1.
The Internet is the digital library
The word “library” has been appropriated
by many different groups to signify simply a
collection of digital objects that people can
access from their desktops digital objects like
electronic documents, and digitized pictures,
sound, and video. A global information network,
of which the Internet is the seed, has the illusion
of promising fingertip access to the world’s
information. A fairly spectacular example of
what many people consider to be a digital library
today is the World Wide Web. The Web is a gathering
of thousands and thousands of documents. Many
would call this huge collection of documents
a “digital library” because they
can read and use whatever they wish by accessing
the Web, just as one can use technology to do
banking in a “digital bank” or buy
compact discs in a “digital record store”.
But is this a "digital library"? In
reality, the Internet and the World Wide Web
are to libraries what a fleamarket is to the
Library of Congress. For many common library
requests, locating information on the Internet
remains highly inefficient compared to traditional
library sources, especially for unfamiliar users.
Finding information is difficult, the quality
of the information is quite variable, and reliable,
professional assistance for the confused and
lost is lacking. What challenges emerge? The
development of an infrastructure for the networked
resource discovery and retrieval of highly distributed,
autonomously created, and diverse electronic
information is required. Above all, this infrastructure
will need to be managed by professionals who
understand information needs and uses. An often
repeated quote among library lists is that the
Internet is the place to find an answer in 3
days for a query that would take 3 hours in
a library. Evaluation and authority are required
in order to ensure the "slow horse of meaning"
is not overtaken by the "fast horse of
mere information." [Klapp] There remains
much work to be done before the Internet will
have the coherence and user-friendliness of
a library.
2. The myth of a single
digital library or one-window view of digital
library collections.
Nicholas Negroponte, a guru of the digital cognoscenti,
has called for the U.S. Congress to pass a "digital
deposit" act to change the Library of Congress
from a "depository" to a "retrievatory".
His vision of the library is one where a "Library
of Progress could be in the pockets of tomorrow’s
kids" and where citizens can get electronic
access to a librarywithout- walls where information
is accessible anywhere and anytime. [Negro 95]
The challenges to this vision? Despite the utopianism
of Negroponte’s view, even modest moves
towards increasing digital collections and services
will be strongly affected by future copyright
and licensing regimes, as well as prohibitive
costs for digitization and support of technical
infrastructure. But more importantly, the digital
future will be an unruly one composed of multiplicity
of competing information providers. Libraries
will be only one source of information. "Prime"
information resources will probably be locked
into proprietary collections essentially "private
digital libraries" which are accessible
on a subscription or pay-per use basis. Developing
interoperability standards for locating and
retrieving information in this highly distributed
and heterogeneous environment will be a considerable
challenge in their own right.
3. Digital libraries
will provide more equitable access, anywhere,
any time.
A great deal of work must be done to turn this
myth into reality. We can assume that a global
computer network¾the Internet or some
descendant¾will be the primary delivery
mechanism for digital information. Equitable
access is currently compromised by the fact
that the Internet is not as ubiquitous as the
computing press would have us believe. There
are relatively few connections outside the more
populated centers, the costs of access can remain
high, and for the vast majority of the world’s
population in developing countries, having widespread
Internet access may be the equivalent of walking
on the moon. Furthermore, the connections that
do exist for most people are slow. For a digital
library to provide equitable access to information,
it is imperative that the same universal availability
that is a characteristic of the telephone system
is also a characteristic of the network. In
the future, complex multimedia resources and
services may have specialized hardware and software
requirements such that only a limited number
of workstations can actually access the information.
Limits of network bandwidth and slow transmission
speeds may make the effective access to information
problematic for many users. Given the immense
technical and legal hurdles involved, the prospects
for equitable access to digital collections
and services seems increasingly problematic.
Copyright reform will be a slow process and
has the potential to derail the very idea of
"digital libraries". The technologies
on the desktop, between computers, and for storing
and processing information are dynamic variables.
What is certain is that the management of technology
for digital libraries are becoming more complex
as is the administration of licenses and user
access. The impact upon equitable access could
be considerable.
4. Digital libraries
will be cheaper than print libraries.
A common assumption among technology reporters
about the costs of "digital libraries"
is that digital is cheaper than paper. This
contention is far from established in fact or
in practice. Although many libraries project
savings, especially when substitution strategies
are used which replace selected serials titles
with document delivery services, the cost/benefit
analysis of making this switch remains unclear.
In some cases, the switch to electronic serials
may save the library money by offsetting the
cost to users who must pick up the charge for
document delivery. Furthermore, the costs of
"being digital" are substantive ones.
Many libraries now devote significant resources
for hardware and software infrastructure. These
expenses will increase new hardware will be
required, more licenses to software, increased
infrastructure administration and training.
And these costs are borne by libraries who only
be acquiring digital materials and have limited
electronic services. Those institutions that
aspire to the development of digital collections
and services can expect all of the above plus
extensive design, digitization, and implementation
costs. Are digital library budgets evolving
at the expense of decreasing acquisitions budgets?
At the end of the day, how many libraries can
afford the effort? And at what cost to the valuable
existing services they perform?
