Digital Libraries: Changing the Way We Access Knowledge

Digital libraries have drastically transformed how people attend to and learn about the science through access (among other things) to greater preservation and dissemination of knowledge. Christine Borgman (2003) discusses how traditional libraries have transformed into a global information infrastructure and states it is important to emphasize accessibility and the other side of the coin, which is the digital divides. Borgman is optimistic about what digital libraries can do for access democracy, but cautions that they can deepen existing inequities depending on how they are produced. Library student journal: William Y. Arms (2000) notes the technical difficulties of creating digital libraries, which presumably include: having standards for metadata, a consistency for the storage architectures of the information, and ease of use for the end-user. Arm defines digital libraries as organized collections of digital information emphasizing that bibliographic control and organization is essential when retrieving from the networks. Emerald: Clifford Lynch (2003) has written about institutional repositories as an essential component of scholarly communication infrastructure. Institutional repositories are a way to manage, preserve and provide access to the digital scholarly output of institutions and ultimately can increase the visibility and impact of their research. Wikipedi. Although they can have positive features, digital libraries still have many challenges including: preserving information long-term as well as interoperability between systems, metadata issues, and user education and training. The challenges mentioned above highlight the continuing need for investment in technology infrastructure as well as in people Taylor & Francis Online.