Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Define the mission and main components of a Chinese digital library
• Describe the differences among international digital libraries, information professionals and services
• Describe issues and challenges on digitization technologies and practices
• Describe the construction and the structure of a digital information collection
• Describe the principles and standards of resource description
• Describe the information technologies used in digital library operation
• Describe how practices of digital librarianship apply to and differ between countries and traditional libraries; explore issues and trends influencing the development and structure of digital libraries; and follow the evolution of the digital library. (Back to the top)

Highlights/Samples of Coursework:

This summer course provided me with an extraordinary opportunity to travel to China to study the practice of digital libraries and services as well as current information technologies provided in China. My Journal of Professional and Cultural Exploration (PDF) details the two-week itinerary where we met library and information professionals, during our visits to five libraries, two information and library science schools, and one digital library provider. The purpose of the visits was to learn development and construction of digital libraries, observe digitization activities on rare books, archives and/or special collections, acquire hands-on knowledge of the technical aspects of database construction and develop professional competences. In addition, the visits to nine UNESCO World Heritage Sites offered a preliminary understanding of the Chinese culture that will serve me as I progress in my library career. Many issues were raised during the program regarding the creation, maintenance, and use of the digital library services such as collaboration and cooperation between institutions, resources sharing and collection development, use and implementation of technology, and net environmental policies. For the course’s special topics paper, I focused on an issue that is challenging digital libraries worldwide. The Evaluation of Digital Libraries Systems’ Usability and Performance through User Perception gave me insight that digital library users expect the same standardization of usability, as they are accustomed to with the Internet along with a high quality collection that they can evaluate for credibility.