 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2010) |
Hybrid library is a term used by librarians to describe libraries containing a mix of traditional print library resources and the growing number of electronic resources. [1] [2]
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2010) |
Hybrid library is a term used by librarians to describe libraries containing a mix of traditional print library resources and the growing number of electronic resources. [1] [2]
Hybrid libraries are mixes of traditional print material such as books and magazines, as well as electronic based material such as downloadable audiobooks, electronic journals, e-books, etc. Hybrid libraries are the new norm in most public and academic libraries.[ citation needed ]
It seems that the term "hybrid library" was first coined in 1998 by Chris Rusbridge in an article for D-Lib Magazine . [3]
Hybrid libraries evolved in the 1990s when electronic resources became more easily available for libraries to acquire for public use.[ citation needed ] Initially these electronic resources were typically access to material distributed on media such as CD-ROM or searches of specialised databases. OCLC helped push libraries towards acquiring digital resources by providing a centralized technology resource for participating libraries. [4] Now, with the widespread availability of digital content, it includes Internet resources and documents which are online, such as eprints.
The libraries own and subscribe to different resources in different formats. Some of the common formats are ejournals, serials, print monographs, CD and DVD. The main components of digital library framework are user interfaces, repository, handle system, and search system. [5] The handle system and search system are the major components that should be designed with interoperability features to search across different repositories owned by different vendors. The user interface should be designed in a generic way that it helps library patrons develop a common knowledge to do advanced searches across all repositories.
Hybrid libraries are the new norm for many archivists as well.[ citation needed ] Digitization has changed the way archivists have gone about preserving historical items. Archivists are now using digital technology to preserve items that were once only preserved by things like microfiche. Archivists now use things like digital imaging which make it possible for researchers to see historical items online. [6]
The emergence of the hybrid library has put a new emphasis on copyright issues for many libraries. The complicated and changing copyright laws in both the United States and the European Union have made it a challenge for many libraries to make sure their patrons are using the digital items lawfully. [7]
Hybrid libraries need staff that are trained in helping patrons navigate the vast amount of information available in the digital age. Librarians working in hybrid libraries have training in electronic media as well as the traditional print forms.
Some of the issues facing the hybrid libraries are the digital divide, interoperability, collection development, ownership of electronic resources and preservation of digital media.
Any advancement in information technology will be useful only when you know how to use it. The term digital divide is used to describe the gap between those with information technology knowledge and those who do not. [8]
Collection development is another challenge facing the hybrid libraries. The process of collection management in a hybrid library is similar to that of a traditional library. Hybrid libraries follow the same policies and procedures followed in traditional library collection development. [9]
Ownership of electronic resources is another issue facing the hybrid libraries. Ownership of electronic materials is virtual and not physical. There are no clear policies about the ownership of electronic materials once the subscription is cancelled or expired. Libraries have to pay attention to the legal contracts from the database vendors. If the libraries plan on archiving the electronic resources, then there are legal issues related to it. The most prominent legal issues are intellectual property and authenticity of digital information.[ citation needed ]
With any new advanced technology related to digital information storage, the main question to be answered is its durability. Digital storage media like disc or tapes deteriorate over time. The main question related to digital preservation is what and how much should be preserved. To make the preservation of digital media cost effective, standardization of different media format is required. Following are the three possible approaches. [9]
In technology preservation, both hardware and software related to digital information are preserved.[ citation needed ] This may not be cost effective because changes to hardware and different versions of software need to be either maintained or constantly upgraded.
In emulation, some emulator software programs will mimic the hardware and software of the original data and display in the original format.[ citation needed ]
In migration, digital information is converted to a standard media with standard format.[ citation needed ]
Digitization is the process of converting information into a digital format. The result is the representation of an object, image, sound, document, or signal obtained by generating a series of numbers that describe a discrete set of points or samples. The result is called digital representation or, more specifically, a digital image, for the object, and digital form, for the signal. In modern practice, the digitized data is in the form of binary numbers, which facilitates processing by digital computers and other operations, but digitizing simply means "the conversion of analog source material into a numerical format"; the decimal or any other number system can be used instead.
UVC-based preservation is an archival strategy for handling the preservation of digital objects. It employs the use of a Universal Virtual Computer (UVC)—a virtual machine (VM) specifically designed for archival purposes, that allows both emulation and migration to a language-neutral format like XML.
In library and archival science, digital preservation is a formal endeavor to ensure that digital information of continuing value remains accessible and usable. It involves planning, resource allocation, and application of preservation methods and technologies, and it combines policies, strategies and actions to ensure access to reformatted and "born-digital" content, regardless of the challenges of media failure and technological change. The goal of digital preservation is the accurate rendering of authenticated content over time. The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services Preservation and Reformatting Section of the American Library Association, defined digital preservation as combination of "policies, strategies and actions that ensure access to digital content over time." According to the Harrod's Librarian Glossary, digital preservation is the method of keeping digital material alive so that they remain usable as technological advances render original hardware and software specification obsolete.
Digital permanence addresses the history and development of digital storage techniques, specifically quantifying the expected lifetime of data stored on various digital media and the factors which influence the permanence of digital data. It is often a mix of ensuring the data itself can be retained on a particular form of media and that the technology remains viable. Where possible, as well as describing expected lifetimes, factors affecting data retention will be detailed, including potential technology issues.
Enterprise content management (ECM) extends the concept of content management by adding a timeline for each content item and, possibly, enforcing processes for its creation, approval, and distribution. Systems using ECM generally provide a secure repository for managed items, analog or digital. They also include one methods for importing content to bring manage new items, and several presentation methods to make items available for use. Although ECM content may be protected by digital rights management (DRM), it is not required. ECM is distinguished from general content management by its cognizance of the processes and procedures of the enterprise for which it is created.
Archival science, or archival studies, is the study and theory of building and curating archives, which are collections of documents, recordings and data storage devices.
A finding aid, in the context of archival science, is an organization tool, a document containing detailed, indexed, and processed metadata and other information about a specific collection of records within an archive. Finding aids often consist of a documentary inventory and description of the materials, their source, and their structure. The finding aid for a fonds is usually compiled by the collection's entity of origin, provenance, or by an archivist during archival processing, and may be considered the archival science equivalent of a library catalog or a museum collection catalog. The finding aid serves the purpose of locating specific information within the collection. The finding aid can also help the archival repository manage their materials and resources. The history of finding aids mirrors the history of information. Ancient Sumerians had their own systems of indexes to locate bureaucratic and administrative records. Finding aids in the 19th and 20th centuries were paper documents, such as lists or index cards. In the 21st century, they can be created in electronic formats like spreadsheets or databases. The standard machine-readable format for manuscript collection finding aids, widely used in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Australia and elsewhere, is Encoded Archival Description.
The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) was established to help solve the extensive challenges of digital preservation and digital curation and to lead research, development, advice, and support services for higher education institutions in the United Kingdom.
Library technical services are the ongoing maintenance activities of a library's collection, including the three broad areas of collection development, cataloging, and processing. Technical services are the infrastructure that enable the user's experience of many library services and are typically performed "behind the scenes."
In conservation, library and archival science, preservation is a set of preventive conservation activities aimed at prolonging the life of a record, book, or object while making as few changes as possible. Preservation activities vary widely and may include monitoring the condition of items, maintaining the temperature and humidity in collection storage areas, writing a plan in case of emergencies, digitizing items, writing relevant metadata, and increasing accessibility. Preservation, in this definition, is practiced in a library or an archive by a conservator, librarian, archivist, or other professional when they perceive a collection or record is in need of maintenance.
The conservation and restoration of new media art is the study and practice of techniques for sustaining new media art created using from materials such as digital, biological, performative, and other variable media.
Scholarly communication involves the creation, publication, dissemination and discovery of academic research, primarily in peer-reviewed journals and books. It is “the system through which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for quality, disseminated to the scholarly community, and preserved for future use." This primarily involves the publication of peer-reviewed academic journals, books and conference papers.
Oral history preservation is the field that deals with the care and upkeep of oral history materials, whatever format they may be in. Oral history is a method of historical documentation, using interviews with living survivors of the time being investigated. Oral history often touches on topics scarcely touched on by written documents, and by doing so, fills in the gaps of records that make up early historical documents.
The term born-digital refers to materials that originate in a digital form. This is in contrast to digital reformatting, through which analog materials become digital, as in the case of files created by scanning physical paper records. It is most often used in relation to digital libraries and the issues that go along with said organizations, such as digital preservation and intellectual property. However, as technologies have advanced and spread, the concept of being born-digital has also been discussed in relation to personal consumer-based sectors, with the rise of e-books and evolving digital music. Other terms that might be encountered as synonymous include "natively digital", "digital-first", and "digital-exclusive".
Digital artifactual value, a preservation term, is the intrinsic value of a digital object, rather than the informational content of the object. Though standards are lacking, born-digital objects and digital representations of physical objects may have a value attributed to them as artifacts.
Digital curation is the selection, preservation, maintenance, collection, and archiving of digital assets. Digital curation establishes, maintains, and adds value to repositories of digital data for present and future use. This is often accomplished by archivists, librarians, scientists, historians, and scholars. Enterprises are starting to use digital curation to improve the quality of information and data within their operational and strategic processes. Successful digital curation will mitigate digital obsolescence, keeping the information accessible to users indefinitely. Digital curation includes digital asset management, data curation, digital preservation, and electronic records management.
Music librarianship is the area of librarianship that pertains to music collections and their development, cataloging, preservation and maintenance, as well as reference issues connected with musical works and music literature. Music librarians often have degrees in both music and librarianship. Music librarians deal with standard librarianship duties such as cataloging and reference, which become more complicated when music scores and recordings are involved. Therefore, music librarians generally read music and have at least a basic understanding of both music theory and music history to aid in their duties.
A digital library, also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, a library without walls, or a digital collection, is an online database of digital objects that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital documents, or other digital media formats or a library accessible through the internet.
A memory institution is an organization maintaining a repository of public knowledge, a generic term used about institutions such as libraries, archives, heritage institutions, aquaria and arboreta, and zoological and botanical gardens, as well as providers of digital libraries and data aggregation services which serve as memories for given societies or mankind. Memory institutions serve the purpose of documenting, contextualizing, preserving and indexing elements of human culture and collective memory. These institutions allow and enable society to better understand themselves, their past, and how the past impacts their future. These repositories are ultimately preservers of communities, languages, cultures, customs, tribes, and individuality. Memory institutions are repositories of knowledge, while also being actors of the transitions of knowledge and memory to the community. These institutions ultimately remain some form of collective memory. Increasingly such institutions are considered as a part of a unified documentation and information science perspective.
DuraSpace was a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization founded in 2009 when the Fedora Commons organization and the DSpace Foundation, two of the largest providers of open source repository software for managing and providing access to digital content, joined their organizations. In July 2019 DuraSpace merged with LYRASIS, becoming a division of that organization.
