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Digital Libraries The emergence of digital technology in the mid-20th century has affected humankind’s inventory of recorded information dramatically. In my extensive research of digital libraries, I will discuss what they are, what has been their impact and what does the future hold for them. The library system has been involved early on in exploiting information technologies. For many years libraries have participated in cooperative ventures with other libraries. Different institutions have shared cataloging and information about what each has in its collection. They use this information to facilitate the borrowing and lending of materials among libraries. However, as society begun to value information more highly, the information industry was developed. This industry consisted of on-line information services, software developers, and other businesses that sell information products for a profit. I believe that this poses a challenge to libraries because as more information becomes available in electronic form, libraries will no longer have to own an article or a certain piece of statistical information. For example, a student with his or her own computer can now go directly to an on-line service to locate, order, and receive a copy of an article without even stepping out of the home. Since this increased availability of electronic information this has led libraries, particularly in schools, colleges, and universities to develop vital relationships to their institutions computer centers. The explosive growth of communications networks after 1990 has accelerated the establishment of the digital library. What is a digital library? The term digital library has different meanings to several people. However, I was able to define a digital library as a managed collection of information, with associated services, where the information is stored in digital formats and is accessible over a network. These electronic resources tend to range widely in size, specificity, subject and some are available free of charges and others are not. Digital library resources of electronic information include selected library catalogs, collected works of literature, some abstracting journals, full-text electronic journals, encyclopedias, scientific data from numerous disciplines, software archives, demographic registers, daily news summaries, environmental reports, and prices in Commodity markets, as well as hundreds of thousands of electronic mail and bulletin-board messages.
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