Digital Convergence - Libraries of the Future

The Organization and Delivery of Digital Information.- From ‘‘Boutique’’ to Mass Digitization: the Google Library Project at Oxford.- Digital Services in Academic Libraries: the Internet is Setting Benchmarks.- The Early Years of the United Kingdom Joint Academic Network (JANET).- The World Library – Collaboration and Sharing of Information.- World-Class Universities Need World-Class Libraries and Information Resources: But How Can they be Provided?.- The International Dimensions of Digital Science and Scholarship: Aspirations of the British Library in Serving the International Scientific and Scholarly Communities.- CURL – Research Libraries in the British Isles.- Cultural and Strategic Implications of Digital Convergence for Libraries.- For Betteror Worse: Change and Development in Academic Libraries, 1970-2006.- Combining the Best of Both Worlds: the Hybrid Library.- Beyond the Hybrid Library: Libraries in a Web 2.0 World.- Libraries and Open Access: the Implications of Open-Access Publishing and Dissemination for Libraries in Higher Education Institutions.- Shaking the Foundations – Librarianship in Transition.- Scholarship and Libraries: Collectors and Collections.- When is a Librarian not a Librarian?.- New Dimensions of InformationProvision Restructuring, Innovation, and Integration.- From Integration to Web Archiving.- Not Just a Box of Books: From Repository to Service Innovator.- Learning Enhancement through Strategic Project Partnership.- Libraries for the 21st Century.- Preserving the Content – The Physical and the Digital.- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: Poor Players on the Digital Curation Stage.- Some Key Issues in Digital Preservation.- From Information to Knowledge – the Human–Computer Interface.- From the Information Age tothe Intelligence Age: Exploiting IT and Convergence.- Cognitive Implications of InformationSpaces: Human Issues in the Design and Use of Electronic Library Interfaces.- Mobile Media – From Content to User.- Historic Collections and Case Studies.- Special Collections Librarianship.- Defending Research and Scholarship – United Kingdom Libraries and the Terrorism Bill 2005.- Politics, Profits and Idealism: John Norton, the Stationers’ Company and Sir Thomas Bodley.- William Drummond of Hawthornden: Book Collector and Benefactor of Edinburgh University Library.- de Gaulle and the British.- High Level Applications of Contentandits Governance.- Great Libraries in the Service of Science.- Governance at Harvard University Library.- Higher Education Libraries and the Quality Agenda.

The convergence of IT, telecommunications, and media is bringing about a revolution in the way information is collected, stored and accessed. There are three principal reasons why this is happening – reducing cost, increasing quality, and increasing bandwidth. Moore’s Law results in ever-decreasing costs of processing, storage, and transmission. Digital information preserves content accuracy (e.g. digital television) in a way other systems do not. High bandwidth transmission from one place to another on the planet is now possible. Information is ubiquitous and globally accessible, and can be held and accessed just as easily on a global network as on a local personal computer or in a local library. Devices are increasingly intelligent and are network-ready. User interfaces are becoming more adaptable and flexible, and can be tailored to particular application domains. Digital intelligence is becoming seamless and invisible, enabling more attention to be paid to the content and the user’s interaction with it. This revolution is having effects on the development and organisation of information and artefact repositories such as libraries, museums, and exhibitions, and the way in which physical and digital aspects are mediated to users. The changes that digital convergence is bringing about are substantial and are also likely to be long-lasting. This volume presents key aspects in this rapidly moving field in the areas of technology and information sciences - from international experts who are leaders in their fields.

Presents key aspects in the rapidly moving field of digital convergence in the areas of technology and information sciences Chapters are written by international experts who are leaders in their fields