Feasibility of a primarily digital research library

ABSTRACT

This position paper explores the issues related to the feasibility of having a primarily digital research library support the teaching and research needs of a university. The Asian University for Women (AUW), a new university in Chittagong, Bangladesh, will open in September 2009. It must make a decision regarding the investment to be made in research resources to support the university. Mass digitization efforts now make it possible to consider establishing a research library that consists primarily of digital resources rather than print. There are, however, many issues that make this consideration quite complex and far from certain. In this paper we explore the issues at a preliminary level. We focus on four broad perspectives in order to begin addressing the complex interactions that must be considered in transitioning to a primarily digital research environment: technical, economic, policy and social issues. The purpose of this paper is to begin to explore a research agenda for transitioning from a model for libraries where resources are primarily print to one that is predominantly digital. Our research in this area is just beginning, so our purpose is to raise the issues rather than offer firm conclusions.

REFERENCES

• 1: http://books.google.com/googlebooks/library.html.
• 2: http://www.opencontentalliance.org/.
• 3: http://www.asian-university.org/.
• 4: L. Spiro and J. Segal, The Impact of Digital Resources on Humanities Research, Rice University, 2007; http://library.rice.edu/services/digital_media_center/projects/the-impact-of-digital-resources-on-humanities-research. An essay based on this research is forthcoming in The American Literature Scholar in the Digital Age, to be published by the University of Michigan Press as part of its digitalculturebooks imprint.
• 5: L. Spiro, "How many texts have been digitized?" Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, May 5, 2008; http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/how-many-texts-have-been-digitized/.
• 6: L. Spiro, "Evaluating the quality of electronic texts," Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, May 9 2008; http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/evaluating-the-quality-of-electronic-texts/.
• 7: Henry, G.: On-line Publishing in the 21st Century. D-Lib Magazine (2003) 9(10); http://www.dlib.org/dlib/october03/henry/10henry.html.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.7 Digital Libraries
          Subjects: Collection

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.7 Digital Libraries
          Subjects: Dissemination; User issues; Systems issues

General Terms:
Design, Documentation, Economics, Experimentation, Human Factors, Legal Aspects, Management, Measurement, Reliability

Keywords:
digital libraries, digital research, libraries, mass digitization