Online Libraries

Today online libraries are an important component of information retrieval services, offering access to a wide range of information and media materials for the benefit of users ranging from researches in the world of academe to people seeking relaxation and entertainment. With the development of computer technology through the 20th century, the ability to offer the use of a online library to the general public has been a common goal, which went through many important steps on the way to its present day availability. As work took place for creating the foundations of the technology that lies behind the existence of online libraries in the 1960s, several experimental systems were implemented at the centers for digital research, but without the degree of successful development that would have allowed these systems to be offered for the general use of the public. In the next decade, systems were first successfully created in United States academic settings that could provide for the general availability of online libraries to broad academic populations and the general public. Ohio State University in 1975 and the Dallas Public Library in 1978 created the earliest large scale programs for cataloging media and information materials for the purposes required by an online library, while the first system for allowing a wide public access to online libraries was created by a librarian from the Boston area, Alicia Paige,who then founded an electronics company for the purpose of commercially offering the system she had developed.

The earliest foundations of the creation of online library systems consisted of technology intended to closely mimic the models that up to that time had been used for the cataloging of references in a card catalog. Online libraries at this time would consist of a limited number of indexes for various kinds of information that were organized according to one paradigm and could be thus accessed through a computer terminal in the electronic equivalent to flipping through a card catalog. The basis for this access to information was provided by terminal or telnet clients. The 1980s saw a gradual improvement in the kind of online library capabilities that were available, with commercially offered systems taking the place of internally developed online libraries. New functions were introduced for widening the array of searches available to users, such as those based on basic keywords. Another capacity that was added to online library systems was that of the ability to place holds and requests for various kinds of material. At the same time, another development taking place in the world of online libraries was occurring that initially had less of an impact on public and academic users. This shift took the form of the creation of integrated library systems, which existed to organize and coordinate the internal operations of libraries. In time, a service was offered to the general public in the form of access to the catalog section of these systems. The nineteen nineties brought new creativity into online library technology in the form of search engines.