Different Types of Digital Libraries Essay example -- Computer Technol

Digital libraries are libraries in which collections are stored in a digital format. A digital library has also been know as a virtual or electronic library. In this essay, different types of digital libraries lead be compared. This essay will provide an in sagacity look at the many different digital library programs that have had a profound impact on the field of digital libraries. Archival formats will be explored. Techniques for the conversion of textbased formats into digital formats will be analyzed and compared. This essay will also uncover the pros and cons of a digital library compared to a handed-down library. Suggestions for the future of digital libraries will also be considered. In 1945, Vannevar Bush had a vision. In his article, As We May Think, he describes a technical generate for the information explosion that begun after World War II. Vannevar named this technical fix the Memex. The Memex was descibed as a device in which an individual stores all his books, records and communications which is mechanise so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility (Bush, 1945). Vannevar was most certainly a visionary. His ideas were well before his time. His idea of the Memex can be considered the fanny for digital libraries and maybe even the world wide web. In the 1980s, libraries card catalogs were being replaced by Online Public Access Catalogs (OPACs). These were usually closed systems that could contain elflike more than bibliographic data. Most OPACs were are done in Machine Readable Cataloging (MARC) format. It generally represents an individually published item or information product, and describes the strong-arm characteristics of the item itself (Brenner et al, 20... ... Materials. A Case for Full Information Capture. Digital library Magazine.Digital Library Foundation (1995). Americas Heritage Mission and Goals for a Digital Library Federation. Retrieved April 25, 2007, from http//www.diglib.org/about/dlfcharter.htmAmerican Memory, The Library of Congress. Mission and History. Retrieved April 24, 2007, from http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/about/index.htmlMorgan, E (2007). Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts. Retrieved April 26, 2007, from http//www.infomotions.com/alex/Alexandria Digital Library Project (2007). About ADL. Retrieved April 26, 2007, from http//www.alexandria.ucsb.edu/research/about/history.htm CSDL (2007). The focus for the Study of Digital Libraries. Texas A&M. Retrieved April 25, 2007, from http//www.csdl.tamu.edu/csdl/center/center.html