What are the advantages of an online digital library?

Since the emergence of libraries, it has been the main place for human accumulation and dissemination of knowledge. Libraries enable mankind to realize the knowledge **** enjoyment, the popularity of libraries makes the pursuit of knowledge is no longer a minority of the privileged class patent, the community at large can also be borrowed through the library books and documents, to increase knowledge and broaden their horizons. It can be said that the development of the library business is an important symbol of the civilization of human society.

With the advent of the information age, the status of libraries has become increasingly important, but at the same time, in the new socio-economic and technological environment, in the knowledge-based economy, libraries are also facing new challenges.

In the traditional library, the dissemination of information recorded in the book depends entirely on its material carrier: a book, a book of knowledge can not be more than one reader at the same time **** to enjoy, the reader must be borrowed in person to the library, the need to queue up, etc., but also encountered "the book has been lent" trouble. Library search tools are not perfect, sometimes find a book is really like a needle in a haystack, time-consuming and laborious. If you can in their own computers, through the network transmission, direct reading and download the required books, articles or data, how pleasant it is! Today, all this is no longer a dream. Make full use of modern information technology, to solve the shortcomings of the existing library mechanism, the digital library came into being.

Digital libraries are libraries built on the Internet, also known as "virtual libraries".

Digital libraries are the inevitable product of the development of traditional libraries in the information age, which not only has the functions of traditional libraries, but also integrates some of the functions of other information resources (such as museums, archives, etc.). It breaks the limitations of national boundaries, time and space, and will become the public **** information center and hub of the future society.

There is no single, universally recognized definition of a digital library. A number of organizations and researchers have come up with their own views from their own perspectives. For example, the U.S. Working Group on Information Infrastructure Technologies and Applications proposed in 1993 that a digital library is a system that provides users with continuous access to a vast and varied storehouse of information and knowledge. The Electronic Library Project Group at the University of California, Berkeley, argued in 1994 that a digital library is a virtual library, i.e., thousands of electronic libraries connected through a network, and that this connection is opaque to the user, who sees only an all-encompassing library. The resource services provided by traditional libraries mainly include: books, journals and magazines, news papers, bibliographies, audio-visual data, and data retrieval. Online digital libraries provide the same information services and realize the functions of traditional libraries to a higher degree.

Online digital libraries provide the following services:

E-bookcase. The so-called "electronic bookcase", equivalent to the traditional library "books on the shelf", you can use the network browsing mode, according to your reading interests, choose any book you need.

Electronic journals and magazines and electronic publications. Its data is updated faster, you can use the network to access the latest relevant information at any time.

Electronic newspapers and breaking news. E-newspapers are very important source of news and you can find many e-newspapers and breaking news in online libraries.

Database search system. You can select a particular database and enter keywords or subject words to search for the specific information or data you need.

Digital libraries have more prominent advantages than traditional libraries.

Digital libraries can accomplish the task of searching for information resources. Materials in digital libraries are in various forms, such as text, images, sound, animation, etc., distributed throughout the country and even around the world. This is a distributed multimedia information resource base. Digital libraries are able to complete the work of organizing and collating materials. Through effective finishing and organization, it is better adapted to the rapid changes in today's information.

Digital libraries can provide users with more convenient, fast, accurate information search tools. Such tools can be used for full-text search, but also the use of a keyword (such as the title of the book, the author, the publisher, the time of publication) query, but also for the sound and image of the content-based search. The query results can be displayed in a form that uses multimedia, text, sound, and images.

The library realizes the true meaning of information **** enjoyment, greatly facilitating the users.

Since the 1990s, many developed countries and regional libraries, in the government's strong support and financial investment, to carry out research and construction of digital libraries, has achieved fruitful results.

In 1993, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration *** with an investment of more than 100 million U.S. dollars, the initiative to launch a digital library project. It covers a large-scale library of literature, image library, geographic images, sound and visual resources. The project took four years to complete. On this basis, the second phase of the project was started in 1998 with a huge investment.

Japan invested four hundred million U.S. dollars, led by the Library of the National Assembly of Japan, Japan Postal Service support for broadband ISDN Network Association, completed in 2002, the Library of the National Assembly of Japan Kansai Hall project, making it Japan's largest digital library and the Asian region's documentation center.

In recent years, China has also been actively preparing and launching digital libraries. 1995, the Ministry of Culture, "China's experimental digital libraries" as a national key scientific and technological projects by the National Library (formerly the Beijing Library), Shanghai Library, Nanjing Library, Shenzhen Library, Zhongshan Library and Liaoning Library joint research and development. The National Library (former Beijing Library), Shanghai Library, Nanjing Library, Shenzhen Library, Zhongshan Library and Liaoning Library jointly carried out research and development.

In May 1997, the Ministry of Education formally set up a leading group and a project management center for the construction of the CALIS project, a higher education documentation security system under the "211 Project". The overall goal of this system is: "During the 'Ninth Five-Year Plan' period, to build an online information resource **** enjoyment system based on the 'China Education and Research Computer Network', so that the information resource network -Communication network coordinated development, really for the university teaching, researchers to create an information network environment with international standards, for the '211 project' institutions and other institutions to provide a wealth of literature and information resources, advanced technical means and convenient service system ." CALIS plans to build a three-tier network environment of "national center - regional center - university libraries", i.e., a CALIS national management center, four national literature information centers, seven regional literature information centers, and seven regional literature information centers. CALIS plans to build a "national center - regional centers - university libraries" three-tier security network environment, that is, a CALIS national management center, four national literature information centers, seven regional literature information centers, as well as a number of modern university libraries, mainly in the "211 project" universities.

The preparatory group for the China Digital Library Project was established on August 25, 1998, led by the Ministry of Culture. The project will establish a super-large-scale Chinese massive database that can be searched across libraries and its information service system, creating a favorable environment for inheriting and promoting the excellent culture of the Chinese nation, and the development of the Chinese language network has strongly challenged the cultural hegemony of the West.

In May 1999, the Intelligent Computer Theme Group of the National 863 Program set up a research group on the development strategy of China's digital libraries, specializing in researching the technology, management, operation, and laws of digital libraries, so as to grasp the full picture and implement China's digital library project on this basis. On November 12 of that year, the 863 project team signed a contract with the Beijing Capital Library for a digital library demonstration project, indicating that the project has entered the implementation stage.

At present, digital libraries in the true sense have not yet appeared in China. However, many provincial, municipal and institutional libraries have embarked on the Internet, and have set up their own Web sites to provide readers with brand-new services. Among them, the National Library and the Shanghai Library have taken great strides in the direction of digital libraries.

The National Library of China is one of the world's top 10 libraries. Its predecessor was the Beijing Library, which was built in September 1909; in July 1928, it was renamed the National Beijing Library; in August 1929, it merged with the Beihai Library in Beijing, still known as the National Beijing Library; in March 1950, it was renamed the National Beiping Library; in June 1951, it was renamed the Beijing Library; in 1987, the new building of the Beijing Library was inaugurated; in December 1998, it was In December 1998, it was renamed the National Library. After 90 years of vicissitudes of the National Library, and we enter the information age.

The National Library is now fully computerized. The library has one of the largest electronic reading rooms in the country, with databases and electronic publications covering social sciences, natural sciences and other areas.

The National Library's domain network uses Gigabit Ethernet, the first of its kind in the country. As a result, the data transmission within the library is high in traffic and speed, and access to materials and multimedia information is convenient and fast.

The National Library established its own website www.nlc.gov.cn on the Internet very early, and has realized the connection of 100M-rate network with Zhongnanhai and the General Office of the State Council, and has realized the connection of 100M-rate private line with Peking University, Tsinghua University and Chinese Academy of Sciences through the Beijing Cable TV Network, and has also realized the connection of 100M-rate private line with the scientific research network, the Chinese Science and Technology Network and Beijing Cable TV Network, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television National Cable TV Network and other high-speed interconnection, through the General Administration of Radio, Film and Television of China Network Center to communicate with other provinces and cities with 1000M broadband network.

At present, the National Library has opened the Chinese book online reservation and lending service, readers do not need to go to the library in person, can use any computer around them that can connect to the Internet to inquire and borrow at will.

The National Library's online library has also been opened. As early as July 1998, the National Library began to provide online reading function, as long as you are connected to the Internet, you can download a software called "Super Star Book Browser", and then through it to read the online library collection. Nowadays, the books and materials on the Internet are rich in content and wide-ranging. There are 11 remote virtual libraries of literature, philosophy, computers, medicine, military, history and new books. The online library, by the end of 2000, offered 30 million pages*** 150,000 books for online reading.

At the same time, the National Library accelerated the process of digitization of documents, in March 1999 established the "National Library Literature Digitization Center", there are now three major categories of bibliographic databases, bibliographic databases and full-text databases, *** counting the 600G storage capacity of the information on the Internet for the service of readers. At the beginning of 1999 alone, the number of monthly visits exceeded 6 million. The National Library has initially become the central hub of China's online information resources.

Now, the National Library has established an experimental environment for digital libraries, and at the same time, it has gained first-hand practical experience in the standards, norms and technologies related to digital libraries, and various projects are in progress. Shanghai Library is also trying to provide library online services, in addition to information access, online reading and other traditional library service extension, but also for direct access to the original text, commissioned by the agent for consulting and research and other information services.

Shanghai Library digital library project is very large, plans to launch the "Shanghai Dictionary", "Shanghai Dictionary of Literature", "Good Ancient Books", "Republic of China books", "Chinese newspapers and periodicals" and other nine series.

It is especially worth mentioning that the Shanghai Library, half of the national collection of ancient books, has a collection of 170,941 volumes of ancient books, since November 1997, the official launch of the "China's ancient books and good access to the system", so that the long-term "bred in the boudoir! "The treasures of ancient books came to the people around. Shanghai Library has 20 kinds of 19,794 pages of rare domestic and foreign treasures on the Internet. Including 17 kinds of Song dynasty engraved, Yuan dynasty engraved and two kinds of manuscripts. The bibliographies include Zhou Thigh Calculating Scripture, Wen Xin Diao Long, Du Gong Bu Jie, Zi Zhi Tong Jian and so on. Readers can access the book through the Shanghai Library's website at www.libnet.sh.cn进入, click on "Shanghai Digital Library" or go directly to www.digilib.sh.cn网址就可以浏览.