


































Communication, Society and Media 
ISSN 2576-5388 (Print) ISSN 2576-5396 (Online) 

Vol. 8, No. 1, 2025 

www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm 

30 

 

Original Paper 

Exploring the High-quality Development Path of Academic 

Libraries in the Perspective of Digital Literacy 

Min Ye
1*

 & Peiming Guo
1

 

1 
Library, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China 

* 
Min Ye, Library, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China 

 

Received: December 22, 2024   Accepted: December 31, 2024  Online Published: January 18, 2025 

doi:10.22158/csm.v8n1p30                       URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/csm.v8n1p30 

 

Abstract 

In the new era, academic libraries are shouldering new missions and responsibilities for the progress 

of science and technology. Exploring the issues related to the high-quality development of academic 

libraries will play a crucial role in fully implementing the strategic planning to develop future 

academic libraries and to enhance their value and influence. In the digital intelligence era, digital 

literacy education has become a new growth point of the library’s social education function. This paper 

explains the connotation of digital literacy and the components of high-quality development of libraries. 

On basis of the problems and solution strategies of college libraries existing in the construction of 

talent teams and resources, the path of high-quality development of college libraries is rationally 

designed in the current paper. It is believed that digital literacy would empower the high-quality 

development of college libraries and significantly promote the construction of smart libraries. 

Keywords 

digital literacy, academic library, digital resources, high-quality development 

 

1. Introduction 

Driven by the digital education strategy, modern information technologies such as cloud computing, big 

data, and artificial intelligence are increasingly emerging as new engines for the development of 

scientific and technological innovation in universities. As a crucial support for academic research in 

universities, libraries are facing new opportunities and challenges. They are transitioning from 

traditional service-oriented libraries to more efficient and intelligent smart libraries, aiming to achieve 

high-quality development. The intelligent transformation of University Library inevitably puts forward 

higher requirements for professional librarians’ digital literacy skills, digital resources and the 

configuration of modern intelligent infrastructure. 



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2. Literature Review 

2.1 Digital Literacy 

The concept of literacy has evolved alongside technological advancements, resulting in a proliferation 

of related concepts in the literature. But it still faces the problems of ambiguous concepts, unclear 

definitions, and easily being misunderstood (Feerrar, 2019). Additionally, a wide variety of synonyms 

and the related concepts exist, including technology literacy, computer literacy, IT literacy, media 

literacy, academic literacy, information literacy, critical literacy, and communications literacy. These 

complexity and ambiguity severely hinder precise measurement and operationalization, thereby 

impeding the scientific research (Gong & Ribiere, 2021). 

The original definition of digital literacy was formally proposed by Gilster (1997), who defined it as 

“the ability to understand and use information from computers in various formats”. In 2018, the United 

Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization released the Digital Literacy Global 

Framework (DLGF). The DLGF clearly defines digital literacy as the ability to securely and 

appropriately acquire, manage, understand, integrate, present, evaluate and create information using 

digital technology, aiming for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship. This encompasses 

computer literacy, ICT literacy, information literacy and media literacy. In 2021, the “Action Plan for 

Improving Digital Literacy and Skills for All” issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China 

further clarified the concept of digital literacy, which refers to a collection of a series of qualities and 

abilities. Specifically, the digital society citizens should possess in their learning, working and living, 

including digital acquisition, production, use, evaluation, interaction, sharing, innovation, security, 

ethics and morality. In practice, Wang (2023) compiled and analyzed the development of four versions 

of the European Union (EU) Digital Literacy Framework. The DigCom 2.2 model contains a 

comprehensive update of the knowledge and skills related to digital literacy in five areas: information 

and data literacy, communication and cooperation, digital content creation, security and 

problem-solving. Weninger (2023) argued that the predominant focus on Digital Literacy skills 

overlooks its broader implications, advocating for Digital Literacy to be developed as a social practice. 

Furthermore, digital literacy is characterized by its evolving nature, and closely tied to the 

technological advancements. The development and introduction of new artificial intelligence tools have 

introduced new demands on Digital Literacy as well as the corresponding digital skills and 

competencies (Vasilescu et al., 2020). 

In summary, with the rapid advancements in the Internet, cloud computing, big data and artificial 

intelligence, the concept of digital literacy has gradually expanded and been refined, evolving from a 

basic understanding to a deeper comprehension. It exhibits notable characteristics of dynamism, 

comprehensiveness and openness. As new technologies emerge, the related content will be 

continuously enriched, significantly deepening the essence of digital literacy. 



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2.2 Digital Literacy Education 

Nowadays, digital literacy has a big impact on people’s lives, careers and social standing. Digital 

literacy is essential for those people who want to take advantage of educational opportunities, find 

work, and succeed in their careers. In the United States, the National Skills Alliance reports that 92% of 

jobs require digital skills. Besides, researches indicate that the enhancement of digital literacy skills can 

significantly improve China’s rural economy and bridge the wealth gap (Zhang et al., 2024). Most 

recently, Liu (2024) and others declared that, with digital literacy education emerging as a new focal 

point of the library’s social education function, the social education function of libraries has evolved 

from primarily focusing on education to literacy education. Evidently, in the digital intelligence era, 

academic libraries are clearly responsible to develop digital talent with a creative mindset and useful 

skills for the country, thereby offering strong talent support for the growth of China’s digital economy. 

 

3. The Constituent Elements of High-quality Development in University Libraries 

3.1 Problems of Building Digital Service Teams in College Libraries 

With the development of artificial intelligence and big data technology, traditional libraries are 

gradually evolving into smart libraries, while the construction of a professional digital service librarian 

team has not received adequate attention. First, the demand for digital librarians in Chinese universities 

significantly outstrips the supply, and this imbalance has become a crucial factor limiting the 

high-quality development of smart libraries in universities. Second, the allocation and selection of 

librarians lack scientific rigor. Finally, there is a lack of foresight in the training and capacity building 

of digital librarians. The government, educational administrative departments and Library Associations 

all lack relevant framework guidelines for digital literacy education and training. As a result, most 

university libraries stick to the traditional thinking of information literacy education, do bear unclear 

positioning of digital literacy education, and imperfect practice mechanism, and lack the corresponding 

resources and equipment. 

3.2 Solution Strategies for the Construction of Digital Librarian Team 

(1) Enhancing the high-level planning. In order to recruit librarians with digital knowledge, experience, 

and skills and to play a leading role, the library’s decision-making group formulates strategic plans for 

development. Meanwhile, the library should implement training programs and incentive mechanisms 

that encourage librarians to advance their digital literacy and build a team of digital librarians with a 

high level of professional identity and subjective initiative. The development of librarians’ digital 

literacy skills can benefit teaching and learning as a digital literacy lecturer and student information 

tutor. As a consequence, it can support scientific research as a scientific research partner and also help 

the university decision-making think-tank formulate the strategic planning of library development. 

 



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(2) Optimizing the digital infrastructure. True knowledge can only be produced by practice, and 

librarians cannot cook without rice. Modern and intelligent equipments can better support and facilitate 

the growth of teachers and students. Moreover, librarians should foster and train the development and 

implementation of new systems and procedures. In turn, system development and equipment 

procurement practically need a certain amount of funding and technical supports much beyond the 

library, and the human and material resources should be allocated for effective performance. 

(3) Recruiting the high-level specialized personnel, cultivating comprehensive compound talents, and 

strengthening the construction of professional talent team. The iron triangle model should be 

constructed with professional data librarians acting as supervisors for the data and visualization 

services. Diversified training should be employed to enhance the data literacy of librarians, with faculty, 

students, database vendors and other subjects also being included in this initiative. Graded openings for 

data literacy training courses should be established for librarians, with diversified training models being 

utilized to enhance the digital literacy of librarians. Training in common database retrieval and 

common data processing should also be provided to librarians. Additionally, training in crawlers and 

visualization tools should be made available. At the same time, it is aimed at the temporary service 

assistants of teachers and students in the whole school, guided by user needs, and further improves the 

ability of digital services. The construction of digital librarians in colleges and universities requires a 

compound cross-knowledge structure. They should not only master the basic application and equipment 

skills of digital technology, but also maintain their sensitivity to new technologies, keep abreast of 

industry trends, and constantly update their knowledge and skills training. 

3.3 The Construction of Digital Resources in University Libraries from the Perspective of Digital 

Literacy 

Academic libraries have rich information resources, and are important places for cultural dissemination. 

Their collections can be categorized into two types: print resources and digital resources. In the 21st 

century, the global economy is struggling, which has led to shrinking budgets for college libraries. 

Meanwhile, the demand for digital resources among contemporary readers is rapidly increasing. This 

has created a noticeable conflict between print and digital resources in libraries. Currently, academic 

libraries allocate more than 60% of their acquisition budgets for documentary resources to electronic 

formats. To align with this trend, college libraries need to focus on developing their digital resources. 

However, they face significant challenges in this endeavor. 

(1) The slow progress of digital construction of self-built database: As each university library evolves 

alongside the institution itself, it generates unique resources that reflect its characteristics. Common 

resources include dissertations and library publications. For example, the East China University of 

Science and Technology Library features a special collection of chemical literature, while the Shanghai 

Normal University Library houses periodicals from the Republican era. Similarly, the Shanghai 



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University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Library offers a special collection of Traditional Chinese 

Medicine literature. Limited by human, material and financial resources, it is difficult for university 

libraries to build their own characteristic resource library digitalization. In today’s world, where digital 

technology is highly developed, there is a rare chance for these self-built collections to be digitized and 

made more accessible. 

(2) Outdated digital resource management system, poor user experience: When resources are fully 

digitised, the resource management system is particularly important in order to make them smoothly 

open for use by users. The resources cannot achieve one-stop search, and users need to log in different 

interfaces to find them. 

(3) The awareness of digital resource sharing requires enhancement, and the formats of literature 

resources lack uniform standards. Digital resource sharing transcends time and space limitations, 

allowing anyone to access library information resources, which helps avoid duplication in college 

libraries and saves manpower, materials, and finances. However, many college administrators still 

resist common sharing practices. Additionally, the absence of standardized processing for documentary 

resources leads to varied formats across universities, hindering effective co-construction and sharing. 

Simultaneously, the challenge of sharing digital information resources extends beyond library 

management responsibilities; staff must also possess technical skills and be familiar with digital tools. 

Only librarians with strong digital literacy can promptly address error messages during co-construction 

and resolve issues that arise in subsequent work. 

(4) The gap between the rapid advancement of technology and the slow digital transformation of 

libraries presents a challenge. With the advent of the digital age, the development of artificial 

intelligence is a new issue that libraries have to face. It is essential to move beyond merely utilizing 

digital resources; instead, libraries should employ appropriate tools that enable real-time computing 

based on user needs. This approach aims to maximize resource usage while balancing resource 

collection and utilization, thereby enhancing their value. Additionally, deeper data exploration is 

necessary to improve data storage and management effectiveness. 

 

4. The High-quality Development Path of University Libraries 

4.1 The Development Path of Digital Literacy Ability of University Librarians 

Under the environment of artificial intelligence, the emerging information technology has created the 

continuous change of the library. The library has moved from the traditional library, the digital library 

and the library form to the intelligent library. The professional ability of the library has gradually 

evolved from participating in edge projects to design into the development process of AI application 

core. The professional ability of university librarians has advanced from simple data collection and 

preservation to mastering the professional knowledge of copyright and data security, training users to 



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use software tools and acquire content to data science and coding ability development. Librarians’ 

digital literacy ability is the decisive factor for the development of university libraries, which requires 

university libraries to explore its development path. 

(1) Establishing a Long-term Training Mechanism: Enhancing librarians’ digital literacy requires a 

sustainable training framework. Library associations should create theoretical standards for digital 

literacy training to guide library development. Additionally, specialized teaching materials must be 

developed to improve librarians’ knowledge and theoretical understanding. Decision-makers in 

universities and libraries should focus on top-level planning by defining clear training pathways, 

establishing tiered courses, and creating diverse models for digital literacy training that cover both 

foundational theory and practical skills. 

(2) Establishing a Robust Incentive Mechanism: Digital librarians have significant responsibilities and 

workloads. Libraries need to implement various incentive strategies tailored for these professionals to 

foster enthusiasm and creativity while aligning their actions with the library’s goals. A well-designed 

incentive framework can enhance digital librarians’ sense of identity within the organization, 

strengthening cohesion and encouraging self-driven value creation—ultimately supporting the library’s 

digital transformation efforts. 

(3) Establishing and improving the assessment mechanism: a scientific assessment mechanism helps to 

carry out high-quality services. The library should formulate a detailed assessment framework, 

formulate a targeted assessment index system that meets the development needs, including performance 

indicators such as job output quantification and service evaluation, and clarify the weight and scoring 

criteria of each indicator. Through employee self-assessment, colleague evaluation, superior evaluation, 

customer feedback and other ways to collect assessment data, reduce subjective impact, and help digital 

librarians understand their own advantages and disadvantages. Through the implementation of 

scientific, fair and effective assessment mechanism to form a good working and competitive 

atmosphere, enhance the loyalty of digital librarians to the post, so as to more actively participate in 

scientific research services. 

4.2 Pathways for Constructing Digital Resources in University Libraries 

(1) Prominent characteristics and specialization: Accelerating the digitalization of collection resources. 

Maximizing the enabling potential of information technology and artificial intelligence to address 

technical challenges in constructing digital resources. This will facilitate the digitization of library 

collections, allowing readers to access online retrieval and borrowing services easily. By leveraging 

internet technologies, libraries can develop unique resource offerings that are distinct from 

others—ensuring comprehensive availability, highlighting resource characteristics, enhancing service 

quality, and nurturing exceptional talent—and even small university libraries can cultivate their areas of 

expertise. 



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(2) Strengthening the construction of standards and norms for digital resource libraries to achieve 

collaborative development and sharing. 

Establishing standardized specifications is crucial for building a robust digital resource library. Unified 

standards ensure interoperability and sustainability throughout the service lifecycle, forming a 

foundational element for collaborative development and sharing initiatives. Resource sharing 

significantly enriches libraries’ digital assets while addressing diverse reader needs effectively. 

However, China’s current system for co-construction and sharing faces challenges such as loose 

organizational structures, inadequate funding, insufficient infrastructure, and limited personnel 

capacity—all hindering its ability to meet contemporary demands for digital resource development. 

Given these issues, China should strengthen collaboration in constructing and sharing digital resources. 

(3) Strengthen the construction of a unified platform for digital resources and enhance access to 

literature resources: 

In response to the economic downturn, tighter university budgets, and rising database costs, many 

universities are working to ease financial pressures by reducing reliance on commercial databases. 

They are integrating various knowledge sources within existing legal frameworks, including freely 

available online resources, open-access materials, specialized content aligned with institutional 

development, regional cultural assets, and master’s and doctoral dissertations from their own 

institutions. 

Currently, China’s literature information resource-sharing service platform has limited literature 

included. Each platform operates independently without a cohesive national retrieval system that meets 

users’ real-time needs; this results in low utilization rates of collaborative literature resource platforms. 

Therefore, it is recommended that national investment focus on establishing a unified digital resource 

platform led by the Ministry of Education in partnership with major university libraries. This initiative 

aims for centralized management and coordinated development of shared literature resources through a 

national digital service platform that enhances strategic access to literary materials at the national level. 

 

5. Conclusion 

In summary, college libraries are the foundation of campus informatization. They are becoming a 

composite space integrating a literature information center, an independent learning center, a research 

and communication center, a cultural education center, and a knowledge innovation center. With the 

advent of big data, massive data make the informationization work of academic libraries severely 

challenging in all aspects. The high-quality development path of academic libraries should closely 

surround the two core tasks of talent team and resource construction. On the one hand, libraries should 

create a comprehensive composite librarian team with good digital literacy. On the other hand, libraries 

should vigorously strengthen the construction of digital resources, the transformation and development 



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of libraries to digital intelligence, and the transition from a physical venue to an all-encompassing 

space that rationally combines a composite library, digital library, and virtual library. 

 

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Liu, X. Y., & Jiang, Y. F. (2024). From Cultivation Education to Literacy Education: The Formation and 

Evolution of the Social Education Function of Libraries. Library Journal, 43(11), 4-10. 

Vasilescu, M. D., Serban, A. C., Dimian, G. C., Aceleanu, M. I., & Picatoste, X. (2020). Digital divide, 

skills and perceptions on digitalisation in the European Union—Towards a smart labour market. 

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Zhang, J., Wang, D. Q., Ji , M., Yu, K., Qi, M. S., & Wang, H. (2024). Digital literacy, relative poverty, 

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