Why Digitize?
Why Digitize?
复制标题
为什么要数字化？
DOI：
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发表时间：
1999
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Abby Smith
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Abby Smith
过去数年，图书馆资料的数码化工作进展迅速。它承诺将继续以非凡的速度扩大其影响力并提高其能力。事实证明，图书馆目前拥有的几乎每一种格式和媒介都可以实现数字化，从地图到手稿，从移动图像到音乐唱片。使用硬件和软件来捕获一个项目并将其转换为比特和字节，再加上一套快速发展的描述和检索数字对象的实践，正在形成“没有墙壁的图书馆”的说法。“但这样的虚拟图书馆有一个非常真实的价格。文化机构的管理者和负责数字化相关政策事务的人经常发现，他们不仅要努力理解新技术，而且更重要的是，要理解这些技术的含义，并理解他们的收藏品数字化对他们的机构、赞助人和公众意味着什么。这篇论文是为了回应国家人文联盟（NHA）会议上关于数字化的讨论而写的。NHA要求CLIR评估文化机构迄今为止在数字化项目方面的经验，并总结对具有文化意义的材料进行数字化的利弊。正如人们从一项流行但实验性的技术的早期发展中所预期的那样，从一个机构到另一个机构，所吸取的教训大相径庭。概括是有风险的，但CLIR一直积极参与促进图书馆数字技术的发展，我们认为，重要的是提供一个新技术对传统图书馆作用的影响的早期评估。我们发现，数字化往往会提高人们对效益、成本降低和效率的期望，而这些期望可能是虚幻的，如果不现实地看待，可能会使图书馆几十年来提供的馆藏和服务面临风险。一个这样的错误期望，数字转换已经或将很快取代缩微胶片的首选媒体保存重新格式化可能会导致信息的不可逆转的损失。本文旨在不引起错误的警报，而是鼓励每一位负责文化监护某些方面的专业人员以耐心和经验为基础的谨慎来评估这项新技术。
Digital conversion of library materials has advanced rapidly in the past few years. It promises to continue to expand its reach and improve its capabilities with extraordinary speed. Digitization has proven to be possible for nearly every format and medium presently held by libraries, from maps to manuscripts, and moving images to musical recordings. The use of hardware and Software for capturing an item and converting it into bits and bytes, matched by a quickly developing set of practices for describing and retrieving digital objects, is giving form to the talk of a "library without walls." But such a virtual library has a very real price. Managers of cultural institutions and those responsible for policy matters related to digitization often find themselves struggling not only to understand the new technologies, but also, and more importantly, to grasp the implications of those technologies and to understand what digitization of their collections means for their Institution, its patrons, and the public. This paper was written in response to discussions of digitization at meetings of the National Humanities Alliance (NHA). NHA asked CLIR to evaluate the experiences of cultural institutions with digitization projects to date and to summarize what has been learned about the advantages and disadvantages of digitizing culturally significant materials. As one might expect from the early years of growth of a populär yet experimental technology, the lessons learned vary greatly from one Institution to another. It is risky to generalize, but CLIR has been actively engaged in fostering the development of digital technologies for libraries, and we feel it is important to provide an early assessment of the impacts of new technologies on traditional library roles. What we have found is that digitization often raises expectations of benefits, cost reductions, and efficiencies that can be illusory and, if not viewed realistically, have the potential to put at risk the collections and Services libraries have provided for decades. One such false expectation that digital conversion has already or will shortly replace microfilming äs the preferred medium for preservation reformatting could result in irreversible losses of Information. This paper seeks not to raise false alarms, but to encourage every Professional responsible for some aspect of cultural custody to assess this new technology with a hopefulness tempered by patience and informed by experience.