The conventional pattern of a library is “to acquire, organize, and disseminate information” through physical, human and the material resources employed for providing various library services. The purpose of this entire activity was giving access to educational material to individuals, and the community as well. The user had to visit the library in person and find his/her required information himself/herself under the guidance of the librarian; secondly the role of librarian was to acquire collection or search for the required information. Thus various services like Current Aware Service (CAS), Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI), Indexing, and preparation of Bibliographies through available means become a specialized service in the mid of 20th century.
The invention of the computer in the early sixties and its development in the ensuring decades made the process of dissemination of information easier for the library professionals, owing to its powerful characteristics like accuracy, much less consumption of time, minimum need of human resource, abstract form of storage, simultaneous applications/usages at a time in many place, and easy replication. The explosion of information technology provided both librarian and users access to a wide ranges of knowledge, an easier way of acquiring information, as well as easier storage, dissemination and retrieval.
In the 1990s through the emerging internet facility the only requirement for accessing knowledge is the terminal connected to the internet and the Uniform Recourse Locater (URL). Because of the concepts of Knowledge Management and Information Management the traditional concept of librarianship, has changed completely.
In 21st century it is quite simple to get the required information if the user is information literate and has the ability to explore or browse the World Wide Web (www). The systems and procedures today are becoming more and more user friendly day by day.
The traditional libraries usually required sufficient space, physical, human, and material resources. This has now been transformed into a virtual format and cyber space storage and retrieval system no longer requiring the paraphernalia of a library. These are therefore called virtual libraries in the context of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
The discipline “Library and Information Science” has now transformed in “Library and Information Management” in learned societies. Thus, the library professional now must be more dynamic then ever because s/he must have to command over library and information science as well as sound ICT literacy. However, the traditional modes are still required in the Archival and Records Management or Documentation. The binary world restructured library materials into digital formats and renamed it as “digital library” where services and learning opportunities are being provided on a global rather than just local level.
Digital Library – digital library comprises of digital collections, services and infrastructure to support lifelong learning, research, scholarly communication and preservation. A digital library is, somewhat like a traditional library – a collection of books and reference materials. Unlike a traditional library, however, the collection of a digital library is, as you would expect, digital, and is usually served over the web. Some of the largest and most successful digital libraries are Project Gutenberg, ibiblio, Universal Digital Library and the Internet Public Library etc.
A digital library is a system that provides “a community of users with coherent access to a large, organized repository of information and knowledge’’. Digital Libraries are a set of electronic resources and associated technical capabilities for creating, searching and using information. In this sense they are an extension and enhancement of information storage and retrieval systems that manipulate digital data in any medium (text, images, sounds; static or dynamic images) and exist in distributed networks. The contents of digital libraries include data, metadata that describe various aspects of the data (e.g. representation, creator, owner, reproduction rights) and metadata that consist of links or relationships to other data or metadata, whether internal or external to the digital library.
The Digital Library is also supposed to provide many services, for users in the context of information objects. The organization and presentation of those objects is done directly or indirectly via electronic/digital means. The concept of Digital Library is based upon the following characteristics;
Universal access – people from all over the world should gain access to the same information, as long as an internet connection is available.
Capacity – Whereas traditional libraries are limited especially in storage, digital libraries have the potential to store much more information, simply because digital information requires very little physical space.
Cost – The cost of maintaining a digital library is much lower than that of a traditional library. A traditional library must spend large sums of money paying for staff, book maintenance, rent, and additional books. Digital Libraries do away with these fees.
Any time, any day- Digital Libraries can be accessed at any time of the day, where as traditional libraries have “operating hours”.
Despite the above advantages, some apprehensions still exist, which might be barriers in the development of the digital libraries;
Copyright – One difficulty to overcome with regard to digital libraries is the way information is distributed. How do digital libraries distribute information at will, while protecting the copyright of the author?
Efficiency – With the much larger volume of digital information, finding the appropriate material for a specific task has become increasingly difficult.
Environment – Digital Libraries cannot reproduce the environment of a traditional library. Many people also find reading printed material to be easier than reading material on a computer screen.
Preservation – Due to technological developments, a digital library can rapidly become out-of-date and its data may become inaccessible.
It has been pointed out that digital libraries are hampered by copyright law, because information cannot be shared over a period of time in the manner of a traditional library. The content is, in many cases, public domain or self-generated content only.
Digital libraries are constructed, collected and organized, by (and for) a community of users and their functional capabilities support the information needs and uses of that community. These are components of communities in which individuals and groups interact with each other, using data, information and knowledge resources and systems. In this sense they are an extension, enhancement and integration of a variety of information institutions as physical places where resources are selected, collected, organized, preserved and accessed in support of a user community. These information institutions include, among others, libraries, museums, archives and schools, but digital libraries also extend to and serve other community settings, including classrooms, laboratories, homes and public spaces. The scope of digital libraries reflects the contributions of scholars from several disciplines. It moves beyond information retrieval to include the full life cycle of creating, searching and using information rather than simply collecting content on behalf of user communities, it embeds digital libraries in the activities of those communities and it encompasses the information-related activities of multiple information institutions.
Significance of Digital Libraries – The digital library can be viewed into two parallel ways:
with reference to the librarian or service provider, the digital librarians are institutions or organizations that provide information services in the digital formats.
with reference to research and learning, digital libraries are content controlled and organized on behalf of user communities.
As discussed earlier, libraries have always played a vital role in the development of individuals, communities and nations. By providing an organized set of resources through various types of services, even before the invention of the computer and the exposure of ICT, libraries acted as a switching center for building the character of a nation.
In the present day global village, libraries and its custodians have more variety, command and competition in information acquiring, storage and dissemination processes through utilization of electronic means. It has now become easier for the service provider to fulfill the requirement of a user of any category, as maximum resources are available in the digitalized form on the desktop.
Printed information in the form of books has now been transformed into e-books, indexing, abstracting, bibliographies, Table of Contents (ToC), peer reviewed full text articles are also available on the web. These resources are available freely in general and on payment as an especial case, through the easier payment mode of the credit card and there is no need to wait for a long time to access material through normal surface mail system.
With the wide variety of information resources available on the web, the huge databases, individual publishers, consortia of publishers or databases, and intermediary commercial organizations have been established and are providing specialized services at one place. Subscriptions of resources are bound through the user IP verification and/or user name and password in the context of e-commerce. The International Property Rights (IPRs) alongwith copyright act prohibits the systematic downloading of the scholarly-based information resources. Graphic file formats like .PDF are used in this regard. These services also provide via the e-mail or fax. Information is also provided through international library loan where digital formats of books/articles are not available.
Beside, librarians are now organizing and developing databases through availing Classification, Cataloguing services following the MARC/Dublin Core Format accessing to the databases of the international institutions and organizations.
Digital Libraries possess material in the form of books, magazines, newspapers, records, videos that are images and stored in digitalized and electronic formats. Information acquisition and its management are also supposed to be organized in the same way and through the method of communication and rapid access. It is provided virtually in such a way where the reader/user has no need to go to the library and can get the related information directly from the link on the web where master version remain as it is.
Digital Libraries provide services such as cataloguing, editing, indexing and processing which enable revenue collection. Digital libraries also require many components namely physical components such as space, equipments, and storage media and intellectual components like how to access rapidly the broad range of information resources. The people who manage the physical components and interact with users to solve information problems also become the medium for learning opportunities on a global rather than just local scale. Thus digital libraries are bringing together people with formal, informal, and professional learning.
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan – On the recommendation of the working group on education for the Ninth Five Years Plan (1998-2003) the Government dissolved the University Grant Commission (UGC) and established the Higher Education Commission (HEC) under the Ordinance issued on 14th August 2002 to strengthen higher education with a focus on science and technology and research in Pakistan.
The HEC has been set up to facilitate the development of the universities of Pakistan as world-class centres of education, and research. This is in reorganization of the fact that higher education plays a crucial role in the development of both individuals and modern societies as it enhances social, cultural and economic development, active citizenship and ethical values.
The mandate of the HEC encompasses all degree granting universities and institutions, public and private, including degree granting colleges and supports the attainment of quality education in these institutions by facilitating and co-ordinating self-assessment of academic programmes and their external review by national and international experts. The HEC also supervises the planning, development and accreditation of public and private sector institutions of higher education and research.
The HEC’s Vision – Progressive and enlighted human resources are the fundamental building block of a knowledge-based economy. In this regard, the key issues are the quality of education imparted to the graduate, and its relevance to the economy. The HEC has endeavored to identify intervention strategies that will assist institutes of higher learning in providing an environment conducive to quality education. The faculty, the infrastructure and the support provided to the faculty and students for teaching and research, and the efficiency of operation of university programmes defines this environment. The issues of relevance are addressed by taking into consideration the direct or indirect links of different disciplines to the current and future focus areas for development. It is necessary here that these focus areas are in harmony with the local and national industrial and social development plans. Future intervention strategies of the HEC and the respective implementation plans will lead to improved quality of higher education as well as improved access to education while laying the foundations of a strong knowledge-based economy.
Pakistan Educational Research Network (PERN) – By launching the communication satellite, Paksat-I in January 2003 by the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) of Pakistan, the Pakistan Educational and Research Network (PERN) has been established providing a perfect platform to build an “internet2 compatible” truly high-speed network that allows real-time transfer of audio and video, multimedia-enabled lectures, remote research partnerships, and many other applications earlier unknown, under which all public and private sector universities have been linked together through fiber optics cable.
The project PERN was planned to provide a dedicated Educational Network to Public/Private Sector Chartered Universities/Degree Awarding Institutes registered with the HEC. The interconnectivity of all these universities /institutes will provide integration of data banks, collaboration for research and development activities and up-gradation of teaching and learning skills, internet facility to all public/private universities/degree awarding institutions and access platform for the interconnection of universities & educational institutions with the Virtual University.
The planned services of PERN include broadcast quality video lecturing and web steaming service, Virtual Rooms Videoconferencing Service (VRVS) multipoint video-conferencing with international researcher, centralized and distributed content servers for information sharing, computer and test equipment resource sharing across universities, link with research networks through Asia Pacific Advanced Networks (APAN) and access to online university libraries.
National Digital Library of Pakistan (NDLP) – Keeping in view the need for greater access to scientific literature for enhancing the research productivity of Pakistani institutions, the National Digital Library of Pakistan (NDLP) digitallibrary.edu.pk launched by the HEC in the year 2003. The objectives of the NLDP are:
to ensure users’ knowledge and awareness of the Digital Library’s resources
to ensure that users have the right training and skills to use the Digital Library
to ensure that users of the Digital Library use the resources to maximum effect
to build an institutional research community of Digital Library users and researchers
To achieve the objective, the HEC started a collaborative project and participated in the Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information (PERI) of the International Network for Scientific Publications (INASP), a UK based organization. All the charges for the purpose are met by the HEC.
The Digital Library Programme is the cornerstone of the ICT strategy of the HEC developed from the basic concept of providing access to international scientific publications for universities in Pakistan, the programme now provides information services unparalleled in the developing world.
Access to resources is online, and has predominantly been set up through IP verification, allowing users within institutions to be automatically authenticated for full-text access from any terminal on their local area network. For content that is not available through these resources, through PERI the HEC has established an agreement with the British Library, for document delivery of any article from any international journal concerned directly to faculties and researchers in universities who submit requests for access.
The HEC initiative of this digital library project is a unique activity that provides on line and full text access to over 20 thousand research journals and other high class data bases. It is a programme to provide researchers within public and private universities in Pakistan and non-profit research and development organizations with access to international scholarly literature based on electronic (online) delivery, providing access to high quality, peer-reviewed journals, databases and articles across a wide range of disciplines. The e-books support programme will allow researchers to access most of the important text and reference books electronically in a variety of subject areas. Around 75,000 number of electronic content has been made available through the Digital Library Programme. The highlights of the programme features are:
Availability of over 30 databases providing access to over 20,000 full text journals from the world’s leading publishers
DL accessible by approximately 250 institutions (Public Universities, Private Institutions, R&D Organizations)
1 million articles downloaded in 2005
Access to collection of over 150 million items available through British Library Document Delivery Service
Selection of over 10,000 e-books available open access for researchers
The library is headed by a Director supported by one professional staff member to help institutions to use the library and relevant digital resources. Besides, thesis in electronic format and link of online free resources is also available on the HEC website. Some of the university libraries are also adopting the Z39.50 Protocol for searching and retrieving information from the library databases of privileged universities.
Future Plans of HEC towards Digital Library – The HEC is continuously endeavoring to provide access to academic libraries in the major cities of Pakistan to ensure a geographically even distribution of nationwide access to international scientific publications for universities in Pakistan.
In order to maximize the use of this vast range of resources, and to ease cross-source searching, the HEC with support of INASP and Lund University Libraries (Sweden) has developed the Electronic Library Information Navigation (ELIN) system on the PERN Network. The ELIN system allows the high speed searching across the full range of resources available through the NLDP, through one unified user-friendly web interface. Recent initiative is Summon Discovery Service – a single search box to search all the HEC electronic resources to make them more discoverable.
The vast digital resources available to universities in Pakistan through the NDLP will only have value if faculty members, researchers and students utilize them effectively and efficiently, secondly Library & Information Science/Management Professionals always enhance their capacity building in order to meet user expectations.
By Syed Basit Ali