DIGITAL
LIBRARY
KARTHIKA. S
B.ED ENGLISH
DEFINITION AND CONCEPT
• The term ‘digital library’ is a shift from the earlier term electronic library which relies on telecommunication and
computers to provide users with whatever information they need.
•Digital library or virtual library is an electronic version of a library where storage is in digital form, allowing direct
communication to obtain material and copying it from a master version.
•According to Wilensky, “the digital library will be a collection of distributed information services, producers will make it
available, and consumers will find it through the automated agents”.
•In comparison to traditional libraries, digital libraries provide efficient and qualitative services by collecting, organizing,
storing, disseminating, retrieving and preserving the information.
• Most libraries in the developed countries have their own homepages providing links to
local information, electronic databases, bibliographic as well as full text, apart from its
own online system of collection and services.
• Virtual library is the convergence of a number of concepts: electronic browsers, online
catalogues and literature bases, and empowerment of the end users.
• Most of the digital content that is being managed includes human language, either in the
form of character-coded electronic text, scanned versions of printed or handwritten text,
or digital representations of human speech.
BENEFITS
• User can access the information anywhere
• Reduces bureaucracy by providing access to the information
• The information is not necessarily located in same place
• Cross references to other documents speed up the work of users
• Full text search
• Protected information source
• Wide exploration of the information
• A comprehensive collection of resources important for Scholarship, teaching, and learning;
• Readily accessible to all types of users
• Managed and maintained by professionals
ROLE OF DIGITAL LIBRARY IN LEARNING
Digital library serves a practical role in sharing expensive
resources.
It serves a cultural role in preserving and organising artefacts and
ideas.
It serves social and intellectual role by bringing together people
and ideas.
FUNCTION OF DIGITAL LIBRARY
1.Variety of content
2.Availability
3.Technological integration
4.Preserve knowledge for future generations
5.Restores quality of information
6.Accessible to the visually impaired too.
CLASSIFICATION OF DIGITAL LIBRARY
• Early digital libraries, e.g. ELINOR, Gutenberg
• Digital libraries of institutional publications, e.g. ACM, IEL
• Dgital library developments at national libraries, e.g. the British Library, Library of Congress
(THOMAS), Digital Library of Canada
• Digital libraries at universities, e.g. Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE Bodleian Library Digital
Library Projects, California Digital Library, DIGILIB, iGEMS and SETK
• Digital libraries of special materials, e.g. Alexandria, Informedia, Grainger Engineering Library
• Digital libraries as research projects, e.g. The Networked Digital Library of Theses and
Dissertations
• Digital libraries as hybrid library projects, e.g., HeadLine.
MAJOR LIBRARY INITIATIVES
• The British Library’s Digital Libraries Programme
•THOMAS - Library of Congress Digital Library -
1995
• The project Gutenberg - 1971
•California Digital Library - 1997
•The IEEE Electronic Library
•International Children’s Digital Library
FUTURE OF DIGITALISATION
Personal information management
Long term relationships between humans and information collections
and systems.
Role of digital libraries, digital collections and other information
services in supporting teaching, learning, and human development.
Active environments for computer supported collaborative work
offer the starting point for another research program.
