The bipartite network study of the library book lending system

Abstract

Through collecting the library lending information of the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology during one year, we build the database between the books and readers, and then construct a bipartite network to describe the relationships. We respectively establish the corresponding unweighted and weighted bipartite network through the borrowing relationship and the reading days, thereout obtain the statistical properties via the theory and methods of complex network. We find all the properties follow exponential distribution and there is a positive correlation between the relevant properties in un-weighted and weighted networks. The un-weighted properties can describe the cooperation situation and configuration, but the properties with node weight may describe the competition results. Besides, we discuss the practical significance for the double relationship and the statistical properties. Further more, we propose a library personal recommendation system for developing the library humanity design resumptively. © 2009 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.