The document provides an overview of digital libraries, exploring their meanings, definitions, and terminological variations such as e-library and virtual library. It emphasizes the importance of effective collection development, processing, and cataloguing while transitioning from traditional to digital formats, along with maintaining policies to ensure quality. The document also discusses the significance of subject tagging for efficient information retrieval within digital libraries.

1. Overview of Digital
Library / Virtual Library /
e-library
DR NIRMAL KUMAR SWAIN
Associate Professor
Dept of Lib. & Inf. Science
Maharshi Dayanand University
Rohtak – 124001

2. Overview of Digital Library /
Virtual Library / e-library
Lecture delivered At
Training for Teacher Educators of Western Region on
Technique of Using Digital Libraries ,
Feb 17-21, 2017
Regional Institute of Education (RIE), NCERT
Bhopal
Feb 17, 2017

3. Digital Library (DL)
Meaning vs. meanings
Terminological differences
Towards workable definition
Creation and designing a DL
Transforming a traditional library to
digital library

4. Meaning vs. meanings
The moment we try to understand
the concept of digital library in a
uniform and singular mode of
understating the problem arises
in conceptualizing the meaning.
Hence scanning the different
definition is required and to have
a consensus over these.

5. Scanning the definitions
 Digital libraries are those whose
collections and services are
offered in digital mode.
 Are digital libraries necessarily
paperless or without print
collections.
 Possibility of print collections
are there in a digital library also.

6. Cont…
A careful observation on the
definitional problems are to be
observed. And a working solutions
or meaning based on pragmatic
definition need to be pushed
forward.

7. Pragmatic definition
Digital library is any library with digital
collections , stored , process and
access and retrieve . Here it begins
with collections first, then process and
access.

8. Terminological differences
At the same time literature also exhibit other
terms often used in place of digital library.
Electronic library or e-library, virtual
library are most cases front runners. Even
electric library was in use also. Digital
library is basically American use of the
term and electronic library is British
format. People use it interchangeably.

9. Designing Digital Library
Practically speaking digital library can designed
from two stand points. In first case
transforming from the traditional library to
digital library. In this case putting all the
collection into digital form after scanning is a
difficult task but possible. At the same time new
collection may be procured with the digital
version also.

10. Collection development
In the case of digital library collections are very
important. Collection policy is to be maintained
as vendors rain with digital collections and
difficult to control the quality unlike of its print
counterpart. So a sound policy can ensure the
good collection. Duplicacy, copyright policy and
other related issues are important to
remember and control also.

11. Processing
After collection development , processing is
needed before it is ready to be use. While
processing, cataloguing is another important
aspect in which a little precaution to be taken
as different from the print collections.
International standard and different common
digital platform and models are to be taken
care of.

12. Subject tagging
Subject tagging is another aspect to be taken
care of while suitable subject headings in terms
of quality and quantity are need to be tagged
for efficient retrieval. For this standard
controlled vocabularies can be sued if
necessary. At the same time locally indexing
languages can also be created and further it
can transformed into databases also.