Digital Libraries.

This article looks at the evolution of traditional libraries into digital libraries. Traditional libraries have been increasing their budget devoted to electronic services. This trend will continue because of humanity's hunger for learning and their desire to explore the expanding sea of information. Digital library has been the preferred term over electronic library may be because of the growing interest in digital networks, digital audio and digital video relative to electronic publishing. Discussions of digital libraries often begin by picking an extreme point on a spectrum scale. Yet digital libraries will simply shift the point of equilibrium in each of these scales. For example, some claim that the world is finally Beyond Paper. However, increased use of computers has contributed to the increased use of paper. The phrase digital library evokes a different impression in each reader. To some it simply suggests computerization of traditional libraries. To others, it calls for carrying out of the functions of libraries in a new way, encompassing new types of information resources. To many computer professionals, a digital library is simply a distributed text-based information system. The metaphor of the traditional library is both empowering and constraining. Much of the power of the digital library is the flexibility it permits in allowing processing of one's collections of tangible objects and their electronic representations.