Page 111 - DLIS408_INFORMATION_TECHNOLOGY-APPLICATIONSL SCIENCES

Information Technology and Application

Notes 10.1.2 Characteristics of Digital Libraries

The structured information in the digital library is called digital object which includes text, audio,
video, image, computer programmes, graphics, and multimedia components in digital form. The
digital library requires lots of digital technologies. The digital library;
Provides access to a very large information collection, both primary and secondary
Support multimedia components
Provides links to different digital objects
Supports and provides search and retrieval interface
Supports the traditional library mission of collection, development, organization, access and
preservation.
Important characteristics of a digital library are:
(i) Digital collection—In the digital environment a digital library is expected to develop docu-
ment collection in a digital format.
(ii) Technology—It is understood that a digital library will have digital material in its collection.
But in the present day context, both digital and non-digital information belonging to a digital
library are to be handled using digital technologies.
(iii) Work and Service—The professionals supposed to work in a digital library should have
necessary training in handling digital information in order to provide the optimum level
of effective service.
The most important component of a digital library is the digital collection it holds or has access
to. A digital library can have a wide range of resources. It may contain both paper based
conventional documents or information contained in computer-processible form. The collection
of a digital library may include—a combination of structured/unstructured texts, numerical
data, scanned images, graphics, audio and video recordings.
With the assumption that digital libraries are libraries first, some of the important characteristics
of a digital library are:
1. Digital libraries are the digital face of traditional libraries that include both the digital
collection and the traditional, fixed media collection, so they encompass both electronic
and paper materials.
2. Digital libraries will also include digital material that exists outside the physical and
administrative bounds of any one digital library.
3. Digital libraries will also include all the processes and .services that are the backbone and
nervous system of libraries. However, such traditional processes, though forming the
basic digital library work, will have to be revised and enhanced to accommodate the
differences between new digital media and traditional fixed media.
4. Digital libraries will serve particular communities or constituencies as traditional librar-
ies do now, though these communities may-be widely dispersed throughout the network.
5. Digital libraries will require the skills of both librarians as well as computer professional
to be viable.

Academic Repositories
Many academic libraries are actively involved in building institutional repositories of the
institution’s books, papers, thesis, and other works which can be digitized or were ‘born digital’.
Many of these repositories are made available to the general public with few restrictions, in
accordance with the goals of open access, in contrast to the publication of research in commercial
journals, where the publishers often limit access rights. Institutional, truly free, and corporate
repositories are sometimes referred to as digital libraries.

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