Taking the opportunity of its centennial in 2023,the National Library of Public Information has partnered with Tunghai University to create a generative artificial intelligent librarian.This will open up a brand-new face for library services,provide a more intelligent,precise,personalized and diversified reader experience,and open up the unlimited potential and innovative energy of library services.

When it comes to the hottest tech tools of recent years,ChatGPT is definitely one of the best.ChatGPT has not only created a sensation in the fields of healthcare,manufacturing,finance and marketing,but has also deeply influenced the domestic public libraries. As the first national digital public library in Taiwan,the National Library of Public Information(NLPI),in late 2023,joined hands with the team of Professor Chung-Hsin Chou of Tunghai University to launch Taiwan's first intelligent librarian using generative AI technology,which not only symbolizes that Taiwan's library services are entering a brand-new stage in the era of AI,but also represents that NLPI is committed to providing more advanced intelligent library services to bring a more enriching and beautiful reading experience to its readers.

Seeing the new potential of AI application and creating the first AI intelligent librarian in Taiwan
Speaking of the most important driving force behind the development of smart librarians,Curator Ma Xiangping said that since its transformation into the nation's first national digital library in 2013,SASL has continued to utilize a variety of digital technologies to lead Taiwan's public libraries in continuous.

These include self-service book reservation and pickup machines,24-hour unmanned micro-libraries,book sorting machines with 17 categories that help librarians greatly simplify the process of returning and sorting books,and even the first-generation predictive AI intelligent robots that can answer readers' questions in a simple way.

However,predictive AI robots can only give fixed predictive answers based on questions,which makes it difficult to provide better consulting services after a long period of time," explained Ma Xiang-ping.

ChatGPT,which will be released by the end of 2022,will use generative AI technology to significantly improve the limitations of predictive AI robots in answering questions in the past.Therefore,in addition to the shock it has brought to various industries,it has also aroused a lot of worrying voices in the education sector."For example,many people are worried that ChatGPT is so powerful that it will be used by students to write reports and essays,and may even be used for exams in the future,will our next generation lose their competitiveness?"

Ms. Ma,who has always been interested in innovations and has been working in the field of higher education in Taiwan for a long time,saw the different application possibilities of ChatGPT."At that time,I was thinking that ChatGPT could propose various solutions according to the user's problems,just like a large encyclopedic knowledge base,and if applied,it might become a friend that accompanies readers in exploring the world of reading and experiencing the beauty of knowledge."

Therefore,in May 2023,after taking up the post of curator of the NLPI,Shiang-ping Ma officially started the cooperation with Zhou Zhongxin,a professor of Tunghai University who has been working in the field of AI for a long time,with the concept of "Knowledgeable Books,Intelligent Consultation". it combines the emerging generative AI technology ChatGPT,Digital Twin,and real voice synthesis to create Taiwan's first AI Intelligent Librarian - "Xiaoshu".

AI 001 librarian "Xiaoshu" who knows about books.Chatting with you about reading
When you walk into the lobby of the library,librarian No. AI 001 "XiaoShu" stands elegantly in a red telephone booth,ready to answer patrons' questions about books,reading,and even the facilities of the library.Readers can press the microphone button to ask the friendly and knowledgeable "XiaoShu" about her recommended list of books and services,and "XiaoShu" will provide customized answers according to the questions of different readers.

Since December 28,2023,when she passed the probationary period and became an official librarian,"Xiaoshu" has created a record of about 10 thousand responses in just two months,serving more than 100 readers every day on average.

Statistically,in addition to collection information,readers are more curious about her hobbies,whether she has a boyfriend,and why she likes her current outfit.Many readers have asked her to recommend snacks around the NLPI;in addition to age,weight,and relationship status,all of which are secrets to "Xiaoshu," she has no shame in admitting that she is a braised pork and rice lover,and she enthusiastically recommends the local snacks in Taiwan. She hopes that readers will be satisfied both physically and mentally.

According to Ma Xiangping,compared with the predictive voice customer service system in the past,the image generation and ChatGPT computing power as the core of "Xiaoshu" not only has a substantial improvement in the accuracy and speed of sentence understanding and generation of replies,but also close to the level of real librarians in terms of the image,dialogue,response and interactive performance,so that readers can feel the intimacy of "Xiaoshu" more.

In addition,the powerful functionality of "Xiaoshu" can also help the manpower constraints of the NLPI team to solve the tedious and routine tasks,so that the librarians can have more time to think about the planning of book exhibitions,reading lectures and other issues that require creativity and wisdom,and thus improve the overall quality of service of the NLPI.

Advance deployment. Making the NLPI a truly smart library.
Looking back at the development process of "Xiaoshu",Ma Xiangping said with a smile,"Difficulties have never been scarce!” In addition to the need for huge financial support,it was also a big challenge to categorize the library's huge amount of information in an organized way,and instill it into "Xiaoshu",so that she could become an intelligent librarian who could quickly generate the right answers.

"It was like teaching a child,constantly telling her new knowledge and proofreading her answers by asking questions over and over again. These processes took a lot of time and effort from the whole team,and we even delayed the official launch of “Xiaoshu” for more than 2 months,just to make sure that she could become an intelligent librarian who could truly respond to the questions of the readers."

Although the challenges encountered during the development process were far greater than first imagined,Ma Xiangping emphasized,"We have never given up innovation because of difficulties and challenges. After all,from becoming one of the first public libraries established in Taiwan in 1923 to its digital transformation and restructuring in 2013 to become a dual-track digital-physical library,we have been striving for improvement over the past hundred years.

“Over the past 100 years,we have been striving for excellence in order to keep abreast of the times and provide better reading services to our readers. Of course,we are also aware that there is still a long way to go before NLPI can become a truly intelligent library."

In the future,the NLPI will continue to work with Prof. Chou Chung-Hsin's team to improve and enhance the functions of "XiaoShu",and plans to add more intelligent librarians,so that readers visiting the NLPI will have the opportunity to chat and exchange ideas with the intelligent librarians.

At the same time,NLPI and Tunghai University signed a Memorandum of Understanding,in the hope of combining the national-level digital information reading resources owned by the NLPI and the rich teaching resources and research energies of Tunghai University,to jointly assist Taiwan's smart reading and innovative technology tours,so as to bring library services to a new realm,and to make the NLPI into a truly smart library,creating a more flexible and diversified lifelong reading area for its readers.