Abstract:
This paper is reproduced with slight amendments to a paper presented at the
International Conference on Changes and Challenges of Public Library Services to
Bridge the Digital Divide held in The Gurney, Penang from 23-25 June 2003. It describes
how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides libraries the opportunity to improve collection management and public access to these collections through digital projects. The term 'digital libraries' is described as those aspects of existing library services that have a significant digital component which has also been
adopted by the Malaysian Digital Library System (PERDANA). With the advent of a
new information management and delivery system, there is a need to build systems to
organise and manage vast amount of information, ensure survivability of the
infrastructure and manage intellectual property rights. Librarians are expected to
understand the digital project cycle, know how to plan digital products and organise
information, as well as knowing how to deliver information and materials effectively. All digital projects must address challenges ranging from improvement of data access methods, reliability and bandwidth, better audio and,video streaming to , scalable software support and high performance computing.
