Chapter Five
Introduction to Digital Library
Are being created today for diverse communities
and in different fields e.g. education, science,
culture, development, health, governance and so
on.
With the availability of several free digital Library
software packages at the recent time, the creation
and sharing of information through the digital
library collections has become an attractive and
feasible proposition for library and information
professionals around the world.
Digital Libraries
a collection of digital documents or objects
Smith (2001) defined a digital library as an
organized and focused collection of digital
objects, including text, images, video and
audio, with the methods of access and
retrieval and for the selection, creation,
organization, maintenance and sharing of
collection.
Digital Libraries
Digital Libraries are organizations that provide the
resources, including the specialized staff to select,
structure, offer intellectual access to interpret,
distribute, preserve the integrity of and ensure the
persistence over time of collections of digital works
so that they are readily and economically available
for use by a defined community or set of
communities.” (DLF 2001)
Benefits of Digital
Libraries
Improved access
Wider access
Improved information sharing
Improved preservation
Functional Components of Digital
Library
Selection and acquisition
Organization
Indexing and storage
Search and retrieval
Digitization
Witten and David (2003) defined Digitization
as the process of taking traditional library
materials that are in form of books and papers
and converting them to the electronic form
where they can be stored and manipulated by
a computer
Why Digitization?
There are three main needs for digitization
To preserve the Documents
To make the documents more accessible
To reuse the documents.
Digital library software
DSpace is a digital library system to capture,
store, index, preserve and redistribute the
intellectual output of a university’s research
faculty in digital formats.
Dspace has been developed jointly by MIT
Libraries and Hewlett-Packard (HP).
It is now freely available to research
institutions world-wide as an open source
system.
Digital library software
Eprints is generic archive software under
development by the University of Southampton. It
is intended to create a highly configurable web-
based archive.
EPrints primary goal is to be set up as an open
archive for research papers, but it could be easily
used for other things such as images, research data,
audio archives - anything that can be stored
digitally by making changes in configuration.
Digital library software
Greenstone is a suite of software for building
and distributing digital library collections.
It provides a new way of organizing
information and publishing it on the Internet
or on CD-ROM.
It is available for both Windows and Linux
O/S.
It requires Perl software to build collections.
Database
Shared collection of logically related data (and
a description of this data), designed to meet
the information needs of an organization .
Database
Shared collection – can be used
simultaneously by many departments and
users.
Logically related - comprises the important
objects and the relationships between these
objects.
Description of the data – the system catalog
(meta-data) provides description of data to
enable data independence.
Application areas of Database
Systems
Banks
HRM
Stock Management
Supermarket
Library Systems
Universities
Tele Communication
DBMS
A software system that enables users to define,
create, and maintain the database and that
provides controlled access to this database .
Database application program:
A software program that interacts with the database
by issuing an appropriate request (typically an SQL
statement) to the DBMS.
DBMS
Components of DBMS Environment
Hardware
Can range from a PC to a network of
computers.
Software
DBMS, operating system, network software
(if necessary) and also the application
programs.
Data
Used by the organization and a description
of this data (meta data).
Components of DBMS Environment
Procedures
Instructions and rules that should be
applied to the design and use of the
database and DBMS.
People
Includes database designers, DBAs,
application programmers, and end-
users.
Functions of a DBMS
Data Storage, Retrieval, and Update.
A User-Accessible Catalogue.
Transaction Support.
Concurrency Control Services.
Recovery Services
Functions of a DBMS
Authorization Services.
Support for Data Communication.
Integrity Services.
Services to Promote Data Independence.
Utility Services.
Advantages of DBMSs
Control of data redundancy
Data consistency
Sharing of data
Improved data integrity
Improved maintenance through data
independence.
Disadvantages of DBMSs
Complexity
Cost of DBMS
Cost of conversion
Performance
Higher impact of a failure
Quiz(5%)
1. Defined digital libraries ?
2. List at least four benefits of digital
libraries?
3. Discuss DBMS components?
End
