Library Hi Tech

Internet of Things-based intelligent evacuation protocol in libraries

Kefan Xie, Zimei Liu, Liuliu Fu, Benbu Liang,
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Intelligent
Internet of Things-based evacuation
intelligent evacuation protocol protocol

in libraries
Kefan Xie and Zimei Liu
Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
Received 29 November 2017
Liuliu Fu Revised 12 June 2018
21 October 2018
Department of Information Systems, Accepted 24 October 2018
California State University, Los Angeles, California, USA, and
Benbu Liang
Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
Downloaded by University of Kansas At 07:19 22 January 2019 (PT)

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework of applying the Internet of Things
(IoT) technologies to the intelligent evacuation protocol in libraries at emergency situations.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted field investigations on eight libraries in Wuhan,
China, analyzed the characteristics of crowd gathering in libraries and the problems of the libraries’ existing
evacuation plans. Therefore, an IoT-based intelligent evacuation protocol in libraries was proposed. Its basic
structure consisted of five components: the information base, the protocol base, the IoT sensors, the
information fusion system and the intelligent evacuation protocol generation system. In the information
fusion system, Dempster–Shafer (D-S) evidence theory was employed as the information fusion algorithm to
fuse the multi-sensor information at multiple time points, so as to reduce the uncertainty of disaster
prediction. The authors also conducted a case study on the Library L in Wuhan, China. A specific evacuation
route was generated for a fire and the crowd evacuation was simulated by the software Patherfind.
Findings – The proposed IoT-based evacuation protocol has four distinguishing features: scenario
corresponding, precise evacuation, dynamic correction and intelligent decision-making. The case study shows
that the proposed protocol is feasible in practice, indicating that the IoT technologies have great potential to
be successfully applied to the safety management in libraries.
Research limitations/implications – The software and hardware requirements as well as the Internet
network requirements of IoT technologies need to be further discussed.
Practical implications – The proposed IoT-based intelligent evacuation protocol can be widely used in
libraries, which is one of the inspirations for the use of IoT technologies in modern constructers.
Originality/value – The application of IoT technologies in libraries is a brand-new topic that has drawn
much attention in academia recently. The crowd safety management in libraries is of great significance, and
there is little professional literature on it. This paper proposes an IoT-based intelligent evacuation protocol,
aiming at improving the safety management in libraries at emergency situations.
Keywords Libraries, Internet of Things, Library science, Safety management, Evacuation simulation,
Intelligent evacuation protocol
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
The Internet has taken a giant leap forward from “Internet of communication” to “Internet of
Things (IoT),” making it possible to connect objects and transfer data with or without human
intervention (Bi et al., 2014, 2018). Although IoT is still in its early stage (Cheng et al., 2018;
Xu et al., 2014), it has a huge potential for libraries (Wójcik, 2016). With the IoT, libraries will
be able to add more value addition to their services and offer rich library experience for the
users. IoT can even help in strengthening the ties between the books and readers, and thereby
realizing Ranganathan’s 2nd law of library science “Every Person His or Her Book” Library Hi Tech
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0737-8831
This paper is supported by National Social Science Foundation of China (Project No. 15AGL021). DOI 10.1108/LHT-11-2017-0250
 LHT (Pujar and Satyanarayana, 2015). There are some practical examples of IoT applications in
libraries service. In November 2014, Orlando Public Library implemented Bluubeam
technology to send location triggered information to library users. Users using the library app
will get alert about library offers and events. One library utilized Bluubeam to advertise free
computer workshops and book sales. IoT applications improve the libraries service.
The rapid development of technologies also has an impact on safety management of
libraries. In emergencies, especially when libraries are densely populated, it is a highly
challenging task to evacuate librarians and library users to safe places due to the complexity of
the modern library layout. Hence, evacuation protocol is essential for libraries. Evacuation
protocol is developed to ensure the safest path and the most efficient evacuation time of
librarians and library users (Ibrahim et al., 2016). In a proper protocol, multiple exits, multi-flow
lanes and special technologies were designed to ensure full, fast and complete evacuation. In
addition, most of the modern libraries are equipped with safety devices such as monitoring
probes, smoke sensors, temperature sensors and alarms, as well as emergency facilities such as
emergency lights and evacuation signs (Liu and Zhu, 2014). These facilities play an important
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role in disaster early warning and crowd evacuation. The full use of them contributes to
transfer properties in time and evacuate librarians and library users in an orderly manner, thus
minimizing the damage of potential accidents (Yu et al., 2016). In reality, however, these
facilities have not been fully utilized. Technologies need to be set up to integrate these facilities
into the evacuation protocol to implement the intelligent evacuation decision-making.
The new technology, IoT, is expected to bridge diverse technologies to enable latest
applications by connecting physical objects together in support of intelligent
decision-making (Al-Fuqaha et al., 2015; Mao et al., 2016; Xu, 2011; Xu et al., 2014; Xu and
Duan, 2018). The IoT is the key to implement intelligent evacuation protocols in libraries, by
connecting items with the Internet through the radio-frequency identification (RFID),
infrared sensors, global positioning system (GPS), laser scanners, smoke sensors and other
information sensing equipment to achieve intelligent crowd identification, positioning,
tracking, monitoring and management (Gokceli et al., 2017). This paper aims at establishing
a theoretical framework of applying IoT technologies to the intelligent evacuation protocol
in libraries, to improve the safety management in libraries when emergency occurs.
This paper is organized as follows. Related works are summarized in the second section.
In the third section, characteristics of crowd gathering and existing evacuation protocols in
libraries are analyzed. In the fourth section, the definition of the intelligent evacuation
protocol is given, and the features of the protocol are described. The basic structures and
information fusion algorithm of the IoT-based intelligent evacuation protocol in libraries are
elaborated in the fifth section. The proposed protocol is demonstrated in a fire situation in
the sixth section and the paper is concluded in the seventh section.

Related works
Definition of IoT
It is a challenge to define the IoT because of the newness of the domain. IoT is a
multi-discipline concept that many different aspects are involved of this issue (Chen, 2017; Xu
et al., 2018). IoT refers to the interconnection of physical objects, by equipping them with
sensors, actuators and a means to connect to the Internet (Dijkman et al., 2015). IoT is a
global-scale network that covers the usage of virtual objects or virtual things with attributes,
auto-IDs, and self-configuration, receptivity (Miorandi et al., 2012; Perera et al., 2014). Nolin and
Olson (2016) and Gubbi et al. (2013) described the general idea of the IoT. Many scholars
forecasted the development of as well as the potential risk of IoT (Barnaghi and Sheth, 2016;
Kantarci and Mouftah, 2014; Jayavardhana et al., 2013). IoT introduces a vision of a future
Internet where users, computing systems, and everyday objects possessing sensing and
actuating capabilities cooperate with unprecedented convenience and economic benefits
 (Granjal et al., 2015). Some studies proposed frameworks of IoT applications in different Intelligent
domains: society, industry, and environment (Perkel, 2017; Yu et al., 2016; Zanella et al., 2014; evacuation
Jin et al., 2014). Examples of IoT applications include monitoring of personal health through protocol
wearables (Yan et al., 2015; Yang et al., 2014, 2018), washing machines that enable users to pay
per load instead of for the machine, and greenhouses that adapt their internal climate to the
monitored properties of the crops that grow inside (Civerchia et al., 2017; Dijkman et al., 2015;
Fan et al., 2014; Fang et al., 2014, 2015; Qi et al., 2017). These research findings provide this
paper with the theoretical basis of IoT technologies applied to intelligent evacuation protocols.

IoT applications in libraries

The opportunities and examples in applying IoT technologies to libraries service and library
management have brought great concerns (Matthews, 2017; Tickner, 2016; Moreno et al., 2014;
Boateng and Liu, 2014; Chang, 2010). Wójcik (2016) concluded that the potential areas of IoT
applications in library services are providing directory information, providing access to
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collections, consulting and training, track and trace services, and the sharing of information
(Wójcik, 2016). Similarly, Pujar and Satyanarayana (2015) pointed out the potential areas for
implementation of IoT in libraries, including collection management, information literacy,
recommendation service, location-based services and appliances management (Pujar and
Satyanarayana, 2015). Cao et al. (2011) proposed a construction of the personalized service
system of university libraries based on the environment of the IoT (Cao et al., 2011). A survey
respondents listed several ways that IoT tools could be integrated into libraries, examples
include climate and room configuration, accessibility, way-finding, etc. (Matthew, 2015). Hahn
(2017) demonstrated an IoT implementation of location-based recommendation services in
libraries through mobile technology pair with Bluetooth low energy beacons (Hahn, 2017). In
the research of Sarmah (2015), Beacon is a commercially available IoT device widely used in
libraries. Libraries use these beacons to provide event announcements, wayfinding and item
recommendations (Sarmah, 2015). Massis (2016) suggested several approaches to security and
privacy concerns regarding the impact of the IOT on libraries (Massis, 2016).
Overall, these studies indicate different possibilities of IoT applications in libraries and
suggest the huge potential of IoT technologies being adopted in libraries’ intelligent
evacuation protocols, especially in wayfinding and information sharing.

IoT-based intelligent evacuation

There are numbers of research studies on intelligent evacuation management systems.
The key aspects include crowd monitoring, information collection and integration,
prediction of emergency and evacuation path guidelines (Nair and Daniel, 2014; Li et al.,
2013). Several sensor technologies have been proposed and utilized to monitor crowds and
to fuse information, such as GPS, RFID, Bluetooth and wireless local area networks (Soni
et al., 2014; Versichele et al., 2012; Yu, 2008). A fuzzy logic-based evacuation model was
proposed to counter the vast uncertainty imposed on emergency evacuation measures due
to the heterogeneous behavior of evacuees (Hsu and Peeta, 2013). An intelligent emergency
lighting and the evacuation indicatory lifesaving system were established (Zhang et al.,
2014). In their system, the evacuation paths were shown by using sign lamps as well as by
utilizing strobe flash, voice and two-way adjustment.
These papers suggest the potential of using sensors and information fusion technologies
in the intelligent evacuation protocol.

Gaps in literature
The topic of IoT in various scientific disciplines and practical activities has been gaining
popularity (Cai et al., 2014; Jiang et al., 2014; Kim, 2017; Li and Xu, 2017; Li et al., 2015, 2018;
 LHT Liu et al., 2017; Lu, 2018; Lu and Xu, 2018; Molka-Danielsen et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2014,
2016; Whitmore et al., 2015; Yan et al., 2018). However, there are insufficient papers that
approach this issue from the perspective of libraries’ safety management (Gokceli et al.,
2017; Katayama et al., 2017; Annadata et al., 2016; Ryu, 2015; Liu and Zhu, 2014). To address
the gap, we analyze the existing libraries evacuation plans and propose an IoT-based
intelligent evacuation protocol for libraries.

Evacuation protocols in libraries

Characteristics of crowd gathering in libraries
Information technologies have changed the role of libraries: from one-way transfer of
knowledge to sharing and exchange of information (Luo, 2017; Moorefield-Lang, 2017).
In addition to collecting, reading and lending books, new ways such as digital retrieval,
multimedia viewing and lecturing have been integrated into the library’s functions
(Matthews, 2017). With the diversification of library functions, the library floor plan is more
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complicated nowadays, which increases the possibility of crowd gathering and the difficulty
of crowd evacuation in libraries. To ensure the property safety and the personal safety of
librarians and library users, it is necessary to comprehensively understand the libraries’
layout and the characteristics of crowd gathering. We conducted the filed investigations on
eight public libraries and university libraries in Wuhan, China. The characteristics of crowd
gathering in these libraries are summarized in Table I.
People who enter the library are divided into three categories according to their visiting
purpose: librarians, library users (readers, borrowers, lecturers and audiences) and
visitors. After entering the library, people with different purposes usually stay in different
functional areas and perform various activities, such as providing services, studying,
reading, finding books, borrowing or returning books, listening to lectures and simply
looking around. The area where people stay is relatively fixed. The crowd gathering
degrees in different areas of the library vary. For instance, the lecture hall concentrates a
large number of lecturers and audiences. While in larger reading areas, borrowers look for
and read books from book stacks, where people are relatively scattered. Moreover, the
familiarity with the library’s layout is various for different personnel types. Librarians
and readers who regularly stay in the library are quite familiar with the layout,
while visitors, lecturers and audiences who occasionally come to the library are less
familiar with the library environment. The gathering levels and the familiarity with
the layout both greatly affect the success rate of crowd evacuation in emergencies.

Average
Gathering staying Average Familiarity Admission
Personnel types Gathering areas levels time amount with layout frequency

Librarians Information Scattered Very long Relatively Quite High

desks, office small familiar
rooms
Library users Study areas, Concentrated Relatively Relatively Relatively Relatively
(Readers) reading areas long large familiar high
Library users Reading areas, Relatively Relatively Relatively Relatively Relatively
(Borrowers) book stacks scattered short large unfamiliar low
Library users Lecture halls Highly Relatively Quite Unfamiliar low
Table I. (Lecturers and concentrated long large
Characteristics of audiences)
crowd gathering Visitors Almost all areas Highly Very short Quite Very low
in libraries scattered small unfamiliar
 Therefore, it is necessary to capture these characteristics of crowd gathering and utilize Intelligent
the relevant information as the bases of the crowd evacuation protocol, to improve the evacuation
evacuation efficiency in libraries. protocol
Existing evacuation protocols in libraries
As mentioned above, the concentration of population and diversity of the functional areas
increase the complexity of library safety management. Prevention is the key in safety
management, and the preparation of evacuation protocols is a common means of preventing
disasters. The evacuation protocol refers to the pre-formulated crowd evacuation
procedures to reduce the degree of personal injury in emergencies based on the risk
assessment and the prediction of incident consequences (Ibrahim et al., 2016). The protocol
provides the main guidelines for personnel actions in emergencies. Through the field
investigation on libraries protocols, it is found that most libraries now have pre-formulated
evacuation protocols, but these protocols are ubiquitously inadequate to enable a safe
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and fast evacuation in emergencies. We summarize the reasons as follows.

First of all, most existing protocols are unchanging and single protocols. Regardless of
the type and the severity of disasters that occurs, their response measures and the
evacuation process are identical. Therefore, these protocols are not feasible in practice when
confronting different situations. Second, these protocols do not consider the real-time
information in the case of emergencies. The absence of information in emergencies,
especially the information on location of crowd, the seriousness of the disaster, and numbers
and location of exits may increase the difficulty of the safety evacuation. Third, because of
the lack of real-time information, these protocols and evacuation instructions are in a static
data format. The prevailing evacuation protocols are usually stored in filing cabinets in
paper forms and highly rely on human assistance in emergencies.
To sum up, the crowd gathering in libraries is changeable and intricate, and the existing
evacuation protocols in most libraries are not able to ensure a success evacuation for
different library users. Applying the computer and IoT technologies to safety management
in libraries is a significantly attempt to form a precise and efficient evacuation protocol.
In the next section, we will discuss the importance of the intelligent evacuation protocol.

Intelligent evacuation protocol

The intelligent evacuation protocol refers to a digital dynamic evacuation plan using
computer technologies and IoT technologies to linked or embedded the case base,
knowledge base, model base and on-site monitoring information (Annadata et al., 2016).
The intelligent evacuation protocol creates an efficient evacuation process and a precise
evacuation route based on the instant information in emergencies. This evacuation protocol
has four distinguishing features: scenario corresponding, precise evacuation, dynamic
correction and intelligent decision-making (Figure 1).

Scenario Precise
corresponding evacuation

IoT-based intelligent
evacuation protocol

Figure 1.
Intelligent Dynamic Features of intelligent
decision-making correction evacuation protocol
 LHT Feature 1: scenario corresponding
Scenario corresponding means that a targeted evacuation protocol content corresponds to a
certain disaster scenario, including alarm mode, evacuation route, information display,
evacuation guidance and emergency staffing, according to the characteristics of the disaster
and the damage area of the library. Here, we take fire and earthquake as examples to explain
the advantage of scenario corresponding.
In the event of a fire, the sight is blocked by smoke; thus, the sound rather than the image
is preferred to be used in the process of evacuation. Alarms are issued using high-volume
beeps. Evacuation orders and evacuation route are issued by broadcasts. The best
evacuation route is to bypass the fire area and the area where the fire is spreading.
Emergency command staff consists of four action teams: evacuation group, fire-fighting
group, contact group and ambulance group.
When the earthquake happens, alarms, orders and evacuation route are informed both
by broadcasts and display screens. The best evacuation route is the quickest route to escape
from the library. The emergency command staff members are divided into three action
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teams: evacuation group, contact group and ambulance group.

Feature 2: precise evacuation

Precise evacuation means that the evacuation protocol is improved with specific details
based on the damage area and severity of the disaster.
The damage area (fire area, collapsed area, blocked area, etc.) directly affects the
evacuation route. When the damage area is near a certain safety exit in the library, this exit
cannot be used. Librarians and library users are evacuated from their nearest exit that is far
from the damage area.
The severity of the disaster determines the evacuation procedure to some extent. Taking
fire accident as an example, in a slight local fire scenario, the fire extinguishing equipment is
used, and an alarm is issued. There is no need of evacuation after the fire is extinguished.
In the case of a severe local fire, the fire extinguishing equipment is used, and an alarm is
issued, and then the evacuation activities are launched. The fire department needs to be
informed first, and then followed by an alarm and the evacuation.

Feature 3: dynamic correction

Dynamic correction means that under a disaster scenario, with the evolvement of the situation,
the feasible changes of the evacuation process are made based on instantaneous data from the
IoT sensors, thus ensuring the correspondence and preciseness of the evacuation process.
In the early stage of a fire, it is restricted in a small local area according to information
from the sensors, and the evacuation team organizes evacuation to the nearest safe exit.
In moderate accident, the information shows that the fire has spread to an exit, and then a
corresponding new evacuation route is generated, and the staff helps librarians and library
users to evacuate using other safety exits. The evacuation staff open safety exits, remove
obstacles and command evacuation by standing on the key points of the evacuation route
such as the stairs, corners and exits according to the provided information. During the
process, emergency lights and fire lights are utilized to indicate the evacuation direction.

Feature 4: intelligent decision-making

Intelligent decision-making refers to intelligent evacuation protocol that is interactively
learning/with emergency command staff. It has an evacuation procedure that is automatically
generated by the protocol generation system based on the information extracted from the case
base, knowledge base, model base and on-site monitoring information. The process of intelligent
decision-making consists of five components of intelligent evacuation protocol and processes of
sensors information fusion. These structures and processes are detailed in following sections.
 Intelligent evacuation protocol in libraries Intelligent
Intelligent evacuation protocol in libraries is based on the application of computers and IoT evacuation
technologies. Its structure consists of five components: the basic information base, the basic protocol
protocol base, the IoT sensors, the information fusion system and the intelligent evacuation
protocol generation system (Figure 2).
The five components of intelligent evacuation protocol in libraries are closely connected
with each other by the Internet, Cloud and IoT networks. The real-time data of the library’s
environment are collected by the IoT sensors before disaster and during the process of
evacuation. The information fusion system receives these data from the IoT sensors and
processes them with the intelligent evacuation protocol generation system. The protocol
generation system also receives basic information and protocol modules from the protocol
base and the information base and then integrates all information and generates intelligent
protocol to guide evacuation. After evacuation, the evaluation analyses of the evacuation
process are added into the information base. Five components formulate the circular
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connection of objects and objects, objects and people, and objects and networks, to achieve
precise and dynamic crowd evacuation.
In this paper, hardware and software components are determined with regard to IoT
requirements. In the rest of this section, details of the structure and function of each
component are discussed.

Information base
The information base is an information resource in the computer system of the library,
providing basic information for intelligent evacuation protocol. It contains three aspects of
information: disaster information, evacuation cases and library information (Table II).

Information base
Disaster information
sub-base Adding evacuation case

Evacuation case sub-base

Providing basic
Library information information
sub-base

Intelligent evacuation protocol

Protocol base generation system

Alarm mode module Assembling protocol

Calling protocol module, and generating
Evacuation route module module intelligent protocol
Evacuation guidance module Outputting
disaster Implementing
Information display module predication the
Protocol
Emergency staffing module

Information fusion system

Sensor information sub-base Library with IoT
Receiving, filtering and
Internet, Cloud and IoT sensors
classifying the data
Transmitting data
Information fusion IOT sensors Collecting data
algorithm Figure 2.
Fusing the multi-sensor data The structure of the
IoT-based intelligent
Smoke Temperature RFID Infrared
evacuation protocol
sensor sensor sensor sensor
 LHT Disaster information sub-base: this sub-base connects safety-related professional websites
and authoritative news media, collects timely warnings of disasters and analyzes potential
safety risks of the library.
Evacuation case sub-base: by browsing the literature and the library industry websites,
this sub-base collects libraries’ disaster cases and evacuation cases from all over the world
and concludes the merits and failures of these cases, to provide a case reference for
intelligent evacuation protocol in libraries.
Library information sub-base: this sub-base stores basic information of the library, such
as floor layouts and room numbers. It provides important information foundation for
generating intelligent evacuation protocol in libraries.

Protocol base
According to emergency responding measures and evacuation process, the protocol is
divided into five modules: alarm mode, evacuation route, evacuation guidance, information
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display and emergency staffing. For different types of disasters, each module is subdivided
in regard to specific content. When the information fusion system determines the type
and severity of the disaster, the corresponding evacuation contents of the five modules are
called out and assembled into the intelligent evacuation protocol generation system.
Alarm mode. The alarm modes include alarm bells, flash signals, high-sounding beep,
broadcast, speakers, and so on. The facilities in the library may be damaged to some extents
by disasters, and some alarm modes are not suitable in certain disaster scenarios. Therefore,
certain specific alarm modes or the combinations of some alarm modes are selected under
different situations. For instance, with the existence of smoke in a fire, the sound alarm
rather than flash signal is more likely to be used.
Evacuation route. Evacuation needs to bypass the damaged areas caused by disasters, so
there are different evacuation routes under different situations. Figure 3 shows the modular
content of evacuation route. In the event of a fire, according to the location and the severity
of the fire, the evacuation route bypassing fire areas is formulated. In an earthquake, the
passageways and exits in the library may be blocked, and then different evacuation routes
bypassing these blocked areas are formulated. In an over-crowded accident, evacuation
routes avoiding crowded areas are formulated based on information received by IoT sensors
and monitors. Depending on the specific circumstances, there are different evacuation
routes. All these routes take full advantage of different safety exits to evacuate librarians
and library users to safe places.
Evacuation guidance. The evacuation guidance module includes opening exits and
clearing obstacles on evacuation routes, providing escape tools and providing assistance in
key locations. Evacuation guidance module and evacuation route module are one-to-one
correspondence relationship and are closely integrated. After determining the evacuation

Contents Sources

Disaster Safety-related professional websites: meteorology, hydrology, geology, fire protection,

information health, public safety, etc.
Authoritative news media: local news media, national news media, international news
media, etc.
Evacuation Literature: relevant databases, literature search sites, academic papers, etc.
cases Library industry websites: library society websites, library newspapers, library academic
Table II. conferences, etc.
The main contents of Library Floor plans, fire-fighting facilities, emergency supplies, layout, staff information, etc.
the information base information
 Intelligent
Basic protocol base
evacuation
protocol
Fire accident Earthquake
Bypassing fire areas Different warning levels
Evacuation route module

Route A, Route B, Route C, Route F, Route H, Route I,

Route D • • • Route G • • •

Crowded accident Typhoon

Bypassing crowded areas Different warning levels
Route L, Route M, Route N, Route Q, Route R, Route S,
Route O • • • Route T • • •
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Figure 3.
Alarm mode Evacuation Information display The content
Emergency
module guidance module module of evacuation
staffing module
route module

route, the evacuation staffs’ standing positions are determined. They stand on the key
points of the evacuation route such as the stairs, corners and exits, helping in the evacuation
of librarians and library users to safe places. In different disasters, the staff should provide
different safety tools for librarians and library users. Flashlights and wet towels are needed
in fires, while helmets are needed in earthquakes.
Information display. Information can be displayed in different formats, such as on
electronic screens, via broadcasts, by emergency lights and fire lights. According to the
availability of equipment, the mode of appropriate information display is selected.
Emergency staffing. The main contents of the emergency staffing module are evacuation
group, contact group and ambulance group. Each group consists of a number of staff
members, who are responsible for specific tasks. Depending on the specific need in some
circumstances, another action group such as fire-fighting group may be added.

IoT sensors
Modern libraries have large space, diversified functions and complicated layouts. They
bring more difficulties when a disaster occurs. Most libraries therefore have sensors to
collect information on disasters. There are two main types of sensors: one to detect possible
disasters and the other one to locate the exact locations of library users. These sensors
communicate with each other through the IoT technologies and access the computer
information fusion system to predict the possibility of disasters, thus to improve the success
rate of evacuation.
Through the field investigations, it is found that crowd location equipment is mainly
RFID and monitoring probes. An RFID framework comprises four principal components:
RFID tags, RFID readers, antennas and a computer network to connect the readers
(Yu, 2008). The antennas connect the readers to the tags in such a way that the readers can
transfer the RFID signals to the tags and listens to responses. The reader sends the
information to a computer system so that the information can be processed. Monitoring
probes transmit surveillance images to a computer system over the Internet, collecting not
only the location of the crowd, but also other useful information such as the severity of the
fire, obstacles in the passages, etc., to help generate precise intelligence evacuation protocol.
 LHT Smoke sensors, temperature sensors and hygrometers are the most common sensors
installed in libraries for detecting purposes. The smoke sensor realizes the occurrence of a
fire by monitoring the concentration of the smoke. The threshold is that when concentration
level hits 0.65–15.5 percent FT, the alarms are activated. The smoke sensor is widely used in
various fire alarm systems because of its stable performance. The temperature sensor is a
sensor that detects temperature and converts it into readable output signals. Through the
smoke sensor and the temperature sensor connected to the library IoT system, the smoke
concentration and temperature values are recorded remotely and transmitted to the sensor
information sub-base in the information fusion system.

Information fusion system

The information fusion system consists of the sensor information sub-base and information
fusion algorithm sub-base. The sensor information sub-base receives sensor information
from the IoT sensors and then filters and classifies them in a small information storage
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center. The information fusion algorithm is developed to fuse the multi-sensor information,
in order to reduce the uncertainty of disaster prediction and to assist the intelligent protocol
generation system to precisely generate the final result. As a generalization of Bayesian
estimation, we adopt D-S evidence theory to deal with the problem of uncertainty reasoning
effectively and reasonably. It effectively reduces the uncertainty of the information obtained
by IoT sensors and greatly improves the accuracy of disaster detection.
The theory of D-S evidence is based on the theory of a non-empty finite field Θ, which
is called the frame of discernment (FOD). The FOD represents a finite number of system
states (θ1, θ2, …, θn). The probability function that supports a system state for some
evidence is called the basic probability assignment (BPA). The BPA is defined as the
mapping from the power of Θ to the [0, 1] interval:
X
m : P ðYÞ-½0; 1; mðFÞ ¼ 0; mðAÞ ¼ 1:
A A P ðYÞ

D-S evidence theory proposes a fusion rule of multiple pieces of evidence, namely the
Dempster rule, which is formally defined as follows: Let m1 and m2 be the BPA of the two
evidences, and then the BPA function of the combined evidence of the two evidences is:
X
m1 ðAÞ  m2 ðAÞ ¼ K 1 m1 ðBÞm2 ðC Þ When Aa|;
B\C¼A

where K is the normalization factor:

X
K¼ m1 ðBÞm2 ðC Þ:
B\C a A

The Dempster generalization rule for combining n evidence is:

X
m1...n ðAÞ ¼ K 1
n m1 ðA1 Þm2 ðA2 Þ. . .mn ðAn Þ When Aa|
\i Ai ¼A
X
Kn ¼ m1 ðA1 Þm2 ðA2 Þ. . .mn ðAn Þ:
\i Ai a A

In the information fusion system, the library-related data collected by multiple sensors are
the pieces of evidence in the DS evidence theory, which constitutes the distribution of the
BPA function of the target mode to be identified, indicating the credibility degree of each
targeted mode hypothesis. The collected data of each sensor at a particular moment form a
 group of evidence. The so-called multi-sensor information fusion is to generate a new Intelligent
comprehensive evidence group by Dempster rules with several evidence groups. As evacuation
Figure 4 shows, in the information fusion system, the information fusion algorithm first protocol
integrates the information of the same sensor at different moments to obtain a new BPA and
then merges the evidence of different sensors for the second fusion, to obtain the result of
disaster prediction.

Intelligent evacuation protocol generation system

According to the prediction result of disaster from the information fusion system and the
monitoring image from the monitoring probes, the intelligent evacuation protocol
generation system determines the type, the severity and the damaged areas of the disaster.
By consulting the evacuation cases and the library information in the basic information
base, the system calls the contents of each protocol module in the basic protocol base to
generate the intelligent protocol corresponding to the specific disaster case. Emergency staff
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of the library implements the protocol and evacuate the librarians and library users.
During the evacuating process, IoT sensors receive the real-time on-site information, and
the protocol generation system updates the protocol when necessary, so as to make the
evacuation procedure safer and faster. After the event, the evacuation staff evaluates the
emergency evacuation protocol and the implementation process and adds the case to
the basic information base to enrich the database contents.

Case study
Library L is a modern university library in Wuhan, China, with relatively complicated
layout and a large number of IoT sensors such as smoke sensors and temperature sensors.
We take Library L as supposed case in a scene of fire. Using the information fusion
algorithm, the fire prediction is gained. The evacuation route and evacuation protocol are
complemented. Based on the simulation, the evacuation efficiency and the feasibility of
intelligent evacuation protocol are analyzed.

Layout of Library L
After field investigations and field measurements, the basic data of Library L are obtained.
This library’s original floor plan and the location of the exits and the IoT sensors are marked
in Figure 5. There are five floors in this library. The first floor consists of the lecture hall,
study area, reading area and office room. The second floor consists of the reading area,
study area, service area and office room. The library has a total of ten available exits, with

Temperature
Temperature sensor

value at Time The BPA

A
Signal Fusion The New
Internal environment of library

Result of disaster prediction

transmission algorithm BPA

Temperature
Fusion algorithm

value at Time The BPA

B

Smoke
concentration The BPA
Smoke sensor

at Time A
Signal Fusion The New Figure 4.
transmission algorithm BPA The process
Smoke
concentration The BPA
of sensors
at Time B
information fusion
 LHT (a) (b)
Office room N2-1

N1-1 Lecture hall N1-2

restroom

restroom

W1-1 E1-1

Monitoring
probe Study area
Office
Reading area
room

Study area

Reading area
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E1-2 Information
W1-2 Temperature Smoke desk
Figure 5. sensor sensor
Emergency
Floor plan of S1-1 S1-2 S1-3 light S2-1
Library L
Notes: (a) The first floor; (b) The second floor

eight of them being located on the first floor (E1-1, E1-2, W1-1, W1-2, S1-1, S1-2, N1-1
and N1-2) and two (N2-1 and S2-1) on the second floor. The exits’ widths are about the same.
Among them, the width of S2-1 and N2-1 is 6 meters, S1-2 is 2 meters and the rests are
1.8 meters wide.

Information fusion of sensors

Temperature sensors and smoke sensors near area A on the first floor of Library L collect
monitoring information every 30 sec. The FOD of a fire accident is set as Θ ¼ (F, N). The
practical meaning of Θ is defined as F when there is a sign of fire and n when there is no fire.
U is defined as the uncertainty of the fire. The BPAs of the temperature sensor and the
smoke sensor are defined as m1 and m2, respectively. m1(F ) represents the BPA of fire for
the temperature sensor, m1(N) corresponds to the BPA of no fire for the temperature sensor,
and m1(U) corresponds to uncertainty probability of fire for the temperature sensor. mij
denotes the data obtained by ith sensor during the jth sampling period. Set the alarm
threshold to 0.8.
Table III lists the BPA values of two sensors in two sampling periods under the setting
fire scenario.
In order to improve the computational efficiency, the feasibility and credibility of the
fusion are demonstrated. We investigate the model with the MATLAB program according
to the fusion rule of the two sources of evidence. The evidence fusion function D-SFUSION
(A, B) is programmed with MATLAB R2016a, where A represents the BPA function
of evidence A in the proposition and B represents the BPA of evidence B. A and
B are expressed in the form of row vectors. The format of the vector is (m1, m2, m3 … mk
m(ensemble) m(empty set)).
Taking a single sensor as a basic unit, the data of two samples in periods are fused and
the result is shown in Table IV.
Data fusion of the single sensor has been completed. Data between different sensors are
then fused. The result is presented in Table V.
In both of two sampling periods, the BPAs of the two sensors do not reach the threshold.
So, it cannot tell whether a fire occurred or not. The fusion result of the temperature sensor
 in two sampling periods indicates uncertainty of a fire, and the fusion result of the smoke Intelligent
sensor suggests that a fire occurs. After the fusion of the two sensors’ BPA values, evidence evacuation
shows that a fire occurs and the probability of uncertainty is only 1.5 percent. protocol
Evacuation route
Based on the fire detection output from the information fusion system and the monitor
screen from the monitoring probes near the area A, the intelligent protocol generation
system acquires the information about the disaster, such as the type of disaster (fire), the
disaster area (near area A in the first floor), and the severity of the disaster (local open fire).
It calls for the modular content of protocol from the protocol base and integrates them into
an intelligent protocol. Evacuation staff issues an alarm, displays the evacuation route,
and stands in the key points to evacuate librarians and library users to safe places.
The evacuation route is illustrated in Figure 6.
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Sensors m F n U Result

Temperature sensor m11(·) 0.525 0.375 0.100 Uncertainty Table III.

m12(·) 0.675 0.225 0.100 Uncertainty The BPA of two
Smoke sensor m21(·) 0.633 0.317 0.050 Uncertainty sensors in each
m22(·) 0.760 0.190 0.050 Uncertainty sampling period

m F n U Result
Table IV.
m1(·) 0.754 0.230 0.016 Uncertainty The fusion result of
m2(·) 0.861 0.134 0.005 Fire two sensors in periods

m F n U Result Table V.
The fusion result
m(·) 0.951 0.034 0.015 Fire between two sensors

N2-1

N1-1 N1-2

W1-1 E1-1

Area A
Fire point

Figure 6.
W1-2 E1-2 The evacuation route
in Library L
S1-1 S1-2 S1-3 S2-1
 LHT Evacuation simulation
Pathfinder software is adopted to simulate the fire scene and the evacuation route.
Assuming that the library only opens the first floor and the second floor, we initialize
the setting of Pathfinder with the number and distribution of the population in Library L.
There are a total of 300 librarians and library users in the first floor, including 130 in the
lecture hall, 40 in study area, 80 in reading area and 50 in the rest areas. There are a total of
200 librarians and library users in the second floor, including 100 in reading area, 40 in
study area, and 60 in service area and other areas. We take Helbing’s research results as
reference and set the rate of personnel movement subjects to standard normal distribution:
the average rate of 1.19 m/s, the minimum rate of 0.8 m/s, the maximum rate of 1.55 m/s, and
standard deviation of 0.1 m/s (Helbing et al., 2002). In accordance with the evacuation route,
all 500 librarians and library users in the library are evacuated safely in 55 sec. Evacuation
simulation diagram is illustrated in Figure 7.
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Result analysis
According to the result of simulation, 500 librarians and library users in the library evacuate
safely within 55 seconds based, indicating the feasibility of the application of IoT-based
intelligent evacuation protocol.
The information fusion improves the accuracy of disaster prediction both in time and
space. Library L has a large number of temperature sensors, smoke sensors and monitoring
probes to help detect disasters. However, the reliability of a single sensor is not high enough
and the prediction uncertainty is too high, which may affect the alarm reaction and
evacuation efficiency. The information fusion system fuses the information of a single
sensor in different sampling times and then fuses the information among different sensors,
reducing the uncertainty of disaster prediction.
Library’s floor plan plays an important role in the evacuation case. Only based on the
specific floor plan and the location of the disaster, the intelligent protocol generation system can
generate the corresponding evacuation routes and bypass the fire areas, to achieve safe and
fast crowd evacuation. The library’s lecture hall is the most vulnerable area for crowd accident
during evacuation process. The region is prone to disaster-derived accident – crowded
stampede, because there is a high degree of population concentration. Such area needs to have
more focuses on evacuation protocols.

Figure 7.
Simulation diagram
of evacuation
in Library L
 Conclusions Intelligent
Modern libraries are prone to public safety accidents because of its diversified functions, evacuation
complicated layouts and huge number of users. As a trendy novel technology, the IoT in protocol
library is gaining great interests with large potentials. This paper attempts to apply IoT
technologies to library’s safety management and proposes an IoT-based intelligent
evacuation protocol in library.

Key findings and values

The intelligent evacuation protocol is feasible as an application of IoT technologies in safety
management of library. The proposed protocol connects IoT sensors and the information of
library’s layout. It is stored in a computer system in the form of modular electronic texts,
and it generates corresponding protocol contents including detailed evacuation routes under
different disaster situations. In the case study, based on the accident prediction of the
information fusion system, the evacuation route is generated. The simulation result shows
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that the evacuation of librarians, and library users in the library is successful, indicating the
proposed protocol is of great importance for libraries.
The D-S evidence theory in information fusion system shows significant advantages in
information fusion of IoT sensors. The algorithm fuses the information of a single sensor at
different times and fuses the information of different sensors at the same time. It fuses
information of multiple sensors in time and space, greatly reducing the uncertainty of
accident prediction and improving the efficiency of early warning and evacuation.
The potential of IoT application in libraries is huge, not just in safety management, also
in library service and library science. IoT will help libraries in providing location-based
service, recommendation service as well as information literacy, as showed both in the
literature and in practical examples. The proposed IoT-based intelligent evacuation protocol
is just one part of the whole library IoT system, providing users’ location information,
library’ environmental information and evacuation guide. The protocol, cooperating with
other IoT applications in libraries, provides a feasible direction of the future smart libraries.

Limitations and future directions

The realization of the basic structure of the proposed protocol is based on the assumption
that the Internet network, computer software, and hardware all conform to the standards
of the IoT connection. Future research studies need to investigate the software and
hardware as well as the network requirements of the IoT technologies, to provide more
practical bases to the system implementation.

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Further reading
Simović, A. (2018), “A big data smart library recommender system for an educational institution”,
Library Hi Tech, Vol. 36 No. 3, pp. 498-523.
Weber, R.H. and Weber, R. (2010), Internet of Things, Springer, New York, NY.

Corresponding author
Zimei Liu can be contacted at: [email protected]

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