This document discusses views on digital libraries and compares traditional libraries to digital libraries. It defines a digital library as a library where resources are available in digital format rather than print. Digital libraries allow for faster addition and access to information as well as improved search functionality. However, they must still provide a familiar model of library services. The document also outlines 10 dimensions for exploring differences between traditional and digital libraries, such as object structure, access control, and types of searching.

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Internet Resources Discovery (IRD)
Views on
Digital Libraries
Thanks to Hadas Weinberger

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•Electronic Library
•Virtual Library
•Digital Library
•Portals -
Almost all, lately?!
Names of the New Paradigm

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Virtual Library (1)
• A "library without walls" in which the
collection does not exist on paper,
microform, or in any tangible form, but is
accessible electronically.
• Such libraries exist only on a very small
scale, but in many traditional libraries,
current and retrospective periodicals and
some reference works are being converted
to digital format.

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The term digital library is more appropriate
because the term virtual (borrowed from virtual
reality) suggests that the experience of using such
a library is not the same as the real thing,
when in fact, reading or viewing a document on
a computer screen may be qualitatively different
from reading a printed book or periodical, but the
information or knowledge imparted is the same
regardless of format.
http://www.wcsu.edu/library/odlis.html#virtuallibrary
Virtual Library (2)

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What is a Digital library
• A library in which a significant proportion of
the resources are available in digital
(machine-readable) format, as opposed to print
or microform.
• The process of digitization began with indexes
and abstracting services, then moved to
periodicals and reference books, and is now
entering the field of book publication.
• Compare with virtual library.
• http://www.wcsu.edu/library/odlis.html#D

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DL Services: Example
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign:
• Remote reference services.
• Video-based reference services with
e-mail based reference services.
“We play a cultural role in the sense that librarians
have traditionally applied a broader range of
knowledge to pieces of information. I think it’s high
tech and high touch. Bring in high tech, but give it a
human face. And that face is the face of a librarian.”

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Advantages of a Digital Library (1)
The concept "library" has been refined over several
centuries. It would be injudicious to depart from what
people expect merely because a digital service is
replacing a material one. Except where explicit reasons
suggest animprovement that is easily explained to
ordinary users (e.g., in query services), library services
should implement a familiar model.
Many potential advantages of a digital library over a
paper library are similar to those of any digital database
over its paper counterpart.

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• Faster addition to the collection
• Better quality control
• Improved search functionality
• Faster access to information found
• More freedom
• Reduced bureaucracy for individual users.
Achieving these advantages depends not only on
efforts traditionally undertaken by computer
scientists, but also on the highest quality
engineering for human usability.
Advantages of a Digital Library (2)

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Retry - What is a Digital Library?
• A managed collection of information, with
associated services, where the information is
stored in digital formats and accessible over a
network.
Arms, William, Y., Digital Libraries, MIT press, Cambridge,
2000.

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So the Digital Library is:
• The collection of services that supports
users in:
– creating, dealing and sharing information.
– organization and presentation of
information objects.
• The collection of information objects:
– Available directly or indirectly for access via
electronic/digital means.

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The Ten Dimensions
The Ten Dimensions for exploring the
potential differences between
Traditional libraries and Digital libraries.

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Differences between Traditional and Digital libraries
1. Evolution Dynamics - Traditional libraries
are stable and slowly evolving; digital
libraries are highly dynamic, ephemeral and
versioned.
2. Object Structure - Traditional libraries hold
atomic objects of mostly print in big crisp
chunks; digital libraries hold inter-linked,
multimedia objects which are multi-size,
fractal, and ill-defined.

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Differences between Traditional and Digital libraries
3. Structure - Traditional libraries hold
objects with largely flat structure and
minimal context and meta information;
digital libraries support documents with
significant internal scaffold structure and
significant context/meta information
which might be automatically extracted.

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4. Origin - Traditional (academic)
libraries hold objects which are scholar-
authored and pre-credentialled through
a ponderous publishing stream; digital
libraries allow anyone to publish in a
lightweight way, and can support pre-
credentialling or credentially through
use.
Differences between Traditional and Digital libraries

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5. Access Control - Traditional libraries are
based upon centralized control and relatively
few access locations; digital libraries can be
distributed and ubiquitous.
6. Object Structure - In traditional libraries the
objects are physically & logically co-controlled;
in digital libraries the physical and logical
organizations can be separated (allows virtual
collections).
Differences between Traditional and Digital libraries

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7. Free Access - The tradition of public libraries is
universal access and free; digital libraries could
be similar in this regard, or digital libraries
could support rich layers of access control and
management of terms and conditions.
8. Interaction - Traditional libraries support
one-way, loosely coupled (slow) interaction;
digital libraries support two-way
communication with tight, fast interaction.
Differences between Traditional and Digital libraries

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9. Simple Search - Traditional libraries are based
upon a model of one-way search (a consumer
looking for an object); digital libraries support
symmetric search (consumer looking for an object
an producer of the object looking for a consumer).
10. Interactive Complex Search - In traditional
libraries structured text queries (and some
browsing) are used to aid intellectual access; in
digital libraries complex interactions of query,
navigation/browsing, and social filtering can be
used.
Differences between Traditional and Digital libraries