This paper aims to examine ten high technology trends currently converging libraries, archives and museums, with verifiable real-world implementations. The study methodology is based on literature review of 2023–2026 IFLA, UNESCO and ICOM reports, Marshall Breeding’s, 2026 Library Systems Report and also from direct observation. Ten operational trends are identified: generative artificial intelligence, digital twins/three-dimensional scanning, international image interoperability framework and linked open data, immersive augmented reality/virtual reality, blockchain for provenance, handwritten text recognition, crowdsourced curation, smart Internet of Things preservation, computational archival science as data labs and sustainable green infrastructure. The article provides practitioner-based synthesis linking global best practices to Nigerian Library Archives and Museum context.
Academic libraries need to connect library systems with external platforms to automate workflows, enrich metadata and develop intelligent user services. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) provide an effective mechanism for such integration and seamless exchange of data between different systems. This study aims to describe the potential applications and practical use of APIs to develop research analytics and conversational library services. The article presents practical implementations using the Scopus and OpenAlex APIs for research analytics and the Koha and DSpace REST APIs for developing a conversational library interface. The implementations demonstrate how APIs can extend existing library systems without replacing them, enabling automated research analytics, integrated discovery and conversational access to library resources. The paper can help librarians, systems developers and library administrators to explore API-based services using their existing library management systems, repositories and scholarly information sources. The article presents practical experiences of using different APIs to develop research analytics and conversational services in an academic library environment.
Purpose This column aims to examine how developments in artificial intelligence (AI) impact the need for patron education. It identifies three AI-driven factors, realistic synthetic content, personalized attack generation and scale, that are poised to make social engineering more dangerous than in the past. It explores passkeys as one potential solution. Design/methodology/approach This is a viewpoint column that synthesizes recent research and reporting. It was copy-edited with Claude Sonnet 5, Claude Opus 5, ChatGPT Sol 5.6, Gemini 3.1 Pro and Gemma 4. Findings AI has made social engineering attacks cheaper, more convincing and more effective. Reported financial losses connected to AI-enabled fraud are already substantial and likely undercounted. Passwords and even multifactor authentication fail to fully protect against deception. Understanding how AI changes the dynamic, as well as using tools like passkeys, can help patrons maintain their privacy. Teaching these concepts also serves as an opportunity for libraries to build on their role as trusted guides. Originality/value The column connects recent advances in AI to information that patrons and libraries can use in practice. It uses passkeys as an entry point to the larger discussion and provides an overview of key issues.
Purpose This paper aims to address the problem of chronically understaffed academic libraries, using Ghanaian Colleges of Education as the case, and develops a practical framework for using low-code and no-code workflow automation to lift routine work without new hires. Design/methodology/approach The framework is developed through a conceptual synthesis of the general automation, library-practice and African library-technology literatures, adapted to the resource-constrained College of Education setting. Findings The paper sets out a four-stage framework – identify suitable workflows, select a tool, build along a maturity model, and govern the result – supported by a task taxonomy, an impact-and-effort prioritisation method, a tool-selection guide, a maturity model, and explicit boundary conditions for when not to automate. Originality/value Existing work is either not about libraries, code-heavy, tied to costly subscription platforms, or frames automation as expensive artificial intelligence. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first framework to treat low-code workflow automation as a deliberate, affordable strategy for the understaffed, resource-constrained academic library, built on self-hostable tools and within reach of a single capable librarian.
Purpose This paper aims to examine library technology initiatives that underperformed on first deployment and traces how library staff diagnosed and redesigned them. It argues that the redesign phase, rather than the launch phase, is where the more transferable practitioner lessons reside. Design/methodology/approach Five technology initiatives from three Indonesian public library agencies are examined, drawing on field research conducted between 2020 and 2023 and on institutional documentation published between 2024 and 2026. Findings Four recurring diagnostic patterns emerged: infrastructure assumptions that did not match user conditions; provision without programming; instruments that could not measure their own use; and announced features that never shipped. In each sustained case, the corrective action addressed service design rather than technology specification. Originality/value Published library technology case studies overwhelmingly report successes. This paper reports first-attempt shortfalls and the specific diagnostic reasoning that followed, offering practitioners a set of failure signatures they can recognise in their own services.
