Abstract:
Digital libraries offer opportunities for e-learning that are not possible in their physical counterparts. Digital libraries complement other learning environments, such as those provided in distance education and courses offered online. Like e-learning environments, they provide flexibility of time and place. Digital libraries have the potential to offer unprecedented resources to support e-learning. Access to current research and needed information within a well-developed infrastructure can provide faculty members and students with a unique opportunity to carry out deep research and to teach and learn more thoroughly. The paper addresses and discusses the follow ing items: What is meant by “e-learning” and how it can be supported by library environment; what the functionality of the digital library is and how the e-learning resources are included and organized in a digital library. This paper will also explore the advantages of digital libraries for e-learning and the types of learning that can be supported by them. There is undoubtedly a keenness to use online information resources for research and teaching, but this seems to be matched by a lack of awareness of how best to integrate these resources into the e-learning environment. This paper concludes with a discussion of the role and influence of the digital libraries and online resources on e-learning.
Machine summary:
Gapen defines the digital library as the concept of remote access to the contents and services of libraries and other information resources, combining an on-site collection of current and heavily used materials in both print and electronic forms, with an electrtinic network that provides access to, and delivery from, external worldwide library, commercial information and knowledge sources.
The range of supported materials includes curricula, courseware materials, lectures, lesson plans, computer programs, modelling and simulation, intelligent tutoring systems, access to remote scientific instruments, project-based learning, tools, the results of educational research, scientific research reported both formally in journals and informally in web sites, raw data for student activities and multimedia image banks.
To serve learners connected to their institutional library primarily through a computcr network, librarians are providing remote access t‹i, and electronic delivery of, library resources, and are uslng communication technologies to deliver clcctronic referencc services and instructional support.
Given that a growing number of learners are accessing library collections online, January/ June, 2006 Iranian Journal ot Information Silence & Technology, Volume d, Number I librarians arc working to devclop an integrated approach, to provide access to electronic resourccs, that facilitatcs retrieval and reduces confusion.
L. , “Where 1s the Librarian in the Digital Library?” Communications January/ June, 2006 Iranian Journal of Information Science & Technology, Volume d, Number I o/'he AC/tf, Vol. 44, No. 5, pp.