Digital Libraries: an introduction

1. Digital Libraries: an introduction Making information available, the importance of networks, digitisation, grey literature, online access and harvesting, some examples of digital libraries, our role as information officers in the Pacific

2. The coming of the Internet age in the Pacific • Libraries and library users gain increasing access to the internet • The Google phenomenon – “search and you will find!” • Access to full text documents via google

4. Pacific materials available online via Google • Pacific govts., NGOs., educational institutions, And regional organisations traditionally only made documents available in “hard copy”. • These documents would not be available via a google search on the internet • Only access was via the “hard copy” collection in the institutional library • Pacific libraries still largely “hard copy only” – and with limited resource to acquire new materials – users are choosing google to find up-to-date information – but the Pacific materials are not there …

5. Resulting in • Limited access to Pacific materials • Many Pacific institutions do not place electronic copies of their most important materials on well maintained websites • Many impt. documents are not deposited with libraries • Access limited to members of the institution or those within walking distance to the library or to just a select few within an organisation • Risk of loss of materials through • Physical disaster such as cyclone • Poor management of the resource centre • Borrowers not returning materials • Increased demand from users for better access to materials requiring Pacific libraries to adopt new strategies to improve access to information

6. The changing face of libraries • No longer just “hard copy” • Libraries assist users by providing access to the internet and links to documents available on the internet • Online library catalogues and library websites provide access to hard copy materials AND to internet websites AND to full text documents

7. A new kind of library – the “virtual library” • Making documents available in electronic form • Identifying and capturing documents in .doc or .pdf format at the time of publication • Retrospective digitisation • Making links to online documents through online library catalogues • Creating ‘Virtual libraries” using Digital library software • Greenstone • EPrints • DSpace

8. What is a digital library? (sometimes called a virtual library) A digital library is an organized collection of digital documents, in any format such as text, image, audio or video, that would permit easy access by information users and proper maintenance by librarians.

9. Advantages of creating Digital Libraries • Access to documents can be made freely available to anyone in the world with an internet connection • Digital libraries can be copied onto a CD-ROM or DVD and distributed at very low cost • Digital libraries available “24/7” • Documents can be keyword searched across the full text of the document • Creation of digital libraries reduces risk of critical documents being lost • Potential for digital libraries to be integrated with other libraries and other online access tools

10. Some examples • SPC Coastal and Oceanic Fisheries Programmes Digital library - http://www.spc.int/coastfish/sections/reef/PROCFish%5FWeb/Modules/Library/LuceneSearch.aspx • AVANO Marine and Aquatic Sciences Virtual Library – http://www.ifremer.fr/avano/ • The Aquatic Commons Digital Library – http://aquacomm.fcla.edu/

15. Virtual libraries in the Pacific • Many large libraries in the Pacific have hybrid libraries – offering access to online documents via a traditional library catalogue [USP, SPREP] • Some libraries have developed websites to compliment their library catalogues • Some libraries are now developing virtual libraries that only contain full text documents and making these available via CD-ROM and internet [USP, SPC]

16. “Harvesting” • Harvesting refers specifically to the gathering together of metadata [like a library catalogue description] from a number of distributed repositories OR “digital libraries” into a combined data store that can be searched online. • There is potential in the future for online documents made available via such networks as PIMRIS and PEIN and by such institutions such as SPC, USP and SOPAC to be “harvested” by one single access point – creating a Pacific “virtual library”

17. Identifying and capturing documents is absolutely critical • “Grey literature” • Material which might not be formally published, such as institutional reports, consultants reports, project reports. • Working documents, pre-prints, research papers, inventories and surveys, statistical documents, workshop and meeting reports, and other difficult-to-access materials that are not controlled by commercial publishers. • Grey literature is the kind of material that is not published in regular accessible journals, and does not show up on databases. It includes things like conference proceedings that include the abstracts of the research presented at the conference, unpublished theses, and so on.

18. Our role as library and information officers • Identify “grey literature” in our organisations • and ensure they are available in our libraries and resource centres in “hard copy” • Catalogue these materials and make available via an online catalogue that is accessible via the internet (linking in with PEIN and PIMRIS networks can achieve this) • Identify and make available electronic copies of these materials as they are published via our library catalogues and/or via regional networks such as PEIN & PIMRIS • Identify and retrospectively digitise important documents

19. The challenge • For institutions to share documents • To develop institutional capacity to better manage our information • To actively identify our own institutional documents and related grey literature and make available in a digital format • To support regional cooperation to develop information sharing networks and regional support for Pacific libraries

20. Final comment • In this age of exponential growth of information materials in print as well as digital form, both physical and digital libraries are essential and can work in unison, supplementing each other.