e-Library

GANGADHARPUR SIKSHAN MANDIR

NAME-ASHIMA MALLYO
M.Ed 3rd semester (2018-2020)
A)Concept and Definition of e- Library
The e- library is not merely equivalent to a digitized collection with information
management tools. The rapid development of the internet in the 1900s and its
embrace by the library and information community enabled the concept of the
e - libraries, as a branch of library. It offers much more than a traditional library
website in many ways.
An e- library is much more than just the collection of material in its
repositories. It provides a variety of services to all of its users (both human and
machines, producers, managers and consumers of information). In brief we can
say that,
e-Library is a digital library where the information is acquired, stored
and retrieved in digital form.
“e-Libraries are a set of electronic resources and associated technical
capabilities of creating searching and using information”—UCLA-NSF
‘‘The term e- libraries covers the creation and distribution of all types of
information over networks, ranging from converted historical materials to
kinds of information that ha e no analogues in the physical world”—Arms,
1999.

B)HISTORY:
The establishment of e- library was dependent on the progress in the age of
the internet. It not only provided the means to compile the e-library but the
access to the books by millions of individuals on the World Wide Web.

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 Vannevar Bush and J.C.R .Licklider are two contributors that advanced this
idea into the current technology. Bush had supported research that led to the
bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. After seeing the disaster, he wanted to
create a machine that would show how technology can lead to understanding
instead of destruction. This machine would include a desk with two screens,
switches and buttons, and a keyboard. He named this the “Memex” .this way
individuals would be able to access stred books and files at a rapid speed.
In 1956, Licklider wanted to create a system that would use computers and
networks so human knowledge would be accessible for human needs and
feedback would be automatic for machine purposes. This system contained
three components, the corpus of knowledge, the question, and the answer.
Licklider called it procognitive system.
An early example of an e- library is the Education Resources
Information Centre (ERIC), a database of education citations and abstracts,
which was created in1964 and made available online through DIALOG in 1969.
In 1994, e-libraries became visible due to a $24.4 million [NSF] managed
program supported jointly by [DARPA]’s intelligent integration of Information
(13) program,[NASA],and NSF itself Successful research proposals came from
six U.S universities . The universities included Carnegie Mellon University,
University of California-Berkeley, University of Michigan, University of
Illinois, University of California-Santa Barbara, and Stanford University.
Early attempts at creating a model for e-libraries included the DELOS
Digital Library Reference Model and the 5S Framework.

C) Types of e- libraries:
We classify e-libraries into three categories: Stand-alone e-Library,
Federated e-Library, Harvested e-Library.

 Stand-alone e-Library: This is the classical library implemented in a fully

computerized fashion. It is a library in which the holdings are digital (i.e.
electronic-scanned or digitized). This is self contained- the material is
localized and centralized. In fact, it is a computerized instance of the
classical library with the benefits computerization.

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 Example: library of congress, national digital library.

 Federated e-Library: This composes several autonomous Stand-alone e-

Libraries that form a networked library with transparent user interface.
The major challenge in the construction and maintenance of a Federated
e-Library is interoperability (since the different repositories use different
metadata formats and standards)
Example: The Networked Computer Science Technical
References Library, Networked Digital Library of Thesis and
Dissertations.

 Harvested e-Library: This is a virtual library providing summarized access

to related material scattered over the network. It holds only metadata
with pointers to the holdings that are “one click away” in Cyberspace.
The material held in the libraries is harvested (converted into
summarized. It has rich library services and high quantity control
preserved by the IS, who is also responsible for annotating the objects in
the library.
Example: Internet Public Library, WWW virtual Library

D) Features of e-library:
E –Library has some exclusive features. They are as follows:
 No physical boundary: The user of an e- library need not to go to library,
people over the world can gain access to the same information, as long
as an internet connection is available.

 Availability: People can gain access to the information at any time.

 Multiple accesses: The same resource can be used at the same time by
a number of users.

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  Structured approach: e-libraries provide access to much richer content
in a more structured manner, i.e. we can easily move from the catalog to
the particular book then to a particular chapter and so on.

 Space: Traditional libraries are limited by storage space but e- libraries

have the potential to store much more information, simply because
digital information requires very little physical space to contain them

 Networking: A particular e library can provide a link to any other

resources of other e-libraries very easily, thus a integrated resources
sharing can be achieved.

 Cost: e-libraries can and do incur large costs for the conversion of print
materials into digital format, for the technical skills of staff to maintain
them, and for the costs of maintaining online access. Also the
information in an e library must be migrated every few years to the
latest digital media. This process can incur very large costs in hardware
and skilled personnel.

E) Elements of e-Libraries:

 CONTENT: e-libraries must deal with content that they can’t touch,
move about. But the content can be easily copied and share.
e-libraries have two basic choices for content: use content
from other sources, or create their own.
Content from other sources can be obtained in one of three ways: buy it,
licence it, or get it for free. Since few content providers are willing to
directly sell digital content, e -libraries are left with either licensing or
using free material.
Most digital libraries associated with traditional libraries, such as those
found at academic or public libraries, are comfortable using licensed
content. This at least involves paying for information, which we have
long done.
Many libraries are hesitant to include free Internet resources as
part of what they consider to be their content. However, while it is true

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 that an extremely large majority of the information available for free via
the Internet is of little use for libraries, there is so much of it that even
the small percentage of good information is still a sizable amount.

 ORGANIZATION: e- libraries need to provide one or more organizational

schemes to provide access to their collections. A user-centred design
approach can be most rewarding when applied to the organization of
digital collections. Also, there is no reason why multiple organizational
schemes cannot be employed: a basic scheme for users and an advanced
scheme for librarians (and other hearty souls who wish to brave it!)

 SERVICES: People have different ways of using and accessing

information. A large part of the effort extended by libraries involves
helping patrons to navigate our large, often Byzantine organizational
structures. Even a 'simplified' organizational scheme will make sense to
some, but not to others. With the ability of users to access digital library
content remotely, it becomes important for the service aspect of being
offered in thousands of libraries.

 TECHNOLOGY: Technology is greatly important in e- libraries. The

purpose of technology in a digital environment should be used to
support the other elements, content, organization and service. In the
early days of digital reference, many libraries looked towards existing
call-centre and help-line solutions to fit their technological needs. But it
became rapidly apparent that a call centre, which receives many of the
same questions with a high degree of frequency, is very different from
library reference work, in which the majority of inquiries are unique and
may not be well-formed from the outset. Thus a technological solution
that works well for one does not work well for the other. We are now
seeing the emergence of solutions that are designed specifically for
digital reference, with a large degree of input from the librarians
themselves.

 PEOPLE: An Effective e-library will need more people behind it who

make decisions about content, design, and modify organizational

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 structures, provide service, and create and implement technology.
Otherwise, it is just a search engine sitting on top of a pile of data.

F) Principles of e-Library:
There are TEN principles which help to design and continued development of
any e- library. They are:
(1) Expect change
(2) Know your content
(3) Involve the right people
(4) Ensure open access
(5) Design usable systems
(6) Be aware data rights
(7)Automate whenever possible
(8) Adopt &adhere to standards
(9) Ensure quality
(10) Be concerned about persistence.

G) Major factors needed in implementing a e-library are as follows:

 Infrastructure
 Digital Collections
 Systems functions
 Telecommunication facility
 Human resource

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H)Advantages:
There are some major advantages of e-library. Those are as follows-
 Preserve the valuable documents, rare and special collections of
libraries, archives and museums.
 Protected information source.
 Facility for the downloading and printing.
 Help to locate both physical and digitized version of scholarly articles
and books through single interface.
 Digital technology affords multiple, simultaneous users from a single
original which are not possible for materials stored in any other forms.

I) Disadvantages:
Besides advantages there are some disadvantages. They are-
 Environment: e-libraries can’t reproduce the environment of a
traditional library. Many people like reading printed material to be
easier than reading material on a computer screen.

 Efficiency: With the much larger volume of digital information, finding

the right material for a specific task becomes increasingly difficult.

 Initial cost is high: The infrastructures cost of e-library i.e. the cost of
hardware; software etc is generally very high.

 Speed of access: As more and more computer are connected to internet

its speed of access reasonably decreasing.

 Copyright: Digitization violates the copy right law as the thought content
of one author can be freely transfer by other without his/her
acknowledgement

 Preservation: Due to technological developments, an e- library can

rapidly become out-of-date and its data may become inaccessible.
J) Comparative study of traditional library and e- library:
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 Character Traditional Libraries e-Libraries
1. Collection Print collection All resources in digital
form
2. Status Stable, with slow Dynamic and
evolution ephemeral
3. Object relations Individual objects not Multi –media and
directly linked with fractal objects
each other
4. Content Scholarly content with More than scholarly
validation process content with various
validation processes
5. Access points Limited access points Unlimited access
and centralized points, distributed
management collections and access
control
6. Organization The physical and logical The physical and logical
organization correlated organization may be
virtually
7. Access to document Free and universal Free as well as fee
access based
8. Size of library Limited by physical size Unlimited collection
collection of library
9. Interaction One-way ,loosely Two-way
coupled(slow) communication with
interaction tight, fast interaction

References
1. Digital library (1995). Communication of the ACM(April)
2. Gopal, k. (2000), Digital libraries in electronic information era. New
Delhi: Author Press
3. Arms William Y.(1999), Digital libraries, MIT Press,ISBN0-262-01180-8
4. Digital Libraries on the Internet [pdf].