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Introduction
Information science is concerned with the generation, collection, organization, interpretation, storage, retrieval, dissemination, transformation and use of information with particular emphasis on the applications of modern technologies in these areas (Hjùrland, 2000). There are three related concepts behind information science which are data, information and knowledge. Data is commonly described as the raw material for information, which is in turn regarded to be the raw material for knowledge. Information science is very relevant to libraries (Dhanalakshmi and Mamatha, 2009), and library science aims to concentrate on information searching/retrieval, classification and indexing, document selection collection and development, the design of information systems, the quality management of information services and teaching information/document/literature searching. Information science/library science is mostly carried out in "Library Schools", and one example of a task set which is performed by libraries includes circulation, which involves handling user accounts and also the issuing/returning and shelving of materials, the collection, development and ordering of materials, budget maintenance and technical services.
Nowadays, in many modern libraries, these activities are implemented by making use of current technology such as barcodes and radio frequency identification (RFID). However, there are a number of problems with barcode-based approaches, including dimensional accuracy and consistency, print clarity and print contrast ratio (Wray, 1988). In comparison, it has been found that RFID technology is better than barcode-based systems because this technology uses radio signals to exchange identifying data (Baysan and Akpinar, 2009), rather than relying on a printed code. This means that some of the advantages of RFID technology include saving time at the circulation counter, being a perfect tracker, having a simple charging/discharging process and being highly reliable (Yu, 2007; Madhusudhan, 2010; Bansode and Desale, 2009). However, RFID also has many issues, such as cost, access rate and privacy (Yu, 2007). It is therefore worth considering making use of alternative technology-based solutions.
This paper proposes the adoption of near field communication (NFC) technology through our newly developed application, S-Library. NFC is a wireless connectivity technology for the short-range exchange of information via a mobile device without physical contact (Pesonen and Horster, 2012; Grassie, 2007). NFC technologies are widely used in several domains and industries such as retail, health care and transportation. NFC has similarities with RFID but is secured, has a...