Traditional & Digital Libraries - Group 7

Nowadays, we live with the up to date of technology, and everything is also affected
by it. Therefore, we have created more digital libraries to meet the current era. According to a
recent article, during the COVID-19 pandemic, digital libraries have risen to the occasion and
fulfilled human demands (Eric & Pratha, 2020). While many people choose the digital library
as an ideal place to read books, some still prefer the traditional library. So what are the
specific differences between traditional and digital libraries? There are several basic different
characteristics that we can easily realize: convenience, preservation and storage capacity.

Convenience is the primary and most significant distinction between digital and
traditional libraries. According to a recent article, "convenience also plays a part in choosing
to use or not to use the brick-and-mortar library, or how to access library resources after
hours or on the weekend" (Connaway, 2016). Traditional libraries are handier in discovering
reliable sources when looking for academic publications, while digital libraries are more
cautious. However, utilizing digital libraries results in greater time and energy savings.
People can simply search on their phones instead of going to the library to conduct some
research. They might not have to spend any money or travel to the library to borrow
anything; type in a search term, and a list of articles on the subject will appear.

Another difference between traditional and digital libraries is the preservation of book
resources. In traditional libraries, we must protect books from objective factors such as
weather, environment, and chemicals. In addition, our repeated use of books can cause
damage like the book is torn, the text is blurred, and they can easily get lost over time. Thus,
the digital library has an advantage in this respect because it overcomes the above
disadvantages. No matter how often a resource is accessed, it will not affect its condition
(Mintbook, 2020). Digital libraries will allow us to read many times while keeping the
originals of books and easily find old sources of books with minor damage. For these reasons,
digital libraries preserve book resources better than traditional libraries.

Another distinction between traditional and digital libraries is the storage capacity.
When we think of conventional libraries, the first thing that comes to mind is the brick-and-
mortar structures containing a mixture of books and other academic materials. Meanwhile,
the physical space is also the main limitation of traditional libraries as books consume much
of it, and people often have to walk around searching for a particular material. Nevertheless,
there is no such restriction in the case of digital libraries. They can store thousands of
resources without any difficulties thanks to the Internet and cloud storage. For instance, The
National Library of VietNam has about 2.5 million pieces of content stored in more than
three regional languages. In such digital libraries, you can find digital repositories, digital
collections, and online databases of digital objects that may include text, still images, audio,
video, digital documents, or other digital media formats. They could also contain annotation
tools like notes, highlighters and dictionaries (2022). In a nutshell, unlike a traditional library,
a digital library may provide all the resources you wish since its storage capacity is not
restricted by physical space.

In summary, convenience, preservation, and storage capacity are three prominent

features in comparing digital and traditional libraries. In the current 4.0 technology era,
digital libraries have become the choice of many people because of their outstanding
convenience. With a smartphone or laptop, people can quickly access the digital library and
read the documents they want. In the future, digital libraries can be improved with more
utilities to serve people's reading needs in an era of technology and digital development.

References

Eric, F. & Pratha, P.D. (2020). Digital libraries can ensure continuity as Covid-19 puts
brake to academic activity. https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/digital-libraries-can-
ensure-continuity-covid-19-puts-brake-academic-activity

Connaway, L.S. (2016). Is anything more important than convenience?

https://blog.oclc.org/next/is-anything-more-important-than-convenience/

Mintbook (2020). Features of a Digital Library. https://mintbook.com/blog/features-digital-

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Difference between traditional and digital library. (2022). https://limbd.org/difference-

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