School of Library Archives and

Documentation Studies
SLADS
Dar es Salaam Campus NTA
LEVEL 6
LST 06209: Digital Library
 COURSE INSTRUCTOR: MSENGI,
BERNARD
PHONE: 0712 420 882/0683 255 448
EMAIL: [email protected]
COURSE ASSESSMENT
• Assessment
• Test one: Marks 10
• Group work: 10 Marks(07 for oral and 03 for written)
• Mid test: 15 Marks
• Individual assignment: 10 Marks
• 05 Marks……
• Assessment methods may change according to students’ ethical
conduct
 MODULE ONE
INTRODUCTION TO D i g i t a l
library
A p r i l 2021
Introducti
on
Recent development in information technology forced a tradition to new
method of operation for Libraries.

Earlier the library professions were considered as the custodian of books.

Today library professionals are known as information personnel. Present
rapid development in communication system and recent innovation in
technology witnessed a changing emphasis in the role of information and
its management. This changing emphasis necessitates the information
professionals to be exposed to the new technologies.
Concept of Digital
Library
The term Digital Libraries exist and become used for the first time in
early 1990s. And since then research and practice in Digital libraries
has become standard. From there research funding especially in
United State and United Kingdom has made sure researcher and
Librarians has been engaged in Digital Library projects.
In the middle of the 1990s Netscape made browsing a possibility for
everyone. At the start of the new millennium we have at least in the
developed countries, enough bandwidth and connection possibilities
CONT…

for sending and exchanging very heavy loads of data. We

also have new and pretty stable standards for structuring
and exchanging data such as the Z39.50 communications
protocol designed to support searching and retrieval of
full-text documents, bibliographic data, images,
multimedia etc.
CONT…

Digital libraries become some sort of umbrella

term for diverse array of information projects.
After consultation of different literature its safe to
say that, digital libraries divided into two main
domains:- the researchers domain and Librarians
domain
CONT
…
Researchers domain; focus on the content collected on
behalf of and served to special user communities. For
instance you must use SDI system to offer services

Librarians domain: focus on service and see the Digital

Library as an institutions that can serve everyone.

Both these domains have their own definitions of the

phenomena.
Definitions of Digital
Libraries
Digital Libraries are organizations that provide the resources
including the specialized staff, to select, structure, offer
intellectual access, 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 (American Digital Library Federation).
DEFINITION
CONT…
Digital Library
The definition of a digital library can be given as a set of
characteristics as follows: The digital library is :
 a collection of services
a collection of information objects
 a supporting users with information objects
 organization and presentation of those objects
 available directly or indirectly
electronic/digital availability
 DEFINITIONS
CONT…
•In broad sense digital library is a computerized
system that allows users to obtain a coherent means
of access to an organized, electronically stored
repository of information and data. The digital library
is on electronic library consisting of information in
the digital, analog and digitized form.
FEATURES OF DIGITAL
LIBRARY
Digitization of information resources;
digitization is the basis of digital library.
and it’s a biggest different
between digital and traditional library

The internet of information transfer; to access digitized

resources need to have electronic devices supported with
internet. Which is far from the traditional library.
The share of information; digital library support the
sharing of information worldwide, countrywide, cross-
district. Its right to say digital library its limitless resource
and service sharing compared to traditional library.
FEATURES
CONT…
The knowledge of information supply; because digital library

allows, recombining information it will help users to get

knowledge that solve their problem which is differ from
traditional library.
Digital Library is a digital object, which may be text, audio,

video, image, and numeric multimedia components.

Digital library can be accessed from users work place.

FEATURES CONT…

Digital library support formal and informal

learning procedures.
Digital library provides remote to rare and
expensive material.
OBJECTIVES OF DIGITAL
LIBRARY
To capture, store and distribute information
To have large number of database on CDs
To provide facilities for networking and resource
sharing
To digitize document for preservation and space
saving.
FUNCTIONS OF DIGITAL LIBRARY
Important functions of digital Libraries

Provides access to a very large information

collection in a digital form supports multi-media

content

Is network accessible

Provides user friendly interface
FUNCTIONS
CONT…
Offers links to local/external objects
Support advance search and retrieval

Supports the traditional library mission of

collection, development, organization, access and

presentation
Supports publishing, annotation and integration
of new information
FUNCTIONS
CONT…
Brings together people with formal, informal
and professional learning missions
Provides faster access to information resources

Provides an easy mechanism for resource

sharing with other libraries. Sharing of digital
files is much easier.
ADVANTAGES OF DIGITAL
IBRARIES
No physical boundary
Round the clock availability
Multiple access
Information retrieval
ADVANTAGES CONT…

Saving the space

Provide facility for downloading and
printing
Provide universal accessibility
 DIGITAL LIBRARIES AND FIVE
LAWS
•As we know Ranganathan's known as a father of
librarianship due to his contribution to Library
science by providing principles of librarianship into
basic five elements which known as Ranganathan's
fives laws. In 1931 Ranganathan's publish his five
laws of Library science which are;
RANGANATHAN’S FIVE LAWS
CONT…
Books are for use
Every reader his book
Every book its reader
Save the time of the reader
A library is a growing organization.
DIGITAL LIBRARY
LAWS

Whether one looks to Ranganathan’s original five

laws of Library Science one central idea is clear.
Libraries and Digital Libraries are exists to serve
people’s information needs; therefore five digital
library laws/five laws of digital libraries are;
DIGITAL LIBRARY LAWS CONT..

Digital Objects are for use; The digital library should be designed to

meet the human needs to share information resources, knowledge

and experiences “Digital object are for use.
Every user his / her Digital Object: A digital library must formulate

access policies that ensure that the collection it is building and

maintaining is appropriate and adequate to fulfill the needs of the
community of users.
CON
T..
Every Digital object It’s user; This law focuses on

digital item, suggesting that each digital object in a

digital library has an individual who would find that
item useful
Save the time of the user: To provide efficient

access searching tools must be well designed;

indexing part in the database must be regularly
updated
CONT
…
Digital Library is a growing Organism; The digital library
should be designed an eye for the future. Every day the
relevance of knowledge is increasing. Hence we have the
following figures that reflect the phenomenal growth of
knowledge;- The world’s knowledge double every six
months. Technical Knowledge double every three years
Medical knowledge doubles every seven years Science &
Technology knowledge doubles every decade.
CONT…

While knowledge is growing rapidly as noted above then

cybrarian must be think about required infrastructure for
digital library. The database capacity should be high. A
system with good hardware capabilities should be installed
for storage of digital objects as main server. Today’s
cybrarian should provide digital library service 24/7
anytime, anywhere, access to digital objects.
 PROBLEM
ASSOCIATED
WITH DIGTAL
LIBRARIES
 PROBLEM ASSOCIATED WITH DIGTAL
LIBRARIES
Digital reading and storage devices should be omnipresent; users

visit library to satisfy their needs. Therefore in order to save their

time the device useful for storage and reading digital information
should be omnipresent (anytime & anywhere)
Conversion of printed materials into digital form is tedious and

very expensive; in many libraries part of collection are in printed

form, hence needs conversion which is very tedious, expensive and
time consuming
CONT…

Needs of hardware and software; implementation of

digital library need both hardware and software for

instance scanner, OCR, Dspace ect.
Storage life/shelf life; the storage life of electronic

media is much more less than the printed. For instance

CDs, Floppy disks, computer tapes and CD-ROM ect. It
of few years.
ELECTRONIC STORAGE
CD-ROM EXAMPLES

Internal CD-ROM External CD-ROM

CD-ROM CONT…

Stands for "Compact Disc Read-Only Memory."

A CD-ROM is a CD that can be read by a computer with an

optical drive. The ROM part of the term means the data on
the disc is "read-only," or cannot be altered or erased.
Because of this feature and their large capacity, CD-ROMs
are a great media format for retail software.
FLOPPY DISC

FLOPY DISCs Floppy Disc

FLOPPY DISC
CONT…
Alternatively referred to as a floppy or
floppy disk, a floppy diskette is a type of
storage media capable of storing electronic
data, like a computer file.
COMPUTER TAPES

COMPUTER TAPES
 COMPUTER TAPE CONT…
A tape is a magnetically thin coated piece of plastic wrapped
around wheels capable of storing data. Tape is less expensive
than other storage mediums, but also much slower because it is
sequential access and is often used for backing up large
amounts of data.

Magnetic tape data storage is a system for storing digital

information on magnetic tape using digital recording. Tape was
an important medium for primary data storage in early
computers.
PROBLEM CONT…

Costly; to retrieve and read material stored in digital form need to

have certain devices which is very expensive and need personnel skills
to operate it.
Needs technology; to retrieve information stored in digital form need

some devices such as computers and CD-ROM player which become

part of information retrieval system.
 PROBLEM CONT…
Data security; is about keeping data safe. But data stored in digital media
their in danger of being destructed either by virus, system crash, accidental
deleting or over writing.
Intellectual Property Right (IPR) Issues; protection of intellectual property
rights is not fully realistic in digital media. Difficulties are still persisting
regarding the copyright protection of the authors and publisher and
publishers of e-resources
 THANK YOU
FOR LISTENING
THE END OF
MODULE ONE