Talk:Digital library

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I'm not really happy with this page. The first definition is, to me, too centered on ebooks. There are lots of Digital Library projects which are MUCH broader in scope than that -- as a quick Google will demonstrate.

I've added a second definition which is broader, but I'm inclined to think the first needs moving to a new "ebook archives" page. Ditto the 'List of' -- Pamplemousse 04:56, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

This article is quite poor; however, I don't agree about moving it to "ebook archives" since digitizing books falls within the scope of digital library projects. I do agree that the focus on ebooks is too narrow.

Some of the examples given, such as ibiblio, are actually closer to your second definition rather than the "ebooks, etc" one. ibiblio archives, classifies and organizes text, images, sound, software, and other "information objects", only some of which are ebooks. -- Stephen Gilbert 06:32, 10 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I would suggest also that the focus on technology for digitalization of content (of any sort) as the defining characteristic of digital libraries , is missing the point. Though work on digital libraries is multi-disciplinary (librarians, information science scientists, computer science ) and various definitions are more biased toward one area (say deployment of technical infrastructure) , but almost every major researcher on digital library, defines digital libraries not just in terms of digitalization of content, but also including at the very least provision of services and some go further to discuss the context. A digital library is not just a storehouse of digitalized material! Aarontay 13:53, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

certainly it can use expansion in various directionsDGG 19:22, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

1 Formatting Problem
2 Digital libraries publishing copyrighted material
3 suggestions
4 Defintion and scope
5 External Links Pruning & Structuring

[edit] Formatting Problem

There's a serious formatting problem part of the way down this page, causing the page width to expand about five times as wide as the screen. Creationlaw 20:54, 9 February 2007 (UTC) There, fixed it. Creationlaw 20:55, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Digital libraries publishing copyrighted material

There are many Russian websites out there that provide recent copyrighted books for free downloading. I was just wondering if those were omitted because not notable at the time of writing, or if they were left off the article on purpose for some legal reason? --Valmi ✒ 22:56, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia's purpose is to explain what digital libraries are, not to be a collection of links to digital libraries; you'll notice there are few external links in the document. It's certainly not intended to be a resource collecting links to illegal repositories, though it can link to any that are of encyclopedic importance if they illustate a point being made. That being said, if you think a link should be added, add. Just be prepared to defend the choice if others disagree. Deborah-jl 14:46, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] suggestions

1. structurally something significant is missing here and i dont really know what it is yet. theres a definite describable diffrence between the culture of digital libraries associated with institional learning organizations and say google books or the internet archive. Catfoo 08:15, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

The piece seems to be highly commercial centric (google library seems to be touted a lot)and misses out the fact that historically (and currently too) the push for digital libraries (the first use of the term can be traced back to Al Gore) was from an alliance of various government bodies (NASA, DARPRA, National Science Foundation, for starters) and libraries (academic) in the 90s before google was even founded. The fact that the US digital libraries initiative (in the US), elib (UK) is not mentioned at all, makes this piece totally incomplete. There is also quite a bit of history of digital libraries (they were called electronic libraries, paperless libraries ,libraries without walls, etc before that) and traditionally most works on the history of digital libraries will throw out a mention to Bush's 1945, The Memex and HG Wells "World brain". Some definitions of digital libraries (like the one adopted by DLI) should be mentioned, as well as difference if any between the terms "virtual libraries" and "digital libraries". Hybrid libraries should be mentioned as well.Aarontay 13:46, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

2. that proposed section on "Framework" sounds like an impossible task if your having to compare google books to the library of congress DL functions.

3. in the section "Digital Archives" the statement..Cornell University and the Wisconsin Historical Society are...seems unsubstatiated, hanging out there, and just someoens point of view. but im new here so what do i know.Catfoo 08:15, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Defintion and scope

The definition is out of line with current usage, at least in the USA. I propose:

1. Change the definition to: A digital library is a library in which the collections are stored in digital formats and accessible over a network. The term digital libraries is also used for the academic sub-discipline that studies digital libraries.WYA 19:45, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

You proposing a difference in definition between "digital libraries" and "digital library" ??? I would think simply taking one of the definitions (there are dozens take your pick) from this academic subdiscipline would be good enough.Aarontay 12:09, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

2. Replace the section, Types of digital libraries with: The term digital libraries (plural) was first made popular by the NSF/DARPA/NASA Digital Libraries Initiative in 1994. To be considered a digital library, an online collection of information must be managed and made accessible to a community of users. Project Gutenberg, ibiblio, and the Internet Archive are examples. Many libraries have both physical collections and digital collections. For example, American Memory is a digital library managed by the Library of Congress. WYA 19:45, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Libraries with both physical and digital collections are called "hybrid libraries". Aarontay 12:09, 9 March 2007 (UTC)