Additionally, a library serves distinct sets of stakeholders communities of frequent, casual, and potential users. Unlike museums, it is seldom the materials in libraries that …show more content…
In either case, both physical and digital libraries occupy the physical conceptual continuum with respect to ideas, materials, and people. The distinction between physical and digital libraries is thus not always a clear one. For the sake of this discussion, physical libraries are considered to maintain a collection of exclusively physical materials, while digital libraries are considered to maintain a collection of exclusively electronic …show more content…
Ideally, users from anywhere in the world should be able to use a digital liabrary at any time and possibly in any language.
The digital library is an new addition to this list of categories. However, from the definition and characteristics of digital libraries have some different from the other categories. They may deal with any or all of the different type of materials, or they maybe designed to serve all or any specific group of users, or specific type of instruction. Another characteristics feature is that the are virual. Digital libraries do not need to have massive buildings, a large visible collection of materials or a group of people working in them.
Digital libraries overcome the barriers of geographical distance, language and culture. In a true global digital library environment, virtually anyone should be able to access and use a digital library from anywhere in the world. To make digital libraries this versatile is not easy. A number of issue are involved here, including architecture, interoperability and standards.
Benefits of Digital Libraries
Digital libraries bring significant benefits to the users through the following features:
Improved