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Unit 10: Digital and Virtual Libraries

Content delivery (combination of online and offline ICT approaches and products); Notes
Content access (cataloguing and indexing), including relationship with the Union
Catalogue;

ICT infrastructure and equipment needs/availability at institutions concerned

Example: Connectivity and networking capacities, use of freeware, tariff negotiations;
suitability of equipment to climate and local conditions
Architecture of the virtual library (access and centralised vs. decentralised services);
Training needs (to set up, manage and use the Virtual Library);

Links to already existing national virtual library and virtual laboratory projects;
Partnerships with other regional and international virtual library initiatives.

10.6.2 Principles of Development of Virtual Library Collection

Six principles have been identified that drive the development of a Virtual Library Collections
as enumerated below:

Priority of Utility: Usefulness is the ultimate reason behind all collection decisions.
Predicting utility is, however, notoriously difficult.

Local Imperative: Local collections are built to support local needs, and expenditure of
local resources must have a demonstrable local benefit.
Preference for Novelty: Although historical collections are essential for research, only
limited resources can be devoted to the collection and maintenance of older material.
Implication of Intertextuality: To add an item to a collection is to create a relationship
between it and other items. Building a collection always creates new textual relationships.

Scarcity of Resources: All collection development decisions have to balance scarce
resources – funding, staff time, document size, user time and attention.

Commitment to the Transition: More and more information will become available in
digital form. Libraries are responsible for promoting this transaction and assisting users
to adjust to it.

Did u know? Can INFLIBNET Centre be the Virtual Library of India?

There is an urgent need of the ‘Virtual Library of India’. India is a home for rich and diverse
cultural, educational and R & D institutions, associations, societies and scholars and so on. It
is strongly suggested and advocated, that INFLIBNET Centre to take an advantage of being
the Virtual Library of India. It has been witnessed that, INFLIBNET Centre has experience of
uniting the scholars and their works by its aims and objectives, and through its specialised
programs and activities such as automation and networking the Indian University Libraries
and others. Indeed, this ‘Virtual Library of India’ will make the Indian content more visible,
accessible and applicable to build again a stronger, prosperous and knowledge superpower
of the world.

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