Open AccessThe dynamics of primary source and electronic resource: The digital renaissance and the post‐reformation digital library
Author(s) -
Ballor Jordan J.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
bulletin of the american society for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1550-8366
pISSN - 0095-4403
DOI - 10.1002/bult.2012.1720380405
Subject(s) - digitization , upload , digital library , resource (disambiguation) , variety (cybernetics) , cataloging , world wide web , computer science , the renaissance , history , art , telecommunications , art history , literature , computer network , poetry , artificial intelligence
Editor's Summary The transition from mechanical printing to electronic information dissemination amounts to a digital renaissance, enabling primary source documents to be reborn as electronic resources. For history scholars, this presents opportunities and challenges for preserving centuries‐old original texts in a digital environment, supporting downloading and digital access and presenting original research. The Post‐Reformation Digital Library (PRDL) serves as a case study, capturing a select set of resources on theology and philosophy of the 15th to 18th centuries from a variety of physical locations and digital libraries. Through digitization, digital access and systematic cataloging, the PRDL – along with the database, social networking and dedicated website it has prompted – are helping to overcome barriers to access. Though a modest initiative, the progress of the PRDL demonstrates possibilities for rediscovering historical materials and making them available for modern scholarly studies.