The Information Explosion, development of technology, increase in the number

of users, and their varied information needs have made the libraries to apply
modern technology. As a result, the digital information is developed. Now, it is
essential for the libraries to Collect, Retrieve, Store, Dissemination communicate
and store the information electronically. Hence these changes transformed the
libraries to Digital Libraries, Learning Resource Centers and Information systems.
The computer and communication technology has resulted in a remarkable
expansion in the ability to generate process and disseminate digital information.
These new development have made new forms of knowledge repositories. Digital
library is one of the channels. Digital library indicates the provision of range of
materials in digitized form.
Digital Library
A digital library is a library consisting of digital materials and services. Digital
materials are items that are store, processed and transferred via digital library
devices and networks. Digital services are services (such as reference assistance)
that are delivered digitally over computer networks. Digital library Federation
framed a definition of digital library as Digital libraries are organization that
provides the resources, including the intellectual staff, to select, structure,
preserve the integrity of and ensure the persistence over time of collections of
digital works so that they are readily and economically available for use by a
Defined set of communities.

The digital libraries may be defined as the new way of carrying out the functions
of libraries, encompassing new type of information resources new approaches
to acquisition; new methods of storage and preservations; new approaches to
classification and cataloging; intensive use of electronic systems and networks;
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and dramatic shifts in intellectual, organizational and electronic practice.
Digital library is system providing a community of users with coherent access to
a large, organized repository of information and knowledge. The digital library
is not just one entity, but multiple sources seamlessly integrated. The digital
libraries endow with a structural and planned entrance to information stuffing in
a dispersed environment and assist users in searching evaluating and utilizing
resources irrespective of their format. Improved information retrieval and
enhanced document delivery capabilities are widely acclaimed strength of digital
library in a networked environment through internet and internet in library and
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information center.
The US Association of Research Libraries Identified Five Elements Common to all
Definitions of Digital Libraries:

• The digital library is not a single entity;

• The digital library requires technology to link the resources;

• Linkages between digital libraries and information services are transparent;

• Universal access to digital library must be a goal;

• Digital library collections are restricted to document surrogates but include

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digital artifacts that have no printed equivalent .
Salient Features of a Digital Library:

• Site neutrality

• Open access

• Greater variety and granularity of information

• Sharing of information

• Up-to-date ness

• Always available

• New forum of rendering

• Everything can be stored

• Universal accessibility

• Modifiability

Why Digital Libraries?

Digital libraries have their unique advantages. They satisfy the information needs
of users in different circumstances. They play a different role and each serves the
needs of users in different ways. Digital libraries offer a wide range of new access
opportunities that are absent in the traditional environment, including remote
access, 24-hour access, and multiple users for single sources. The arrival and
proliferation of electronic resources and digital libraries have already influenced
and changed the way academics and scholars use print resources and traditional
libraries. It has also sparked a new wave of literature on the perceptions and
preferences of print and electronic resources.
The purpose of Digital Library Initiative is to advance the means to gather, store,
and organize information in digital forms, and make it available for searching,
retrieval, and processing via communication networks in user friendly ways.
Reason behind so many libraries and other institutions, turned their hands
to creating digital libraries is to do with advances in information technology -
increasingly both academic and recreational materials are being made available
in electronic formats, either in addition to or instead of print. The costs of
creating, storing, and disseminating electronic information have decreased,
and the technology to support distribution and access is widespread. Rising
acquisition and subscription fees have forced libraries to seek other ways to
make information available and content aggregators and e-book publishers
are providing the means. Most significantly, digital libraries support service
improvement. Information search and navigation across electronic information
resources is much faster, with enriched points of access, and alternative methods
for browsing and exploration. The resources themselves can be segmented,
rearranged, annotated, and enhanced in ways not possible before, and can
be directly integrated with desktop productivity tools for local analysis and
processing. A digital environment enables cross-community interactivity
and collaboration, regardless of physical location. Also, digitization presents
opportunities for long-term preservation of bodies of knowledge, if not of the
original carriers of that knowledge.

Digital Library System Have Identified the Following Purposes of a Digital

Library System :

• To expedite the systematic development of the means to collect , store, and

organize information and knowledge in digital form, and of digital library
collections

• To promote the economical and efficient delivery of information to all sectors of

society

• To encourage cooperative efforts which coverage the considerable investment

 research resources, computing and communications network

• To strengthen communication and collaboration between and among the

research business government and educational communities

• To take an important role in the generation and dissemination of knowledge in

area of strategic importance to the society:

• To contribute to the life long learning opportunities and education in our

country.

Digital libraries are constructed for community of user in which individuals and
groups interact with each other, use data information and knowledge, resources
and systems. In this sense they are extension enhancement, and integration
of a variety of information institutions as physical places where resources
are selected, collected, organized, preserved and accessed in support of user
community.

The Structure of Digital Libraries Fall in Two Categories

a) Preservation of Born Digital Literature
b) Preservation of Made or prepared Digital Literature.
In first category the Digital Literature is itself published in digital versions and the
Library has to download it and keep in folders with the use of suitable software
like GSDL (Greenstone Digital Library Software by GSDL, New Zealand) for the
users.
In second category the Digital Literature is prepared in the Library. The material
is selected by judging the needs of the library users and then it is digitized
with the help of the necessary infrastructure like Scanners etc. It is converted
into familiar formats, Meta tags are assigned and metadata is created of such
literature as the manual Library catalogues and then made available to the users
electronically. In this view the Jayakar Library of The University of Pune has set
best example in digitizing the rare book material.
Digital Library is a storage media of the electronic resources as on-line and off-
line. On line resources cover the information downloaded from the Internet. This
information is current, it can be stored in files and folders for the constant use.
Off- line resources are the CD – ROMs and Floppies which can be kept for the
ready reference of the user. The Project Reports or Seminar Reports can be
submitted by the students on the CDs so that in can be easier to store and use
the data.
Components of Digital Library
A fully developed digital library environment involves the following elements:

1. Initial conversion of content from physical to digital form.

2. The extraction or creation of metadata or indexing information describing

the Content to facilitate searching and discovery, as well as administrative
and Structural metadata to assist in object viewing, management and
preservation.

3. Storage of digital content and metadata in an appropriate multimedia

repository. The repository will include rights management capabilities to
enforce intellectual Property rights, if required. E-commerce functionality
may also be present if needed to handle accounting and billing.
 4. Client services for the browser, including repository querying and workflow.

5. Content delivery via file transfer or streaming media.

6. Patron access through a browser or dedicated client.

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7. A private or public network .

Digital Libraries Initiatives

There are number of places where appropriate research, development is being
done .Few initial attempts are mentioned below:

• University of California, Berkely (http://elib.cs.berkely.edu)

• Uni. Of California, Santa Barbara. The Alexandria Project (maps) http://

allexandria.sdc.ucsb.edu/index.htm)

• Carnegie Mellon University. Informedia (video)(http://

www.informedia.cs.cmu.edu)

• University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign

• http://dil.grainger.uic.edu/idli/idli.htm/

• University of Michigan. Intelligent Agent for information Location(http;//

www.si.umich.edu/UMDL

• Standford University Infobusina (http://www.dliglib.standford.edu)

Indian Digital Library Initiatives

• Vidyanidhi (Indian Digital Library of Electronic theses)

• Down Memory Lane National Library of India, Calcutta(digitization of rare and

brittle document on compact disks)

• Million Book Project

Conclusion
Digital libraries are need to span between print and digital materials and that
the central issue was to promote a coherent view of a very large collection of
information. Really the objective is to develop information systems providing
access to a coherent collection of material. more and more of which will be
in digital format as time goes on, and to fully exploit the opportunities that
are offered by the materials that are in digital formats. Additionally, the
comprehensiveness and library system can be strengthened by the ability to
integrate materials in digital formats that have not been well represented,
easy to access, or effectively usable in traditional library collections ,such as
multimedia, geospatial data, or numerical datasets. There is in reality, a very
strong continuity between traditional library roles and missions and the objectives
of a digital library system.