The main reason for the evolution of digital libraries seems to be the technological advancements combined with the fast paced lifestyles of the users. In the information age, everything has an e-presence to it. It may be the e-mail which is fast replacing the traditional mail or be it the e-tickets and e-itineraries which are now being ubiquitously accepted against the paper-tickets and paper itineraries. Users need speed in all their task accomplishments. Something which can be done electronically implies something which will save time, usually save some form of material (like paper) and will require less storage space. Also, a digital library, like any other thing which is electronic, connects the users over space and time. A user may access an international library from his/her home and a user may access art images of few millenniums ago.
Another strong reason for the explosion of digital libraries is the social factor. Social information processing allows users to collaborate implicitly to solve problems by leveraging the opinions and expertise of others. “At a global level, we can see an information ecosystem arising through the interactions among users, as well as between users and information.”(Social information processing, 2008, para 6).Social informatics has allowed for the creation of user defined metadata such as tags and ratings. In a society which is evolving and giving away itself to technological changes, libraries were not to hold themselves back thus allowing for the creation and explosion of digital libraries.
A third reason for the emergence is the economic factor. All library materials print or digital require preservation which requires money. As technology improves, the cost of technical equipments and preservation items reduces drastically. This calls for an easier low cost, high quality preservation of digital items as opposed to those of print medium .The cost of renting and buying storage spaces and /or cabinets is drastically low for digital media compared to the similar costs of maintaining print mediums owing to their physical size.
A final reason for the digital library expansion is related to the journal and publishing issues. “Electronic journals are often treated as a value-added service, rather than a replacement technology. Thus the library budget appears to be shrinking for the same amount of information resource” (Tanner, 2003, para 7) Also, the pricing structures for digital articles is much balanced than those for print articles. This means even developing countries could easily afford digital libraries with quality content as compared to a physical library with quality print articles.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------References
Social Information Processing (2008).Available at
http://www.isi.edu/~lerman/sss07/
Tanner.S.(2003).Economic factors of managing digital content and establishing digital l
libraries.Journal of Digital information.4(2).Available at
http://jodi.tamu.edu/Articles/v04/i02/editorial/
December 22, 2008
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