Library Progress (International)

Vol.35 (No.2)2015:P.133-138
www.bpas.in DOI 10.5958/2320-317X.2015.00011.2

Print version ISSN 0970 1052 Online version ISSN 2320 317X

DIGITAL LIBRARY: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Om Prakash Saini* and Dr. Amit Kumar Sharma**
*Assistant Librarian, Central Library,
Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University
(A Central University), Vidya Viahar, Rae Bareli Road,
Lucknow-226025(U.P.) India.
Email: [email protected]

**Librarian, Kaladhari Gupta Pustkalaya

Kishanlal Public College,(A Government Aided College Affiliated to Maharshi
Dayanand University,Rohtak) ,Rewari (Haryana)
E-Mail: [email protected]

Received on 09 September 2015: Accepted on 20 November 2015

ABSTRACT

Applications of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has

changed the concept of libraries. The Libraries are now come up from the
physical boundaries to the virtual world. Nowadays, Libraries are slowly
and gradually getting digitized. A 'Digital Library ‘comprises digital
collections, services and infrastructure to support lifelong learning,
research, scholarly communication as well as preservation and conservation
of the recorded knowledge. This article discuss the factors that demands the
traditional libraries to get digitized and what are the role of librarian in the
new environment. The paper also throws some lights on the theoretical
framework of the concept digital library.

Keywords: Digital Library, Hybrid-Library, ICT, Information

management. Electronic information sources

1. INTRODUCTION

The great visionary and librarian S.R. Ranganathan left us with an important
custody, his five laws of library science, namely:
i. Books are for use;
ii. Every reader his/her book;
 Om Prakash Saini and Amit Kumar Sharma

iii. Every book, its reader;

iv. Save the time of the reader; and
v. A library is a growing organism.
Professor Ranganathan first published his five laws of library science in 1931. It
is suggest that Ranganathan's five laws are as valid today and will be tomorrow as
applied to digital libraries, for after all the purpose of the library – digital, hybrid, or
otherwise – is not simply to be but to be of service and to be a service to its users. If we
accept the concept that the library is indeed a growing organism, our first understanding
of the library of the future comes with our appreciation of the growth process of that
organism (Wallace, 2004).

More recently Walt Crawford and Michael Gorman (1995, p. 8) provide a more
contemporary and in some ways more controversial reinterpretation of Ranganathan's
five laws:

i. Libraries serve humanity;

ii. Respect all forms by which knowledge is communicated;
iii. Use technology intelligently to enhance service;
iv. Protect free access to knowledge; and
v. Honor the past and create the future.

The library profession has witness a spate of predictions over the last half-century
on the fate of the library ranging from its immediate demise to its transformation into
sometimes recognizable and sometimes not so recognizable forms (Sapp, 2002). Perhaps
we were first made aware of impending and radical change by F.W. Lancaster's (1978)
famous “Whither libraries? Or, wither libraries?” article that brought to our attention,
among other things the emergence of libraries in an electronic world.

The use of electronic environment has been visible from the birth of a child,
where parent need to register online in a hospital for child birth to the death where the
family requires a death certificate. Everything is getting done through online and ICT
based services. As far as the Libraries are concerned, the digital medium has been
extensively used to record, store, and disseminate the information in the digital form.
This electronic revolution is influencing the information industry also, where the world
converted into a global village. Libraries are also changing to meet the pace with ICT and
its challenges. However, the traditional libraries are able to provide better services, but
these libraries need to understand the changing pattern of information delivery. The
information through Digital Libraries not only ensures the speed and accuracy but it also
help in searching relevant content from the available information.

2. DEFINITION OF DIGITAL LIBRARY

The term Digital Library (DL) has a variety of potential meanings, ranging from a
digitized collection of material that may find in a traditional library through the collection
of digital information and services that make that information useful to all possible users.
The term Digital Library is also used alternatively as “Electronic Library” and “Virtual

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Library”. A digital library is nothing but a large database for the people who are working
on hypertext environment. It is an environment, which supports the full life cycle of
creation, storage, preservation, dissemination and use of data, information and knowledge
by using computers in networked environment. The Digital Library’s managed through
networked information systems of computers where information and services stored in
digital format and accessible over a network. The Digital Library Federation’s (2015)
definition of digital libraries is assumed as commonly recognized for discussion in this
article.
Digital libraries are organizations that provide the resources, including the
specialized staff, to select, structure, offer intellectual access to, interpret,
distribute, 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 community or set of communities.

A digital library is an organized collection of digitized material or its holding in

the digital form that can be accessible by a computer on the network by using online or
offline interface. A Digital Library (DL) can be defined under following as:
i. Collection of multimedia i.e. Audio Video and Images, etc.
ii. Availability resources in machine readable form
iii. Use of digital technology in housekeeping activities
iv. Global access through Internet
v. Prompt searching and retrieval of Information
vi. User support and friendly interface

3. WHY DIGITAL LIBRARIES

Time of the users is a major factor that support DL in the modern scenario. DLs
are needed to provide quality-based service at the user doorstep. In general there are
following reasons that support a DL:
i. Easy to understand and functioning
ii. Shifting of the new technological environment
iii. Multiple functions are possible
iv. Information explosion
v. Information retrieval and storage
vi. Distance learning
vii. To procure online electronic publication
viii. Long term conservation and preservation of documents
ix. Saving the time of the users.

4. ADVANTAGES OF DIGITAL LIBRARY

A digital library is not confined to a particular location or so called building it is

virtually distributed all over the world. The user can get his/ her information on his own
computer screen by using the Internet. Actually, it is a network of multimedia system,
which provides fingertip access. The spoken words or the graphical display of a digital
library is again having a different impact from the words that are printed. The DL has
following advantages:

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 Om Prakash Saini and Amit Kumar Sharma

i. No physical boundary
ii. Round the clock availability
iii. Multiple accesses
iv. Structured approach
v. Information retrieval
vi. Preservation and conservation
vii. Unlimited Space
viii. Networking
ix. Cost effectiveness

5. DISADVANTAGES OF DIGITAL LIBRARY

The computer viruses, lack of standardization for digitized information, quick
degrading properties of digitized material, different display standard of digital product
and its associated problem, health hazard nature of the radiation from monitor etc. makes
digital libraries at times handicap. In addition, there are certain disadvantages of DL such
as:
i. Copyright
ii. Speed of access
iii. Initial high investment
iv. Slow Band width
v. Lack of Efficiency in case of large amount of data.
vi. Volatile Preservation

6. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR CREATION OF DIGITAL LIBRARY

The Internet and World Wide Web provide the motivation and technological
environment for the development and operation of a digital library. The Internet provides
the TCP/IP and or its associated protocol for accessing the information and web provide
tools and technique for publishing the information over Internet. In the digital
environment it is reasonable to say that a central back up or archive should be created at
the national level, which will store information output of the region as well as
information from outside the country. Some of the requirement for setting up of a digital
libraries are:
i. Audio visual: Monitor, Visual Display, D.V.D., Sound box, Telephone etc.
ii. Computer: Server, Client with multimedia, U.P.S. etc.
iii. Network: LAN, MAN, WAN, Internet etc.
iv. Printer: Either a Laser printer, Dot matrix, Barcode printer, Digital
graphic printer etc.
v. Scanner: Either a Scan jet, flatbed, Sheet feeder, Drum scanner, Slide
scanner, Microfilming scanner, Digital camera, Barcode scanner etc.
vi. Storage devices: Optical storage device, CD-ROM, Jukebox etc.
vii. Software: Any suitable software, which is interconnected and suitable for
LAN and WAN connection.

7. RESOURCES ON DIGITAL LIBRARY

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The resources that a computer can store, organized, transmit and display without any
intervening conversion process. It includes electronic or digital material. The digital
material may be of multimedia i.e. digital audio, video, full text information, photograph,
drawing, digitized sound, e-book, v-book, electronic tax, map, image, 3D representation
etc. The collection may also include structured /unstructured text, scanned images,
graphic audios, video recording etc.

i. Online Resources:

i. Local database of traditional books in machine-readable form.

ii. E-book, v-book, electronic tax, map, image, sound, video, and multimedia
etc.
iii. E-journal
iv. LAN, MAN, WAN for web browsing, e- mail etc.
v. Well trained manpower for online help
ii. Offline Resources:
i. C.D-ROM, Jukebox etc.
ii. Audio visual aid etc.

8. ROLE OF LIBRARIAN IN DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT

Though the digital environment is built as a system, which can be used by its
ultimate end user directly from their desktop, the role of librarian cannot be overlooked.
In digital environment also the librarian as well as other information professionals will be
needed for packaging and repackaging of information, for electronic publishing, for
reference, to advise the user about the strategy to identify relevant electronic sources and
many more. In the new environment it is very difficult for the librarian to decide what
should be organized? How to give citation? How to organize the collection? How to
automate the library? Indeed there are so many challenges before the professional. Since,
the new environment is challenging for the librarian to distinguish among the author,
publisher and user? In the new environment anyone who has access to the network of
digital libraries can be a publisher by merely posting messages to an online discussion
group or by other means. A virtual environment is really open for all. In some cases,
librarians have the opportunity to digitize unique material in their libraries' collections,
which can then be made accessible to users of the World Wide Web at large.

9. CONCLUSION
However, the Digital Libraries are not replacing the physical existence of
document completely but there are doubts to meet the present demands of the users. To
satisfy a large number of users the digitization of the documents seems to be important.
The setup of a DL is become essential that must be introduced to cope up with the hybrid
nature of information. The initial cost of digitization is high but experiment shows that
once digitization is introduced, the cost to manage this collection may be cheaper than
that of any traditional library. Day by day the cost of digitization is decreasing, the online
publications are increasing, and the need of user are shifting towards a different
environment so its needless to say that very soon it become the need of hours.

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REFERENCES

1. Crawford, W. and Gorman, M. (1995), Future Libraries: Dreams, Madness, and Reality,
American Library Association, Chicago, IL.

2. Digital Library Federation (2015), available at: http://www.diglib.org/ (accessed on 25 July,

2015).

3. Lancaster, F.W. (1978), “Whither libraries? Or, wither libraries?” College and Research Libraries.
39 (5), 345-57pp.

4. Sapp, G. (2002). A Brief History of the Future of Libraries: An Annotated Bibliography,

Scarecrow Press, Lanham, MD.

5. Wallace Koehler, (2004) "Digital libraries, digital containers, “library patrons”, and visions for the
future", The Electronic Library, 22 (5), 401 – 407pp.

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