什么是数字图书馆

  数字图书馆(Digital Library)是用数字技术处理和存储各种图文并茂文献的图书馆，实质上是一种多媒体制作的分布式信息系统。它把各种不同载体、不同地理位置的信息资源用数字技术存贮，以便于跨越区域、面向对象的网络查询和传播。它涉及信息资源加工、存储、检索、传输和利用的全过程。

  传统图书馆收集、存储并重新组织信息，使读者能方便地查到他所想要的信息，同时跟踪读者使用情况，以保护信息提供者的权益。从数字图书馆角度来看，就是收集或创建数字化馆藏，把各种文献替换成计算机能识别的二进制系列图像，在安全保护、访问许可和记帐服务等完善的权限处理之下，经授权的信息利用因特网的发布技术，实现全球共享。数字图书馆的建立将使人们在任何时间和地点通过网络获取所需的信息变为现实，大大地促进资源的共享与利用。

  “数字图书馆”概念一经提出，就得到了世界广泛的关注，纷纷组织力量进行探讨、研究和开发，进行各种模型的试验。随着数字地球概念、技术、应用领域的发展，数字图书馆已成为数字地球家庭的成员，为信息高速公路提供必需的信息资源，是知识经济社会中主要的信息资源载体。

　　数字图书馆是运行在高速宽带网络上、分布式超大规模、可跨库检索的海量数字化信息资源库群。

　　数字图书馆最大限度地利用各地已经搭建的软硬件环境，对信息资源进行接收、存储、服务。它需要拥有超大容量的分布式资源数据库群，要为用户提供可靠的信息就需要配置高性能的软、硬件基础设施。

　　通过网络传输的信息资源是按统一标准规范加工整合过的数字化信息资源，它包括：图书、戏曲、音乐、舞蹈、电影、文化旅游、农业科技、科普知识、法律知识、文化新闻等。它超越了人们意识中图书的概念。

　　数字图书馆主要利用高速宽带网络进行信息传递。记者从有关部门获悉，我省的宽带接入服务从2000年起步，2001年全省宽带用户仅为3000户，而2002年宽带和光纤用户已达3万户，一年时间增长了10倍。其中居民个人的安装数量就达2万余户，并仍将持续高速增长。5年后，“今天你上网看书了么”也许会成为最热的问候语。

什么是数字图书馆？

　　数字图书馆系统，就是对有高度价值的图像、文本、语音、音响、影像、影视、软件和科学数据等多媒体信息进行收集，组织规范性加工，进行高质量保存和管理，实施知识增值，并提供在广域网上高速横向跨库连接的电子存取服务技术。它同时还涉及到知识产权、存取权限、数据安全管理等一系列问题的解决方法。

　　数字图书馆建设是以统一的标准和规范为基础，以数字化的各种信息为底层，以分布式海量资源库群为支撑，以智能检索技术为手段，以电子商务为管理方式，以宽带高速网络为传输通道，将丰富多彩的多媒体信息传递到千家万户。它涉及数字信息资源的生产、加工、存储、检索、传递、保护、利用、归档、剔除等全过程。

　　数字图书馆的特点是：收藏数字化、操作电脑化、传递网络化、信息存贮自由化、资源共享化和结构连接化。发展中国数字图书馆，就是要积极组织图书馆和有关机构的中文信息资源上网，使我国悠久的历史、灿烂的文化以及经济建设的成就方针和文化教育、科学技术等方面的进展，通过因特网主动广泛地传送到世界各地，占领因特网上中文信息资源领域，扩大中文信息资源的利用和影响。 

　　数字图书馆系统作为一个国家的信息基础工程，其重要作用已得到了社会各界有识之士的认可。

 
数字图书馆经济效益

1、低成本：可以采用硬盘或价格低廉的CD-R作为存储介质，大大降低了以往库房存储的成本。
2、保护珍贵书籍：即可实现图书的多人借阅，又可以保护图书原件，有利于图书的长久保存。
3、快捷的检索及图书调阅：利用计算机进行快捷的图书检索和方便的在线电子图书阅读，加快了以往人工查阅图书的速度也减轻了图书馆工作人员的工作量。
4、图书的流通及共享：传统图书的借阅常常因为图书数量的限制，而出现借不到书的情况。而电子图书以文件形式存储于光盘塔、光盘库或磁盘阵列上，可以实现多用户同时借阅及浏览。
5、古籍的真实再现：PDF格式的电子图书可以真实反映图书的原版样式，可以使读者阅读到珍贵的古籍原貌，又可以保护了古籍的存放。 
6、充分利用现有资源：数字图书馆系统是图书馆原有系统的扩展和延伸，系统基于MARC格式的标准化设计和开放性保障了图书馆原有系统的可用性，从而保障了投资。
7、系统维护简单：一般采用B/S结构的设计，客户端采用通用的浏览器，对系统的升级及维护只需在服务器端进行即可，大大降低了系统的维护费用。 

数字图书馆的发展与演变

    人类社会正进入信息时代，原有各种物理载体所存储和传输的信息，正在逐步数字化，用0和1来表示。随着计算机技术、通信技术、高密度存贮技术和多媒体技术的发展，促使图书馆由传统向数字化发展。

数字图书馆构想的提出：

    1945年 美国著名科学技术管理学家布什（V.Bush）先生在《大西洋月刊》上发表了"诚如我们想象的那样"（As We May Think）一文。文中，他首次提出将传统的图书馆馆藏文献的储存、查找机制与计算机结合起来，构思并描述了他所设想的一种Memex装备机械化的个人文档与 图书馆，即台式个人文献工作系统，能存贮书、记录和通讯的装置。

    1948年 美国数学家维纳（N. Wiener）成为第一个指出电子计算机将能够在图书馆运作中大显身手的学者。

   1978年 美国著名图书馆学家兰卡斯特（F.W. Laneaster）发表了《走向无纸的时代》和《电子时代的图书馆员》两部论 著，描述了电子图书馆的前景。

   1979年 英国不列颠图书馆的哈利（A.J. Harley）提出了"虚拟图书馆"的概念。

   1988年 美国国家科学基金会（NSF）的伍尔夫（W.Wulf）撰写国际合作白皮书正式提出了数字图书馆的概念。

数字图书馆的启动和实施：

    1991年 俄亥俄州政府做出了启动俄亥俄网的决定，计划投资2500 万美元建立州内图书馆网络中心，该网络定名Ohio LINK。

    1992年 美国政府在制订"高性能计算与通信（HPCC）"国家攻关项目中，将发展数字图书馆列入"国家级挑战"（National Challenge）。

    1993年 9月，美国国家科学基金会（NSF）、国家宇航局（NASA）和国防部高级研究署(AKPA)联合公布了《数字图书馆启动计划》(Digital Library Initiative)，领导、组织和资助美国的数字图书馆研究和开发--在斯坦福大学、密西根大学、伊利诺斯大学、卡耐基-梅隆大学、加州大学伯克利分校和圣·巴巴拉分校等6所高校进行数字图书馆的分项研究，每一分项目都将作为数字图书馆的研究基地和模型建立基地。其目的是在4年内，完成多媒体分布式服务器、智能检索系统、计算机视觉和自然语言处理、面向目次的浏览器与搜索技术、超级文本传输协议HTTP和超级文本标记语言HTML等。

    1994年 6月在美国的得克萨斯召开了第一次数字图书馆的理论研究会议，会议的议题是"第一届数字图书馆理论与实践年会"。10月，美国国会图书馆宣布它将迈向数字化时代，11月美国国家图书情报科学委员会又主办召开了"第七届国际情报新技术大会"，会议在美国的弗吉尼亚亚历山大城举行，大会对"全球数字图书馆"（Global Digital Library）问题展开了较为深入的讨论。

    1995年 IBM公司发出了"IBM数字化图书馆"的倡仪，帮助各种类型信息的拥有者，使他们的信息能在全世界的网络上传播。2月25~26日在比利时布鲁塞尔召开了全球信息社会讨论会，这次讨论会被视为西方主要发达国家在社会信息化进程中的一个重要里程碑，会议将11项示范计划之一的全球数字图书馆计划与数字博物馆计划等作为全球信息社会化的组成部分

    1996年 7月至1999年12月。我国由北京图书馆、中山图书馆、上海图书馆、深圳图书馆、辽宁图书馆、南京图书馆、文化部文化科技开发中心共同承担实施中国试验型数字图书馆（CPDLP）项目。该项目实施包括分两大部分：首先，研制一套初步成形的数字式图书馆的实现技术，它应具有与国际接轨的特点，同时要适合在中国推广。

   其次，逐步建设一个规范化的分布式数字式资源库。

    我国自1995年开始有数字图书馆的研究文章发表，清华、北大、上海交大、复旦、华南理工等院校开始了数字图书馆的研究。目前有清华大学建筑数字图书馆、上图数字图书馆、中国数字图书馆等运用先进成熟的数字技术和网络技术，采取统一的界面、统一的软件、统一的管理。充分考虑满足当前需要、适应资源共享和可持续发展的目标，实现远程、快速、全面、有序、智能、特色等服务优势。

    1999年11月12日，国家863计划中国数字图书馆发展战略组与首都图书馆在北京国际会议中心就建立中国数字图书馆工程示范试点单位一事签订了合作意向书，并举行了新闻发布会。

笼统的“数字图书馆”包括两种：数字图书馆和数字化图书馆；前者是指提供电子图书的管理和服务系统平台，后者主要是把图书馆中的纸质图书扫描，OCR或者录入校正的作业平台；二者都含有图书馆的基本业务流程，例如编目；一般来讲数字化图书馆图书的分类是采用中图法，而数字图书馆的分类在采用中图法的同时会兼顾其他分类法；在形式上数字图书馆对采用图书服务网站的方式对外服务；而数字化图书馆是为图书馆服务，一般是一个由纸质到电子档的服务过程；

英文资料：
"The new digital libraries will have features not possible in traditional libraries, thereby extending the concept of library far beyond physical boundaries. They will provide innovative resources and services. One example is the ability to interact with information: rather than presenting a reader with a table of numbers, digital libraries allow users to choose from a variety of ways to view and work with the numbers, including graphical representations that they can explore. With the extensive use of hypertext links to interconnect information, digital libraries enable users to find related digital materials on a particular topic."
(2001 PITAC Report, "Digital Libraries: Universal Access to Human Knowledge", p. 3)
"Digital libraries are organizations that provide the resources, including the specialized staff, to select, structure, offer intellectual access to, interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of, and ensure the persistence over time of collections of digital works so that they are readily and economically available for use a by a defined community or set of communities."
(Digital Library Federation)
"Digital libraries are complex data/information/knowlege (hereafter information) systems that help: satisfy the information needs of users (societies), provide information services (scenarios), organize information in usable ways (structures), manage the location of information (spaces), and communicate information with users and their agents (streams)."
(Edward A. Fox, July 1999, according to 5S Framework)
"Digital library work occurs in the context of a complex design space shaped by four dimensions: community, technology, services and content"
(Gary Marchionini and Edward A. Fox, "Progress toward digital libraries: augmentation through integration", pp. 219-225, guest editors' introduction to "Progress Toward Digital Libraries", eds. Gary Marchionini and Edward A. Fox, Special Issue, Information Processing & Management, 35(3), May 1999.)
"The field of digital libraries deals with augmenting human civilization through the application of digital technology to the information problems addressed by institutions such as libraries, archives, museums, schools, publishers and other information agencies. Work on digital libraries focuses on integrating services and better serving human needs, through holistic treatment irrespective of interface, location, time, language and system. Although substantial collections may be created solely for the use of individuals, we consider sharable resources one of the defining characteristics of libraries. Libraries connect people and information; digital libraries amplify and augment these connections."
(Gary Marchionini and Edward A. Fox, "Progress toward digital libraries: augmentation through integration", Information Processing & Management, 35(3):219-225, May 1999.)
For a thoughtful discussion of definitions, approaches, and community perspectives on "digital libraries" see "What are digital libraries? Competing visions" by Christine L. Borgman, pp. 227-244, in "Progress Toward Digital Libraries", eds. Gary Marchionini and Edward A. Fox, Special Issue, Information Processing & Management, 35(3), May 1999.
"The Digital Library is:
The collection of services
And the collection of information objects
That support users in dealing with information objects
And the organization and presentation of those objects
Available directly or indirectly
Via electronic/digital means."
(The Scope of the Digital Library, Draft Prepared by Barry M. Leiner for the DLib Working Group on Digital Library Metrics, 1998)
"Digital library is a concept that has different meanings in different communities. To the engineering and computer science community, digital library is a metaphor for the new kinds of distributed data base services that manage unstructured multimedia data. To the political and business communities, the term represents a new marketplace for the world's information resources and services. To futurist communities, digital libraries represent the manifestation of Wells' World Brain. The perspective taken here is rooted in an information science tradition."
(Research and Development in Digital Libraries by Gary Marchionini, 1998)
"an organized data base of digital information objects in varying formats maintained to provide unmediated ease of access to a user community, with these further characteristics:
- an overall access tool (e.g. a catalog) provides search and retrieval capability over the entire data base;
- organized technical procedures exist through which the library management adds objects to the data base and removes them according to a coherent and accessible collections policy."
(Peter Graham, Rutgers University Libraries, 1997)
"Digital libraries are a set of electronic resources and associated technical capabilities for creating, searching, and using information. In this sense they are an extension and enhancement of information storage and retrieval systems that manipulate digital data in any medium (text, images, sounds; static or dynamic images) and exist in distributed networks. The content of digital libraries includes data, metadata that describe various aspects of the data (e.g., representation, creator, owner, reproduction rights), and metadata that consist of links or relationships to other data or metadata, whether internal or external to the digital library.
(1996 UCLA-NSF Social Aspects of Digital Libraries Workshop)
Digital libraries are constructed -- collected and organized -- by a community of users, and their functional capabilities support the information needs and uses of that community. They are a component of communities in which individuals and groups interact with each other, using data, information, and knowledge resources and systems.In this sense they are an extension, enhancement, and integration of a variety of information institutions as physical places where resources are selected, collected, organized, preserved, and accessed in support of a user community. These information institutions include, among others, libraries, museums, archives, and schools, but digital libraries also extend and serve other community settings, including classrooms, offices, laboratories, homes, and public spaces."
(1996 UCLA-NSF Social Aspects of Digital Libraries Workshop)
"Systems providing a community of users with coherent access to a large, organized repository of information and knowledge."
(Clifford Lynch, 1995)
"systems providing a community of users with coherent access to a large, organized repository of information and knowledge. This organization of information is characterized by the absence of prior detailed knowledge of the uses of the information. The ability of the user to access, reorganize, and utilize this repository is enriched by the capabilities of digital technology"
(adapted from Interoperability, Scaling, and the Digital Libraries Research Agenda, report of the 1995 IITA DL Workshop)
"A library that has been extended and enhanced by the application of digital technology. Important aspects of the digital library that may be extended and enhanced include :
- Collections of the library
- Organization and management of the collections
- Access of the library items and the processing
of the information contained in the items
- Communication of information about the items "
(Terry Smith, UCSB, 1995)
"The generic name for federated structures that provide humans both intellectual and physical access to the huge and growing worldwide networks of information encoded in multimedia digital formats."
(The University of Michigan Digital Library: This Is Not Your Father's Library, Bill Birmingham, 1994)
"A digital library is a distributed technology environment which dramatically reduces barriers to the creation, dissemination, manipulation, storage, integration, and reuse of information by individuals and groups."
(Edward A. Fox, editor, Source Book on Digital Libraries, 1993, pg. 65)
"A digital library is a machine readable representation of materials which might be found in a university library together with organizing information intended to help users find specific information. A digital library service is an assemblage of digital computing, storage, and communicate machinery together with the software needed to reprise, emulate, and extend the services provided by conventional libraries based on paper and other material means of collecting, storing, cataloging, finding, and disseminating information."
(Edward A. Fox, editor, Source Book on Digital Libraries, 1993, pg. 65)