🚀 go-pugleaf

"Diane K. Kovacs" wrote:
> I need some advice...what is the difference between:
> Digital Library
> Electronic Library
> Web-Based Library
> Is there one?  Is the choice of which word to use primarily a matter of
> choice?

  most important concept to me is that a library carries a social and
  service context that is not yet met by any technical / electronic /
  digital implementation - yet. its coming, and the LIS community
  certainly knows its needed - maybe your book will shed some light on
  that future.

  with regard to your call for interpretations of the phrases above, i
  believe you've listed them in a macro-to-micro order:

  digital -    digital like nicholas negroponte's critical distinction
               in `Being Digital:' atoms vs. bits - once something can
               be represented in digital form, its nature is radically
               changed

  electronic - i have no strong feelings about this. traditional
               libraries need electricity as much as computerized
               library and content services. electric != digital. just
               my $.02.

  web-based -  moves into a specific technical implementation for
               providing the human and content services of a digital
               library. its a specific implementation of the digital
               library concept.

  if you were writing about digital libraries 20 years ago, your
  featured implementation might have been the wonders of e-mail and how
  it would revolutionize libraries. in the early 1990's the hottest
  concept for implementing a digital library was gopher. (yeah!) and...
  the sexy implementation these days (and possibly for some time to
  come) is 'web based', although the definition of the protocols and
  standards which make something 'web-based' has expanded and evolved
  quite a bit since the rest of the world clued into the cool
  hypermedia browsing concept in the mid 1990's. :-).

  xml and embedded multimedia content can be called web-based, but i
  get the feeling that the world has latched onto the name 'web' and
  wants to keep it even as the underlying technology is continuously
  replaced. what if gopher was the technology du-jour when the world
  took an interest?  you'd subscribe to gopherweek magazine, place job
  advertisements for gophermeister, and little buck-toothed rodents
  would be the tacky art of choice to adorn millions of publications.

> book (I'm struggling to meet a deadline of 12/15).

  best wishes for your book, happy thanksgiving!

                          sean dreilinger, mlis
                          mailto:sean@durak.org
                          http://durak.org/sean