IML 651

Traditional Library
Definition of Digital Library
Benefits of Digital Library
Characteristics of digital Library

By the end of the session, students will be able to;
Understand the basic concepts of a digital library.
Explain the characteristics and benefits of a digital
library.
See the transformation of a traditional library to
become digital and virtual based.
See how digital libraries have changed the way we
retrieve information, the way we learn and the way we
work.
An entity in which information containers are selected,
acquired, organized, disseminated, and preserved. (Information
containers are traditional formats in which information is
stored, eg. Magazines, journals, monographs, indexes, reference
materials, etc)

To accomplish these tasks, some administrative infrastructure,
however complex, must control the working of the entity.
Dowell (1994);
A library that heavily draws on electronic sources and hence has
little or no printed material and support staff.
A traditional library that has a significant portion of the
collection transformed into the electronic form.

Hein (1999), Suggests that an array of expertise is required to
collect, organize and deliver digital information, and the
primary role of librarians in digital library development will be
an extension of what has been doing on for decades.
Williams (2000), A digital library can be defined as a
distributed information system ensuring reliable storage and
effective use of heterogeneous collections of electronic
documents (text, graphics, audio, video, etc.) via global data
transfer networks in a way convenient for the end user.

Kapitzke (2001), Truly digital / virtual information does not
require a huge premise or physical layout. Digitization and its
two main derivatives the Internet and the hypertext, propelled
information access and exchange into the era of cyberspace and
the cyber library or CYBRARY.
Digital libraries are about new ways of dealing with knowledge
preserving, collecting, organizing, propagating, and accessing it
not about deconstructing existing institutions and putting
them in an electronic box. (Witten, 2003)

Digital library basically store materials in electronic format and
manipulate large collections of those material effectively. Research
into digital libraries is research network information systems,
concentrating on how to develop the necessary infrastructure to
effectively mass-manipulate the information on the Net. The key
technological issues are how to search and display desired selections
from and across large collections.

The concept of a Digital Library is not merely equivalent to a
digitized collection with information management tools. It is rather
an environment to bring together collections, services and people in
support of the full life cycle of creation, dissemination, use and
preservation of data, information and knowledge.
Benefits of Digital Library
1. The digital library brings the library to the
user.
A digital library brings the information to the
users desk, either at work or at home. With a
digital library on the desk top, the reader
never need to visit a library building. There is
a library wherever there is a personal
computer with a network connection.

2. Computer power is used for searching and
browsing.
Computers are particularly useful for
reference work that involved repeated leaps
from one source of information to another.
Benefits of Digital Library
3. Information can be shared
Placing digital information on a network
makes it available to everybody. Many digital
libraries or electronic publications are
maintained at a single central site. This is a
vast improvement over expensive physical
duplication of little used material, or the
inconvenience of unique material that is
unobtainable without traveling to the location
where it is stored.

4. Information is easier to keep current
Printed materials are awkward to update.
Keeping information current is less laborious
when the definitive version is in digital format
and stored on a central computer.
Benefits of Digital Library
5. The information is always available
Universal access 24/7. It means the availability
of information 24 hours / day, 7 days / week.
The door of the digital library never close. A
recent study at a British university found that
about half the use of a librarys digital
collection was at hours when the library
buildings were closed.

6. Integration of information types become
possible
Symbols, sound, graphics, 3Ds, photographs,
models, etc. Ex. Mathematics library can store
mathematical expressions as computer symbols
that can be manipulated by mean of a program
such a Mathematica or Maple.
Benefits of Digital Library
7. Cost effective
Digital libraries may save money. Initially the
digital libraries are also expensive but the
components of digital libraries are declining
rapidly in price.

8. Preservation & Conservation
Preservation of the original materials because
once digitized, it reduces the handling of the
originals especially rare and fragile objects.
Fragile and precious artifacts has encouraged
many museums, archives and galleries around
the world to develop digitized collections for
user from all over the world to access.

Benefits of Digital Library
9. Increases professional collaboration

10. Convenience of use / safe time / safe cost
especially in document delivery.

11. Supports distance education initiatives for
lifelong learning.
People are being encouraged to learn
throughout their lives and not just while
formally studying within traditional
educational establishment.

12. Safe library space.
Benefits of Digital Library
13. Digital Libraries allows greater creativity in
terms of information presentation (images,
color contrast, layout).

14. Intensify the application of automatic
indexing. The creation of digital information
for use by Digital Libraries has automatically
increased the possibility of online indexing
since now information is in digitized form.
Automatic indexing is possible only with
information in a digital format.
Benefits of Digital Library
15. Repositories in DLs
Researchers in universities around the world
have become used to online communication
and are keen to enable the flow of scholarly
thought via published papers in digital form
from repositories.

16. Higher expectation from professional users
These user have become used to searching the
web for entertainment, travel and other
information, and so they expected to be
provided with quality digital information
sources for their professional work.

1. DL may contain a variety of digital information
resources ranging from text to image, audio and video.

2. DL largely reduce the need for the physical space
required for building and maintaining traditional
libraries.

3. DL users may be distributed anywhere in the world, and in
some cases several different levels of services have to be
designed to meet the needs of local as well as remote users.

4. Unlike in TL, DL users may build their own personal
collection (s) by using the facilities provided by digital
libraries. User can build their own digital collection in their
personal workspace for future use.

5. DL provide access to various types of information resources
that may reside on different servers around the globe and
hence infrastructure, interoperability, and so on, are very
critical issues in DL development and management.

6. Several users can use the same information resource at the
same time, which is not possible in a TL.

7. DL have brought a paradigm shift not only in the use of
information (from print to digital) but also in the
concept of ownership / digital ownership.

8. DL libraries break time, space and language barriers.
Ideally, users from anywhere in the world should be
able to use a DL at any time and possibly in any
language.

Cost
Incur huge intellectual and financial capital
In USA, DLI 1- US24 million
In USA, DLI 2- US44 million
In UK, the eLib program the 3 phases 20

A Digital Library brings information to the user.
Manipulation of information (positive vs. negative).
Tremendous increase in information sharing.
Timely and immediate access to information.
Publishing material much easier than traditional publication
(to print may take 6 months or more).
Improved use of information.
Improved collaboration.
Reduction of the digital divide.
Increase in distance learning.

Change the ways we do our day to day work.
Study
Research
Jobs
Problem- solving
Decision- making
Recreational activities