Issued by: Kathy Quirk
414-229-3144
kquirk@uwm.edu
Date: Feb. 12, 2002
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Issued by: Kathy Quirk Date: Feb. 12, 2002 |
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Iris
Xie
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What would a library be without books?
Well, a digital library.
On Wednesday, February 27, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will feature a virtual tour of Singapore's new library, the world's first library without any traditional books. The tour is part of a Digital Library Symposium from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Golda Meir Library, 4th Floor Conference Center, 2311 E. Hartford Ave.
In addition, representatives from American Geographical Society (AGS) Collection at the Golda Meir Library will present a web tour of digital images of Afghanistan at the symposium.
The presentation is one of a series of programs on Global Information Technology sponsored by the Center for International Education. The School of Information Studies is one of the co-sponsors of the series of programs, along with the Center for Instructional and Professional Development, the Learning Technology Center and Information and Media Technology (I&MT). Digital libraries store information in an electronic format for easy access, says Hong Iris Xie, assistant professor of Information Studies at UWM and an expert on digital libraries. She is one of the speakers at the symposium. Digital libraries are concerned with the body of knowledge relating to the collection, organization, storage, distribution, retrieval, and use of digital information. Digital libraries can link different resources and even collections from many libraries together in a virtual library.
The obvious advantage of a digital library over traditional libraries is that users can generally access it from their home, their business or anywhere else where the Web or other electronic access is available, says Xie. Digital libraries also offer a very cost-effective method for sharing information, she adds.
In addition, digital libraries can make a wide variety of non-text materials more easily available. Digital libraries can include photos, movie or video clips, sound recordings and many other artifacts that couldn't be represented or distributed in text formats, says Xie.
While very few libraries have gone totally digital, many libraries have "digitalized" some small segments of their collections. For example, UWM students worked with the Milwaukee Public Library to transfer a collection of German plays into digital format.
The American Memory of the Library of Congress (http://cweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html) is another example of a digitalized special collection. Users can browse through a wide selection of text files, listen to music and view videos.
The advantage a digital library has over the Web is that librarians are part of the development team to collect and organize information systematically and can help make it easier for users to locate reliable information, says Xie.
Digital libraries still face some formidable obstacles.
Cost is one obvious issue. It takes a considerable investment to transfer existing materials into electronic format that is of high quality, says Xie, although more digital libraries are collecting and receiving materials that are created in a digital format. "We have a long way to go" in digitalizing existing libraries, says Xie. "It takes a great deal of human and technology resources."
The technology needed to store and access materials is also expensive. And, as anyone who's ever used a computer knows, incompatible technologies can make information transfer between different libraries and individuals slow, difficult and frustrating. Development of standard formats will be critical to the future of digital libraries, says Xie.
And not all users are comfortable with digital formats. "Sometimes people prefer to work with what they can hold and handle," she adds.
Digital librarians, like regular librarians, also have to deal with the issues of copyright, licensing and censorship. Libraries already have to balance copyright protection with fair use of printed material. How many copies of articles can a person Xerox without infringing on the writer or publisher's rights, for example? With materials much more easily accessible electronically, the protection of intellectual property becomes even more of a concern. And librarians already face challenges from those who want to censor the materials that are available. With digital information sharing offering access to materials all over the world, censorship becomes even more of an issue, particularly in countries and cultures that don't want their people to have unlimited access to information, says Xie. Even in freer countries like the U.S., parents want to reserve the right to protect their children, for example.
Even with these challenges, digital libraries offer real opportunities to expand global information sharing, says Xie. "Digital libraries make it much easier for businesses, for example, to access university research. They can strengthen the communication and collaboration among the business, government, research and academic communities. Digtial libraries also can contribute to lifelong learning opportunities. "As information studies scholars, we can address the issues and do what we can to help." Other speakers at the Symposium include Deitmar Wolfram, associate professor of Information Studies; Steve Atkinson, senior special libarian at the UWM Graduate School; and Mohammed Aman, dean of the School of Information Studies. Wilfred Fong, assistant dean of the School of Information Studies, will lead the virtual tour of the Singapore Library. Patti Day, reference librarian, and Krystyna Matusiak, digitalization project manager for AGS, will present the Web tour of Afghanistan images.
Future programs in the Globalization and Technology series include:
CONTACT: Iris Xie, (414) 229-6835 or Anne Banda, (414) 229-6925.