DIGITAL LIBRARIES

 

There are many digital libraries all around the world. They all are very well known but in this article I’m going to mention only on two of them:  on the one hand, The British Library (BL) and on the other hand, the Darlington Digital Library; in which I’m going to center the most.

The British Library (BL): the national library of the United Kingdom

The British Library is one of the biggest research libraries in the world. It is situated in the city of London. It possesses over 150 million articles which are in different languages and formats (books, journals, newspapers, sound and music recordings, magazines, maps, etc.).

The Darlington Digital Library

As it is said in its web: “The Darlington Digital Library was created from the first major collection of books, manuscripts, atlases, and maps donated to the University of Pittsburgh. Most of the credit for assembling the Darlington Collection rightly goes to William M. Darlington, an attorney by profession who was born in Pittsburgh in 1815”.

THE E-BOOK

What is an e-book?

On the one hand, the e-book is the electronic or digital version of a book. They are generally read on personal computers, on smart phones, on e-Readers and on e-book devices. There are also some mobile phones which can be used to read e-books.

But on the other hand, the e-book is also considered a device which is used to read this digital version of a book. In this case, any device that posses memory and a screen can be used as a electronic book.

 

The main differences between an e-book and a printed book:

Firstly, I want to point out that he printed book or the traditional book, is easier to use than the electronic book; taking into account that the last one has certain limitations due to the screen whereby we read the text. In addition, it’s important to bear in mind that the electronic book promotes the hipertextuality. Owing to this fact, we can carry out a more interesting and entertaining reading of a book. Through the phenomenon of the hypertext, we can go by from one text to another without any limit. Besides,the digital book can be used to carry through investigations and achieve different information.

Another divergence between these different types of book, is that the traditional book is static and passive (it doesn’t operate on cognitive processes) whereas the printed one is dynamic (it updates and adapts the reader’s profile) and also intelligent (it processes, elaborates, selects, translates…).

 

El Siglo XVIII

La Enciclopedia Francesa:

 La enciclopedia es el conjunto de 17 volúmenes que se editaron en París, en 1751-1772. Esto fue llevado a cabo gracias a Denis Diderot y Jean Le Rond d’Alambert. El objetivo era divulgar las ideas de la Ilustración francesa.  Las ideas de la Ilustración francesa, defienden la crítica y el uso de la razón ante todos los campos del saber.

 En la enciclopedia francesa entre muchas otras cosas, se manifestaba: la crítica y la acometida contra los prejuicios, la ignorancia y el error, el cuidado al hora de definir y fijar de forma adecuada los conceptos; la defensa de las libertades (como la libertad de expresión); el escepticismo y el empirismo.

 Por otra parte, tenemos que tener en cuenta que la historia ha considerado la enciclopedia  como: el escaparate de las ideas de la ilustración francesa y también como una de las obras más libres del pensamiento.

 La prensa: The Tatler and The Spectator