Access and Retrieval of Information
Searching and Retrieval
Digital libraries allow for increased access points beyond the traditional author, title, and subject access points that remain from the days of printed and card catalogues. Not only can users now search through many electronic catalogues by keyword, digital libraries also allow for the facility to search through the entirety of the digital text, through use of technologies such as optical character recognition. These improvements mean that ‘digital content can be browsed easily, and can be searched, indexed or collated instantly’ (Hughes, 2004, p.4). There are also further opportunities available through high-resolution digital imaging such as the application of x-ray and ultraviolet imaging to gain increased scholarly understanding of the history of the original, such as that carried out at the British Library through its Beowulf Manuscript project (Hughes, 2004).
Improving Access
The access of digital libraries through the internet also allows users a freedom of access that could never be achieved through printed collections: wherever a user can find a computer and has internet access, resources are at his disposal. Digital resources are not limited by the restrictions of printed texts which must be accessed within the library’s opening hours, and are often on loan, lost, or otherwise unavailable. Hughes explains that ‘digital materials can be made available to a broader audience than those who have the resources or ability to travel to see the analogue collections, and access can be expanded to non-traditional audiences such as lifelong learners’ (Hughes, 2004, p.9).
The Digital Divide
However, this freedom is limited to those with the means to access the internet easily. While the internet can be accessed within the library, this is still restricted by the need to travel to the library within opening hours. With standard laptops available for under £300 and netbooks under £200, it is easy to assume that most students will have a personal computer. There has also been a recent explosion in mobile device such as iPads and e-book readers, which allow users to download texts via the internet and store them on the device to then carry with them as they would previously have done a book. However, personal computers and internet access cannot be relied upon in some areas, Sub-Saharan Africa for example, where ‘telecommunications infrastructures are so poorly developed […] that participation in internet-based activities is almost impossible’ (Dearnley and Feather, 2001, p.141). It is the hope that this sort of isolation will diminish as internet technology and personal computers continue to drop in price, and with the help of non-profit organisations such as One Laptop Per Child, which provides ‘rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected’ laptops for children from poor areas (One Laptop Per Child).
