These four examples, at different stages of development and deployment, hint at the immense range of digital libraries. From the perspective of ordinary people, libraries often seem scholarly and esoteric. But they are
not
necessarily
so.
Practical
topics
are
of
interest
to
practical
people
like
Kataayi’members.
Academic
libraries
have
as
their
purpose
research
and
education:
high-energy
physicists
already
base
their
research
activity
on
electronic
document
collections.
Digital
libraries
offer
unique
ways
of
recording,
preserving,
and
propagating
culture
in
multimedia
form.
Collections
that
reflect
popular
taste
in
music
(or
film,
or
TV)
have
already
become
mass-market
consumer
products,
with
delivery
to
teenagers
on
miniature,
mobile,
Web-capable,
pocket
devices.