M. S. Rajeevan

M. S. Rajeevan, B. Mini Devi

Traditional Online Public Access Catalogues (OPACs) are becoming less effective due to the rapid growth of scholarly literature. Conventional search methods, such as keyword indexing and Boolean queries, often fail to support efficient knowledge discovery. This paper proposes a Smart OPAC framework that transforms traditional OPACs into intelligent discovery systems using artificial intelligence and knowledge graph techniques. The framework enables semantic search, thematic filtering, and knowledge graph-based visualization to enhance user interaction and exploration. It integrates multiple open scholarly data sources and applies semantic embeddings to improve relevance and contextual understanding. The system supports exploratory search, semantic navigation, and refined result filtering based on user-defined themes. Quantitative evaluation demonstrates improvements in retrieval efficiency, relevance, and reduction of information overload. The proposed approach offers practical implications for modernizing digital library services and supports next-generation research workflows. Future work includes user-centric evaluation, personalization, and dynamic knowledge graph updates.

M. S. Rajeevan, B. Mini Devi

In an age of fast-paced technological change, patents have evolved into not only legal mechanisms of intellectual property, but also structured storage containers of knowledge full of metadata, categories, and formal innovation. This chapter proposes to reframe patents in the context of information science, by focusing on patents as knowledge artifacts, and by seeing patents as fundamentally tied to the global movement of scientific and technological knowledge. With a focus on three areas, the inventions of AIs, biotech patents, and international competition with patents, this work considers how new technologies are challenging traditional notions of inventorship, access, and moral accountability.The chapter provides a critical analysis of AI's implications for patent authorship and prior art searches, ownership issues arising from proprietary claims in biotechnology to ethical dilemmas, and the problem of using patents for strategic advantage in a global context of innovation competition. In this analysis, the chapter identified the importance of organizing information, creating metadata standards about originality, implementing retrieval systems to access previous works, and ethical contemplation about patenting unseen relationships in innovation ecosystems. Ultimately, the chapter called for a collaborative, transparent, and ethically-based approach in managing knowledge in the patenting environment highlighting the role for information professionals and policy to contribute to access equity in innovation.