An effective networked information infrastructure must not only be technologically advanced, but also socially functional and readily accessible. Libraries have the added obligation, as public institutions, of trying to create a dynamic and open system in the most economic way possible where information, not data, is the primary currency.
As the article “Data Compression Basics” indicates, compression allows large amounts of information to be stored in smaller spaces. This is especially important for libraries because data storage is an important component of digital libraries and can help lower the budget costs for libraries. More importantly, it enables libraries to showcase information and become actively involved in a networked information service.
The articles “Imaging Pittsburgh” and “YouTube and Libraries” demonstrate that data compression allows for interactive media and exhibits that assist people not only with the functions of the library but provides access to educational and historical resources, normally limited by their analog format, and provides interoperability between different institutions. In this way, the multimedia fulfills the technical, social and access requirements of a functional network information infrastructure. Cooperation between academic and social libraries also helps create universal metadata definitions which is important to maintain a universal bibliography.
IMLS grants that finance pilot projects like the University of Pittsburgh’s Digital Research Library are crucial because they not only provide the budget for requisite technological advances that libraries couldn’t normally afford, but they also allow libraries to demonstrate their compatibility with modern digital infrastructures.
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