World Digital Libraries- An International Journal
Year : 2008, Volume : 1, Issue : 1
First page : ( 19) Last page : ( 26)
Print ISSN : 0974-567X. Online ISSN : 0975-7597.

E-research: A new genre of digital library services

Taha Ahmed

Jimi Business and Engineering Library, UAE University

Research and e-information services specialist, Jimi Business and Engineering Library, Jimi Campus-1, UAE University, P.O. Box 17555, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates. Tel. + (971)-3 738937; Fax: + (971)-3 7133325; E-mail: jazraby@mail2uae.com

Online published on 25 November, 2013.

Abstract

The pervasive use of Internet and ICT (information and communication technology) in many learning and research settings has greatly enhanced the phenomenal growth of a wide array of digital applications and utilization to expand significantly throughout the chain of eLTR (e-learning, e-teaching, and e-research) arenas. The DL (digital library) primarily benefited the most from the powerful capabilities of the Web to enhance friendly search and retrieval across multidisciplinary domains to promote e-information dissemination within networked environment. Concomitantly, scholarly use of Internet has facilitated the Web-based research (e-research), which furnished a platform for developing innovative research practices, modelling, simulation, and quality test within virtual laboratory environment. Should the DL view e-research as a new domain of information service? Many studies on using the Web for scholarly research have provided strong evidence to consider e-research as a new challenging domain for DL services, since the DLs have become more obligated to answer the growing information needs of the e-research community over 24×7. Integrating DL resources with e-research process has therefore, become, a highly urgent necessity in e-learning environment. This work sketches the potential of DL e-services for actively endorsing e-research activities. Conceptual model representing interoperability between the two e-domains is presented.

Top