According to Wikipedia, a Digital Librarie is alibrary in which collections are stored in digital formats (as opposed to print,microform, or other media) and accessible by computers.The digital content may be stored locally, or accessed remotely via computer networks. A digital library is a type of information retrieval system.
Most digital libraries provide a search interface which allows resources to be found. These resources are typically deep web (or invisible web) resources since they frequently cannot be located by search engine crawlers. Some digital libraries create special pages or sitemaps to allow search engines to find all their resources. Digital libraries frequently use the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) to expose their metadata to other digital libraries, and search engines like Google Scholar, Yahoo! and Scirus can also use OAI-PMH to find these deep web resources.
ADVANTAGES:
- No physical boundary.The user of a digital library need not to go to the library physically; people from all over the world can gain access to the same information, as long as an Internet connection is available.
- Round the clock availability. A major advantage of digital libraries is that people can gain access to the information at any time, night or day.
- Multiple access. The same resources can be used simultaneously by a number of institutions and patrons
- Information retrieval. The user is able to use any search term (word, phrase, title, name, subject) to search the entire collection
- Preservation and conservation. Digitization is not a long-term preservation solution for physical collections, but does succeed in providing access copies for materials that would otherwise fall to degradation from repeated use.
Categories: Edit0910 · Littera
Tagged: XML/0910
As we all know nowadays readership is declining. So is not common to see people reading paper books or e-books. Altough in some years it will be very common that the little group of people that like reading will do it in an e-book because of the advantaged that this suposses: more confortable, cheaper…
Altough there´s a group of people that don’t agree with this kind of literature because they want to preserve the traditional book due to different reasons.
According to Wikipedia an e-book is known as a digital book, is an e-text that forms the digital media equivalent of a conventional printed book, sometimes protected with a digital rights management system. E-books are usually read on personal computers or smart phones, or on dedicated hardware devices known as e-Readers or e-book devices. Many mobile phones can also be used to read e-books.
Early e-books were generally written for specialty areas and a limited audience, meant to be read only by small and devoted interest groups. The scope of the subject matter of these e-books included technical manuals for hardware, manufacturing techniques, and other subjects.
FORMATS:
There are a variety of e-book formats used to create and publish e-books. A writer or publisher has many options when it comes to choosing a format for production. While the average end-user might arguably simply want to read books, every format has its proponents and champions, and debates over “which format is best” can become intense. The myriad of e-book formats is sometimes referred to as the “Tower of eBabel”. For the average end user to read a book, every format has its advantages and disadvantages.
ADVANTAGES:
- An e-book can be purchased, downloaded and used immediately, whereas when one buys a book one has to go to a bookshop, or wait for a delivery.
- There are over 2 million free books available for download as of August 2009.
- Educational text books (e-textbooks) can be distributed at a lower cost than print versions per student.
- Second generation e-books (and colour e-readers) have motion capability.
- e-Books can be printed for less than the price of traditional new books using new on demand book printers.
- Text can be searched automatically and cross-referenced using hyperlinks.
- A single e-reader containing several books is easier to carry around (less weight and volume) than the same books (or sometimes even a single book) in printed form. Even hundreds or thousands of books may be stored on the same device. Using removable media even more can be carried around easily.
- Also at a fixed place such as at home it can be an advantage that an e-book collection requires very little space.
- Mobile availability of e-books may be provided for users with a mobile data connection, so that these e-books need not be carried around.
- E-books can allow non-permanent highlighting and annotation.
- Font size and font face can be adjusted.
DISADVANTAGES:
- Reading e-books requires an electronic device and software. Even in the case of reading it on a personal computer one already has, it may require additional software.
- A small book is easier to carry around than a typical e-book reader.
- E-book readers require electrical power; in the case of mobile use, the battery can get exhausted.
- E-book readers are more fragile than paper books and more susceptible to physical damage.
- E-book readers can malfunction and e-books can be damaged due to faults in hardware or software.
- E-book readers are more likely to be stolen than paper books.
- Depending on the device an e-book may be difficult to read in bright sunlight.
- Most publishers don’t produce the e-book equivalent of their printed books. In other cases the product quality is lower or it is released later.
- E-books can be easily hacked through the use of hardware or software modifications and widely disseminated on the Internet and/or other e-book readers, without approval from the author or publisher. This ease of piracy is a significant drawback for publishers.
REFERENCES:
Categories: Edit0910 · Littera
Tagged: XML/0910
