Presented to: Virtual University of Pakistan

The development of the Internet and the increasing popularity of the World Wide Web have opened up a new realm of information access, storage, and delivery for librarians and information professionals. Libraries and schools are striving to respond to the pervasive and persistent growth of global networking and manage the demand for access to this dynamic medium. Currently, 21 percent of American public libraries and 35 percent of public schools have some form of internet access (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1995; Sackman, 1995). Working in the trenches of the digital revolution, librarians and information professionals are beginning to offer internet services to patrons; their work marks the beginning of the grassroots implementation of the “public” digital library. Such efforts do not come without their attendant risks, and it is extremely important that those who are becoming network service and resource providers and content producers clearly understand what is involved in their participation in the digital revolution from an issues- and policy-oriented perspective.

This survey is conducted under the supervision of Dr. Naveed A. Malik by RAD Corporation to check the feasibility of Virtual/Digital National Library, and to outline statistical, scientific and technological research data.

The objective is to survey the entire field of digital libraries. Computers and networks are of fundamental importance, but they are only the technology. The real story of digital libraries is the interplay between people, organizations, and technology. How are libraries and publishers using this new technology? How are individuals bypassing traditional organizations and building their own libraries? Where does the Web fit?

Methodology

This survey focuses on surveys that are conducted to advance scientific knowledge, which we refer to as survey research.

This survey conducted for research purpose has three distinct characteristics.

1. First, the purpose of survey is to produce quantitative descriptions of some aspects of the study population. Survey analysis may be primarily concerned either with relationships between variables, or with projecting findings descriptively to a predefined population. This survey research is a quantitative method, requiring standardized information from and/or about the subjects being studied. The subjects studied are individuals, groups, organizations, communities, projects, applications, and systems.
2. Second, the main way of collecting information is by asking people structured and predefined questions. Their answers refer to themselves and some other unit of analysis, constitute the data to be analyzed.
3. Third, information is generally collected about only a fraction of the study population--a sample--but it is collected in such a way as to be able to generalize the findings to the population--like service or manufacturing organizations, line or staff work groups, MIS departments, or various users of information systems such as managers, professional workers, and clerical workers. The  sample is large enough to allow extensive statistical analyses.

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