Digital Information : Discovery to Delivery

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

1. *Outline types of digital information sources, their advantages and disadvantages and give examples of relevant national and international initiatives;
2. *Identify and assess the challenges of managing and evaluating a collection of digital information sources• Explain the challenges in managing and evaluating a collection of digital information sources;
3. *Describe the stages in a project to digitise a particular collection and explain the importance of knowing about Intellectual Property Rights
4. *Give examples of the searching and presentation issues to be considered when providing access to digital information
5. *Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of standards in digital information discovery and delivery

The 21st century information professional needs to be equipped to manage digital material in a manner which best supports long-term access and preservation. This module is concerned with both the selection and creation of digital material and the complex issue of maintaining digital continuity. This requires an understanding of the strategic, administrative and technical issues involved.

Digital libraries, emerged during the 1990s as a key development area in practice, as well as in research, for information professionals, computer scientists, librarians, archivists as well as those involved in cultural heritage institutions. The advantages of such collections for users are various as they provide access to digital information sources on a 24/7 basis and are important in supporting changing patterns of teaching and learning in educational establishments, for general lifelong learning programmes, for global access to cultural artefacts, government information and so on. In addition they are seen by many as an opportunity to overcome the ‘digital divide’ between countries as information can be made available in a language and format appropriate for users. Students of this module will explore and critically assess ways in which digital information is created, acquired, organised and presented within digital libraries so as to support its discovery and delivery.

There are 4 units of distance learning materials comprising:
• Digital information in context
• Digital collections: management and evaluation
• Digitisation of collections
• Digital collections: Designing for access and interoperability

This module is at CQFW Level 7