DIGITAL LIBRARY

 Mahesh S. Rana & Deepak Kumar Namdeo

Institute of Management Technology (IMT) Library, Ghaziabad (U.P.)

Ashwani Kumar Sharma

Auto Meters Alliance Ltd. Noida (U.P.)

Ram Naresh Indoria

JNU Central Library, New Delhi

  Abstract

“This article point out the importance and needs of the Digital Libraries in  Modern Society.” 

Introduction

 The separation between the teacher and the learner differentiates education from all forms of conventional face to face teaching and learning.  The separation of the learner from the teacher, as well as the institution, requires the use of some technical media or other to unite them and also to transmit the content of the course. Rapid advances in computer and communication technologies have given rise to concepts like University of the World, the Virtual University, the Virtual Classroom etc.  Information technology can be used both for instruction and document delivery. In the context of document delivery, libraries play a vital role.  Provision of library services to distance learners is a challenging task, and innovative approaches are required to reach them out.

In the present day context of digital or electronic libraries, the role of libraries has expanded to a great extent. Digital libraries can solve many of the major problems faced by the distance learners.  How can digital libraries help distance learners?  How useful are the electronic publications for the distance learners?  How can the Internet and World Wide Web(WWW) be utilized to reach out the learners?  These are some of the major library related issues now faced by institutions involved in distance teaching, which need to be addressed seriously.

What is Digital Library

Digital Libraries does not mean Libraries in the classical sense, but a network of multimedia systems. A typical digital library is a media server (group of interlinked workstations) connected to high-speed networks. Unlike a conventional library where users are provided with physical materials from many sources, a digital library is a group of distributed repositories that users see as a single repository in digital form. According to the Berkley Digital Library project. University of California, “the digital library will be a collection of distributed information sources producers of information will make it available, and consumers will find it perhaps through the help of automated agents”. The Stanford Digital Library project states the “Integrated digital library will create a shared environment linking everything – personal information collection to collection of conventional libraries to large data collection shared by scientists. Integrated virtual libraries provide an are of new services, uniform access to networked information collection”. In other words we can say that in digital library, the information arrives as needed at the users screen, like the ever-attendant waiter filling your water glass before you know it is empty.

Need for Digital Libraries

In 1990 Alvin Toffler estimated in his book, “Powershift” that in one year the United States runs out 1.3 trillion documents may have risen to four trillion. According to another estimate, there are close to 50,000 periodicals in Science and Technology. This information explosion is not confined to any particular subject and is also taking place in Social Sciences and Humanities and in every country. With libraries facing manpower and monetary constraints, it is impossible to acquire every publisher’s document under one roof and thus evolved the concept of resource sharing and networking. Since information can be digitized, the participant libraries are coming together to convert their holdings to electronic form and then putting them on the network. The technology for electronic transfer of information is developing rapidly; electronic publishing, electronic storage, processing and delivery of information including text and images are a; feasible and operational. Further, presently most of the information is reproduced on paper. The legibility of documents, which are reproduced, is poor, and the transmission of the same to other users is difficult. Moreover, it requires a large amount of storage space. Since there is a demand for information with a facility for searching tailor-made information at faster speed. Hence digital library seems a suitable solution at the moment.

Characteristics of Digital Libraries

The transformation effects that digital technology brings in to information system are as follows:

Collections

Digital library collections contain fixed, permanent documents. While current libraries have more dynamic collections, a digital library facilitates quicker handling of information.

Work

Digital libraries are to be used by individual working alone. There is work-oriented perspective focusing on a group of information analyst, work being done and the documents and technologies that support it.

Trans bordering  of information

Breaking the physical boundaries of data transfers within and outside the countries. It is viewed that the support for communications and collaboration is a important as information seeking activities.

 The digitalization requires certain technologies. They are basically grouped as:

i)                    Computer technologies with input devices that collect and convert information into                digital form. Such devices include keyboards, touch screens, voice recognition                systems, flatbed scanner, reprography copy stand, high- resolution digital camera,                image navigator software etc.

ii)                   Storage technologies: a variety of devices to store and retrieve information in digital form such as magnetic tapes/cassettes, floppy disks, hard disks, DAT Tape, CR_ROM, smart cards, etc.

iii)                 Processing technology- creating the systems and applications software that is required for the performance of digital network.

iv)                 Communication technologies primarily to communicate information in digital form.

v)                  Display technologies- varieties of output devices.

The first major process is to digitize the entire physical medium. This may get started with the use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to convert the captured digital images to text content. Next, the content has to be catalogued and indexed so that the repository can be easily made available to users, allowing them top make searches for information through bibliographic description or content. In case of multi-media collection such as video, catalogues would have a preview of a video clip describing the contents of the actual video file.

·        Provide access to a very large information collection's)

·        Support multi-media content

·        Network accessible

·        Provide user-friendly interface

·        Unique referencing of digital objects

·        Enable ‘links’ representation to local/external objects (hypertext)

·        Support advised search and retrieval

·        Information available for a very long time

·        Also supports traditional library missions of collection development, organization, access and preservation of information.

·        Support editing, publishing, annotation and integration of information

·        Integrate personal, group, enterprise, public digital libraries.  

The major advantages of Digital Libraries are mentioned below:

·        Promote universal accessibility.

·        Access to more information than is possible to physically acquire and maintain.

·        Protecting rare books that are rapidly deteriorating due to over use and poor storage conditions.

·        The user can peruse them instantly.

·        The e-books and journals provide key words, subject and various other searches.

·        Provide multiple access and access through the campus LAN

·        Facility for the downloading and printing.

·        Saving the cost and manpower required for publishing and bring out new edition.

·        One copy of the documents could be viewed by any number of persons simultaneously.

·        Saving space which is required for physical documents.

·        A tool for preservation of heritage.

Digital library can be accessed by all sections of the community, irrespective of caste, creed, religion, age, sex. One can enlighten himself even sitting at home. This facility is very useful since it not only saves the amount of many required for travelling but also precious time. Any research scholar writing thesis on agrarian reforms dine during Mughul period in India may access the requisite material from any corner of the globe provided the library specializes in the said theme is putting their material in digitized form for world wide access.

1. Protecting the intellectual property rights A major administrative challenges is in complying with copyright and intellectual property rights issues. The library authority have to discuss seriously with publishers on this aspect in order to evolve some mechanism profitable to both users, publishers as well as authors. Users may be charged for each access, downloading from servers and/or each kind of digital library collection. This would provide a revenue for publishers, authors and libraries.

2. Security aspect – Security aspect is the most pressing challenge of digital affairs. Piracy of database, viral invasions, parallel satellite networking stress are some of the issues for digital libraries are confronted as a way of routine.

3. Lack of Expertise – Not too many vendor/experts are available in the country and abroad as well. Overseas vendors charge too much and also reluctant to import techniques/technology.

4. Technophobe – In general, some people do, however, fear any upcoming technology. Individuals may have several reasons for not using the new technology.

The Vatican Library possesses an extraordinary collection of rare books and manuscripts such as original copies of works by Aristotle, Dante, Euclid, Homer and Virgil. However, because of the time and cost required to travel to Rome, only about 2000 scholars can afford to visit each year. In 1995, a team comprises the Vatican Library, IBM research, the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio De Janeiro and Case Western Reserve University investigated the practicality of providing Online Digital Library service to scholars. The project’s goals included:

·        Allowing broader access to the unique collections held by the library.

·        Providing tools that enable more effective scholarship

·        Protecting the Vatican Library’s assets

·        Determining how to achieve self-funding operation of continuing digitization and delivery.

These goals were pursued through scanning set of manuscripts, making them available via. The Internet and collecting the views of participating scholars. Moreover, several digital library projects have also been executed in the USA, for instance, the (US) National Gallery of Arts has an extensive collection of paintings and drawings. In 1990, IBM started working to develop a digital library of images of the gallery’s arts. It was successfully completed and the Gallery later decided to provide access to their collections through a web site that serves the general public. Their Web site at www.nga.gov., first made public in 1997 provides some of the most beautiful images available online. These are not only the libraries/Information Centers which have made progress in the area of digitization. Infact there are a number of libraries in the developed countries where sizeable collections of the library have already been digitized and also made available for worldwide access albeit with some restrictions.

Indian has made tremendous progress in the field of Information Technology. We are, indeed, proud of having produced the best IT professionals. These professionals are greatly in demand across the globe. Interestingly, in the field of automation of libraries not only IT professionals but also librarians have shown a great interest and hence today a  number of libraries in the country/ have either been automated or in the process of automation. However, unfortunately, in the digitization area, we have not yet made any significant headway. Indeed the vast amount of information in our country is scattered in libraries, individual possessions, oral and discipline traditions, archaeological findings, manuscripts, cave paintings, museums and at so many other places. Some of these invaluable information have got lost, mutilated, destroyed and stolen, for which we can not do much. Nevertheless, huge amount of information is still available and could be used for the development of society. We can start digitization process of our rare collections which would be an important step in preserving our composite culture and heritage. In academic institutes, probably, the Central University of Hyderabad (UOH) will establish the first digital library in the country. The university has already identified and started digitization process for its thesis/dissertation collections. This will be joint efforts of UOH, Sun micro systems and VTLS Software Company.