Digital Library- Storehouse of Digitzed Content

Digital Library, the storehouse of books, manuals and manuscripts  has taken roots  when  written manuscripts have been made available for references. However, developments in science and technology brought  about a major shift from handwritten  manuscripts  to  print media on eco-friendly paper and further to digital format. Further, with technological advancement and  computers entering the manifold education system, the storage medium has changed from diaries  to  magnetic disks, compact discs, pen drives  etc.  As the world of paperback books changed to the digital format, the concept of libraries based on digital technologies also took shape.


Digital Library online is a subset of the large format library with  collections  stored in digital formats and accessible by computers. With an inbuilt information retrieval system, the  digital content  stored either can be accessed locally, or  remotely via computer networks. Further  the wide use of the Internet and the world wide web has expanded the power of networks making it feasible to access the digital library online. Coined and popularized in the year 1994 , this actually refers to a virtual organization which collects, manages and preserves rich digital content  targeted for user communities an specialized functionalities.


However, with demands from customers and  end-users for a more techno friendly access method to  the paperback edition of books, manuals and journals, enterprises are in the process of digitizing content Academic libraries are in the process of building institutional repositories of digitized content of the institutions books,  papers and thesis to make these accessible to end-users across the globe. However,  technological innovations such as  optical character  recognition and e-books facilitated large scale digitization projects leading to digital libraries with Internet archives of computer articles, technological  magazines, research papers  as well as presentations.


One of the major advantages of digital libraries is the ease with which the books, archives and images can be accessed. Moreover unlike the traditional libraries, where space is an issue, these have the potential to store volumes . Further, the cost of maintenance of the digital library is much less than that of the traditional. Today as digital world expands, enterprises and institutions adopt technological innovations to provide end-users with a digital library online.


Digital libraries without physical boundaries facilitates   easy information retrieval and preservation and conservation  of content. with added value.  The 24/7 availability and multiple access of these libraries helps  institutions, enterprises,corporate sector establishments and  business houses  make use of  electronically accessible computer magazines, articles, journals ,periodical etc from  technological societies and  conduct information technology training for their workforce on the latest technological developments.

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