The idea of a smart library was first proposed in 2003 by Finnish library science scholar Markus Aittola and his colleagues in the paper Smart Library – Location-Aware Mobile Library Service. In fact, the research was not conducted until 2009.

According to the Report on Visits to Finland Public Libraries released by Yeh Chien-Liang in 2012, all public libraries in Helsinki, a pioneering city in smart library development, are equipped with self check machines but certain readers, such as the singleton elderly and other people with little social contact, still prefer having their books checked in and out by library staff.

Machines cannot completely replace manual services; on the contrary, smart libraries in future will certainly require library staff to be transformed as ‘learning facilitators’. How has the idea of the smart library been expanded in pioneering foreign cities as well as our home city Macao over the past decade? How can we find the balance between manual services and smart services? You will understand further as you read this issue of Books and the City.

The Library Portrait column continues the smart library theme and offers us an insight into the current and future utilization of local library information resources through the interview of two core staff members of the Information Technology Department of Macao Public Library. In Author's Say, Yolanda Kog, the Macao illustrator who has contributed her work to the Reading Landscape and depicted the book reviewers of this issue, is invited to introduce Home, a new picture book she has meticulously prepared for two years.

Everything starts afresh at the beginning of a year, and Books and the City wish you a year of more joyful reading ahead!