Bots, Block Chain, and Beacons: Hot Topics at LITA Tech Trends Panel | ALA Midwinter 2016

In southwestern Japan, there is a hotel staffed primarily by robots. Royal Caribbean’s new Anthem of the Seas cruise ship has a bar staffed by robot bartenders. And Starwood’s Aloft hotel in Cupertino, CA, uses robot butlers. With this type of technology beginning to appear in the hospitality industry, libraries might begin considering the implications of patron interactions with service robots in a library environment,Jamie Hollier, coowner and co-CEO of technology consultancy Anneal, noted during the Library Information Technology Association’s (LITA) Top Tech Trends panel at the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2016 Midwinter Meeting in Boston.
The robots were mentioned in a brief aside as Hollier made a broader point about... (read more)