Digital+Library

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=What is a Digital Library?=

The Internet has allowed many new digital technologies to appear in the past few decades. One of these new innovations is the introduction of the digital library, which is a library that can be accessed online twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Digital libraries act like the traditional library, providing online resources to any individual that enters the library's website. These online resources are provided in the form of e-Books, which are electronic books.

Access
Digital libraries not only allow individuals to access resources such as e-Books, it also enables individuals to contact librarians through chatlines and e-mail. This enables users to be able to access the resource of a librarian from any computer in the world without having to travel to the nearest public library.

A digital library can be accessed any time of day by any number of individuals. This is a major advantage of the digital library: all resources can be viewed at any one time by multiple users. Unlike the traditional library setting, an e-Book can be signed out simultaneously without the waiting time for books to be returned. There are no due dates in the digital library as resources are available upon demand. Also, there is no limit to the storage space that a digital library can hold (Wikipedia 2006). Unlike the traditional library, a digital library does not run out of shelves to store its book, as the e-Books do not take up any physical space.

=Disadvantages=

One of the few disadvantages of the digital library is the fact that a digital library cannot reproduce the same environment as a traditional library (Wikipedia 2006). A digital library takes away the personal contact between the user and the librarian, as well as the feel of being in a library setting. Another disadvantage of the digital library is the fact that individuals have a hard time navigating online resources and reading them. People like the feel of a book in their hands, and they find it easier on their eyes to read from a paper book rather than a computer screen.

=See Also=


 * eBooks
 * e-mail

=Works Cited=

Wikipedia (2006). //Digital Library//. Online at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_library, consulted on February 23, 2006.

Images
Digital Library - http://www.csinews.net/IntheNews/images/DL3.jpg