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Libraries going digital

Andrew Large

THE TERM "digital" has become a buzzword with the electronic gizmos. Digital cameras, digital phones, digital clock, digital TV, digital compact discs, digital audiocassettes and what not, they are all creating a ripple in this hi-tech gadgetry world! On the educational front, it is the "digital libraries" which are enthusing many academicians and scholars.

Digital libraries are a digitised collection of information objects and documents, which can be text, video or music, for a particular user community spread across remote and vast areas. These libraries are Web-focussed and information is available to the audience via electronic or digital means. Basically, the Internet and World Wide Web provide the impetus for the set up of a digital library across global networks.

Andrew Large, Chairman, Information Studies, Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, McGill University, West Montreal, Quebec, Canada made his first-ever first to India to participate in a two-day summit, Info Vision 2005, organised at Bangalore by the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore and Informatics (India) Limited, Bangalore in collaboration with Technology Information Programme, DSIR, Government of India and Department of Culture, Government of India.

Sharing his thoughts on digital libraries with EducationPlus, Prof. Andrew said designing a user-friendly interface for easy interpolation and usability, was one of the concerns of these libraries. Maintaining proper standardisation in text and indexing, and a hassle-free catalogue and classification of books, makes the `search' through the Web easy. Easy access

On the advantages of digital libraries, Prof. Andrew said they could be accessed by people from anywhere across the world. Digital libraries have no space and storage constraints when compared to the traditional brick and mortar libraries. They allow multiple users to access the books at the same time. The set-up cost for a digital library, including the hardware and software, may be huge but there are no heavy recurring costs.

The user can avail himself of the services of a digital library round-the-clock all through the year, on paying a registration amount. Digital libraries are "virtual" libraries, as opposed to the traditional "physical" libraries. There are many institutions in the U.S. and the U.K. which have switched over to the digital mode. They subscribe to digital copies and have stopped buying hard-bound journals. Digital libraries serve science and technology better than humanities, observes Prof. Andrews. However, a chunk of the population still prefers reading in printed format. Digital libraries cannot reproduce the environment of traditional libraries, apart from the strain they cause to the eyes that constantly have to stare at the computer screens.

Universities and other educational institutions cannot do away with the traditional libraries. To allow for the transition to happen in a phased manner, they could as well introduce "hybrid libraries", he suggests. Hybrid libraries cater to both electronic and print formats of books.

When asked if the growth of digital libraries would sound the death knell for traditional libraries, he says both of them would continue to complement each other.

RUKMA VASUDEV

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