Key factors in the development of digital libraries (original) (raw)

Development of Digital Libraries: Old Wine in New Bottles

Rapid development of information communication technologies (ICTs) has made an environment globally to the growth of digital libraries. Digital libraries (DL) are facilitating researchers, scholars, learners, information professionals to access their information in variety of formats and learning support at their desktops without any geographical barrier. They are providing electronic based (e-based) information delivery to its users crossing the boundaries of time, space and location. DL users can be reached remotest corners of the world to fill their thrust of information. It makes a gateway to the users for retrieving and browsing of desired information from its huge resources like one stop shopping of big shopping mall. It provides extra services of 24X7 hour uninterrupted access through Internet to the users at their desktop. . It supports teaching, learning and research while reaching unreachable without walls. Greater revolution has occurred in the libraries recent past converting paper-based libraries to electronic based ones. With the emergence of WWW and availability of national and global networks, libraries have turned their attention to digital collections rather than building printed-based collection. In this way, librarian's role dramatically changed and is responsible for what digital repositories available for their users and how users can access to the available information within the physical walls of the library or elsewhere.

Changing functions of libraries and publishers in the digital information sources environment

International Journal of Library and Information Science, 2015

The emergence of electronic information sources with rapid development in information technology played a major role in changing the function of libraries, publishers and information producers. Functions like indexing and abstracting were library functions but now it is entrusted to information aggregators and publishers. This study aimed to: First, define the role and function of libraries and information aggregators before and after the use of information technology in libraries and publishing establishments. Second, identify the factors that led to the change of the functions and roles of libraries, resulting from the evolution of information technology. Third, determine the future of library functions and publishing establishments and their requirements. Descriptive methodology was used in this study to describe and determine library functions before and after the widespread use of information technology. The main tool for gathering information about the future role of libraries and publishers in the digital environment was a questionnaire submitted for discussion by the librarian subgroup at linked-in. This study highlighted the future roles and functions of libraries and publishers that will enable librarians to properly plan for the future of their libraries in the continuing evolution of information technology and communications. The study has concluded that there is a continuous change in library and publishers' functions and this change is reflected on the method of providing library services.

Extending the role of the digital library

Proceedings of the fifteenth ACM conference on Hypertext & hypermedia - HYPERTEXT '04, 2004

A digital library, together with its users and its contents, does not exist in isolated splendour; nor in hypertext terms is it merely the intertextual relationships between its texts. There is a cycle of activities which provides the context for the library's existence, and which the library supports through its various roles of information access, discovery, storage, dissemination and preservation. This paper describes the role of digital library systems in the undertaking of science, and in particular in the context of the recent developments of the Grid for computer-supported scientific collaboration and Virtual Universities for computersupported education. This paper focuses on a specific framework, the Dynamic Review Journal, which supports the development and dissemination of documents by assisting authors in collating and analysing experimental results, organising internal project discussions, and producing papers. By bridging the gap between the undertaking of experimental work and the dissemination of its results through electronic publication, this work addresses the cycle of activity in which a digital library rests.

Digital Libraries in the New Millennium

The concept of digital library is not a new one, although it is only recently that digital library is gaining prominence all over the world. This article provides a holistic understanding of digital libraries including its present context and future directions. Various technical issues ingrained in the concept of digital library also has been analysed in the article. Issues like interoperability, information retrieval, property and access control and usability also has been discussed in detail. Although digital library is a technical phenomenon, it has wider social and economic implications. The article casts a critical glance at these implications as well. In the end, ongoing international efforts in the arena of digital libraries also has been discussed.

Digital Library Developments : A realistic future ?

1997

It is very clear the Digital Library initiatives are happening all over world and that there is much to be gained from sharing experience and knowledge. The digital library appears to have developed and unstoppable momentum, although is quite clearly has different elements and priorities in different countries

Digital Libraries in the New Millennium: Partners, Publishers, Potentials, and Pitfalls

As we move into the new millennium it is difficult not to fall into a predictive state of mind. To do this effectively, one needs to look back in order to look forwards in any informed manner. What follows then is a view of the role of the digital library couched in terms of an examination and explication of the part of such a library that I have built at the University of Virginia. The Electronic Text Center, by now a mature service and an ingrained part of our library system, works well as a testing ground for larger digital library issues and definitions. We are variously partners, publishers, researchers into issues and librarians serving a user group which is rapidly diversifying and whose expectations rise constantly. As I look to our achievements and ambitions, and to those of colleagues in other digital libraries, I see the potentials greatly outweighing the pitfalls in the fledgling digital libraries and electronic publishing houses, but both exist in abundance. Since its inception in 1992, the Electronic Text Center has been an integral part of the University of Virginia Library. From this early start, and from the concentration on long-term, online, standardized data, we have built up considerable expertise in our staff and a driving momentum in our local user community. The Center combines an on-line archive of tens of thousands of SGML-encoded electronic texts and images with a library service that offers hardware and software suitable for the creation and analysis of humanities text (1). Through ongoing training sessions and support of teaching and research projects(2), the Center has built a diverse user community locally, serving thousands of users globally, and providing a model for similar humanities computing enterprises at other institutions. Accounts of our digital library work have appeared in publications as diverse as The Economist, The Chemical and Engineering News, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Australian Financial Review. The Electronic Text Center is staffed by a combination of full-and part-time positions, including graduate students drawn from various humanities departments at the University of Virginia. The staffs backgrounds in bibliography, undergraduate teaching, librarianship, textual editing, Special Collections, and graduate research reflects and supports the research and pedagogical needs of our patrons.(3) Indeed, the Etext Center has over the years become an incubator for students who have gone on to make careers for themselves in humanities computing even as the discipline invents itself we have alumni at the Library of Congress,

Building Digital Libraries: An Academic Perspective

This article explores reasons for these developments and the influence of key players. While speculating on future directions. The location and provision of information services has dramatically changed over the last ten years. There is no need to leave the home or office to locate and access information now readily available on-line via digital gateways furnished by a wide variety of information providers (e.g. libraries, electronic, publisher, businesses, organizations, individuals). Information is electronically accessible from a wide variety of globally distributed information repositories. Information is no longer simply text and pictures. It is electronically in a wide variety of formats, many of which are large, complex (i.e. video & audio) and often integrated (i.e. multimedia). Digital libraries frequently use the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) to expose their metadata to other digital libraries, and search engines like Google Scholar, Yahoo! and Scirus can also use OAI-PMH to find these deep web resources.

The possible role of libraries in the digital future

Libri, 1998

All over the world there is an enormous effort to develop the information society in order to support new economic growth. A new economy is planned which to a large extent will be based on the trading of intellectual property on the global network under the umbrella of the development of electronic commerce. Different library types will meet different challenges brought about by this shift in the global economy. In its optimal form, electronic commerce of intellectual property will mean that from every access point on the global network it will be possible to search, order, download and pay for all kinds of items or commodities which can, in turn, be stored and transported digitally. One of the most serious challenges to library roles will be for those libraries which have offered services to the general public -like public libraries -or to a large part of the public -like the students in an academic library. These libraries are easily defined as political projects established to fulfil societal aims. New roles in the digital future have to be developed in accordance with the needs of market forces in general and in accordance with the laws of competition. A defensive strategy for libraries is not satisfactory. The European commission has to contribute to the definition of the new "regulatory" framework for libraries also in the digital future.

Emergence and definitions of digital libraries

Exploring Digital Libraries

This chapter traces the first decade of progress in digital libraries (1991-2001), with emphasis on the foundational innovations, vision, motivations, new technology, funding and early programs that prompted their emergence and rapid development. It next turns to the question of how to define the concept of 'digital libraries' in an environment of multiple perspectives and continuous technological and societal change. The chapter's intent is to orient the reader to the field as well as to ground the rest of the book in the context of the aspirations and efforts of many diverse communities and individuals. the emergence of digital libraries (1991-2001) This book places the beginning of digital libraries in 1991, the year in which the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the US sponsored a series of workshops on how to make digital libraries a reality, not just a dream. At the same time, digital libraries are an outcome of the revolution in computing, telecommunications and information systems that began almost 40 years ago, around 1965. This section frames the emergence of digital libraries as a recognized field of endeavor in terms of four requirements for viability and growth: a compelling vision, strong motivating factors, technology and funding.