Includes Digital
Digital Library
INTRODUCTION :
The idea of easy and finger tip access to information began with the introduction of VANNENAR Bush’s Memex machine and gradually evolving with the advancement of Information Technology. With the advent of computers , the concept centered on large bibliographic databases, the now familiar online retrieval and public access systems that are part of any contemporary library. When the computers are gradually networked forming the internet, the concept evolved again and the research gradually turned to creating libraries in digital format and terms like “ virtual library “, “electronic library ”, “library without walls” and the most recent term ‘digital library’ have come. The rapid advancements in information processing, storage, and communication technologies have revolutionized the role of world wide libraries in the disseminating information services to the users. The data are now being provided in the digital format by the librarians.
According to Fox Digital library is defined as “ New way of carrying out the functions of libraries of libraries encompassing new types of information resources new approaches to classification and cataloguing, intensive use of electronic systems and networks and dramatic shifts in intellectual, organizational and electronic practices.”
Some of the common elements by which a digital library can be identified as the most essentiality of today’s world as illustrated by ARL are :
I) The digital Library is not a single entity;
ii) The digital library by requires technology to link resources of many ;
iii) these links are transparent to end users from an information retrieval point of view , it is a large database ;
iv) for library science it is a bold step in the continuing automation of libraries that began 25 years ago;
v) Universal access to the digital libraries and information services in the goals;
vi) For those working in wide- area information delivery , it is an application of the web ;
IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTICS OF A DIGITAL LIBRARY :
The digital library require digital technologies and is the combination of traditional and media collection .The characteristics have been gleaned from various discussions about digital libraries both online and in print :
i) Digital libraries are the digital face of the traditional libraries that includes both digital collections and traditional , fixed media collections. So both electronic and paper materials get their importance.
ii) Digital libraries will include digital materials that exist outside the physical and administrative bounds of any one digital library
iii) Digital library supports both formal and informal learning procedures
iv) Digital libraries will require both the skill of librarians and well as those of computer scientists to be viable
v) Digital libraries ideally provide a coherent view of all the information contained within a library , no matter its form or format
vi) Digital libraries will serve particular communities or constituencies, as traditional libraries do now, though those communities may be widely distributed throughout the network.
These characteristics are most logical because it expands and extends the traditional library, preserves the valuable work that they do , while integrating new technologies , new processes and new media.
LIBRARIANS IN A DIGITAL LIBRARY :
Dr. S.R. Ranganathan has stated that Librarianship is a noble profession in which he derives the joy by seeing the dawn of joy in the face of the readers, helped by him to find the right book at the right time. Now – a –days librarians equipped themselves with the skill of handling the new technologies. Electronic media like Floppy disk, DVD, CD-ROM are replacing the books and Journals . Thus the information literacy is a must for the librarians and so the library professionals are now a days more regarded as an Information Personnel.
The librarian must look that these factors must be present in case of a digital library:
Collection of services : A digital library is more than just the collection of material in its repositories. It provides a variety of services to all of its users( both humans and machines , and producers, managers and consumers of information). There are a large and varied set of services like support management of collections, services to provide replicated and reliable storage , services to aid in query formulation and execution etc.
The collection of information objects : the basis for a digital library however , must be the formation objects that provide the content. The information objects are found in collections with associated management and support functions. The types of information objects vary from traditional ‘documents’ through to live objects or dynamic query results.
Supporting users deal with information objects: The librarians must assist the users by satisfying their needs and requirements for management, access , storage and manipulation of the variety of information stored in the collection of material that represents the ‘holdings ‘ of the library.
The organization and presentation of those objects :A library is created to serve a community of users. Users who participate in the digital library should be aware of its design and be able collectively refine the design to better serve their own information needs. Thus the usability of a digital library depends on the clear and unobtrusive exposure of the library’s design, its near term goals and its overall objectives.
Available directly or indirectly: The information objects may be digital objects or they may be in other media(like paper) but represented in the library via digital means ( eg. Metadata) . They may be available directly over the network (eg. Using a query service of the library to find and then retrieve electronically the information object) or indirectly (eg. The result of the query may give instructions on how to obtain the object but that is done outside the scope of the library itself)
Electronic / digital availability: Although the objects may not be even electronic, and although the objects themselves may not be available directly over the network, the objects must be represented electronically in some manner through eg. Metadata or catalogues. Otherwise that should not be considered a part of the digital library
CONCLUSION:
To organize a digital library with all the characteristics mentioned above the library must have the professionals who have a flair of moving out of the traditional systems and cope up with the modern advanced technology. Keeping in mind the new challenges the information professionals can undergo short term courses, refresher courses, seminars and workshops which would help them to acquire new skills as networking, web based technologies, searching of Electronic database CD- ROM, e-journals. As with most other technical developments in libraries over the years, we will have to move forward in small manageable , evolutionary steps rather than in rapid revolutionary manner.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
i) Role of Library Professionals: Dr. Shaista Muqueem
ii) Key concepts in the architecture of the Digital Library- D-lib Magazine, July, 2005
iii) Graham , P.S(1995A) Requirements for the digital Library (www.aultnis.rutgers.edu/texts/DRC.html)
iv) Steele Collin (1998) The Digital Library: do’s, don’t’s and developments . The Electronic Library 13(50 , 433- 437
v) www.computer.org/pubs/computer/dli
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