not only integrates hy-
postatic resource and virtual resource, but also integrates
network resource, can track and analyze characteristic
information by using effective technical means and cre-
ate tacit knowledge repository for the users.
● Service of more personalized features. Through the
analysis of the data in tacit knowledge repository, the
platform makes tacit knowledge explicit, finds and offers
the proper information to the user according to the per-

Y.-Q. GUO, Z.-Y. SHA
211
sonalized needs of users. For example, through keyword
search, users can get relevant research organizations, re-
searchers, research progress, research achievements, the
hot spots and other information resources, and obtain the
research field of peers by the analysis of tacit knowledge.
The “active” display of these resources allows the plat-
form users to get the research information of other peer
researchers, eliminating the vast work of information
screening.
● Providing the platform for virtual teams to communi-
cate and study. The project reveals the internal logic of
knowledge units, and analyzes the inherent relation of
knowledge units and clusters the knowledge resource
freely. Analyzing the user behaviors and strengthening
the understanding between users, the project allows users
to cluster and establish virtual research teams, and team
members can discuss and communicate through the net-
work.
● Revealing knowledge deeper and using knowledge
fully. Through the establishment of meta-data repository
to build knowledge relations and knowledge links, the
project clusters the same and relevant knowledge, reveals
knowledge resources more fully and provides users with
knowledge clustering retrieve, knowledge navigation and
other services.
5. Conclusion
Information resource integration under the mode of kno-
wledge management changes the functions of library in
the process of knowledge exchange: expansion of the
service space, library not only provides physical space
for learning and communication, but also provides the
platform for virtual learning and communication; deep-
ening of the service content, library service develops
from information service to knowledge service which
means that library provides knowledge-based service
from the perspective of library experience and expertise;
expansion of the scope of knowledge management, li-
brary mines the tacit knowledge for users, and enhances
the professional service. Based on these function changes,
library service transforms from previous independent and
reverse passive service into interactive service.
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