The World Digital Library

It was clear from the start of the internet era that such a thing as World Digital Library was going to be a possibility. While the idea of a digital library intrigues me, it also pains me to see that this is yet another digitization project. I agree we need information which human minds can process and convert to knowledge and then gain wisdom. But are digitized materials alone enough of information?

In a fast world where everything is electronic, it does make sense for libraries to take this route. After all, the users’ convenience is very important to take into consideration while providing library services: as S.R. Ranganathan said, “Save the time of the Reader.” It would be wonderful to have information at the tip of the fingers, regardless of where one lives assuming one has access to all that is necessary.

Obviously bombarding the entire population of the globe with information alone will not be enough. They need to be educated on what is reliable information – evaluate information for its authority, currency and all those things we learnt in library school. Mary Parker Follet called community a creative process. I tend to think of a library as a community as well as an information house. It is here that people come together. And I am sure, that by ‘creating’ Mary Follet meant more than just digitizing books. She was probably talking about creating an individual, creating a society that will create ideas and creating a generation that can think for itself. In this era of globalization it is important to be aware of such a thing as democracy. I can only hope that the idea of a World Digital Library will accomplish this and not just present us with a load of digitized material.