ABSTRACT
In discussing the electronic library various terms have been used almost interchangeably: the electronic library, the virtual library and the digital library. The term the Hybrid Library is used to denote a mixed collection of traditional paper and electronic sources. At the most basic level a library has been traditionally thought of as a building with carefully selected and pre-determined resources in it. Although the electronic library is not like this it does have some traditional characteristics like being at least partly housed in a building and requiring the support of professional staff although some of these will not be librarians. However, the electronic library entails a movement away from the library as place. The Equinox project defines a library collection as ‘All information resources provided by a library for its users. Comprises resources held locally and remote resources for which access has been acquired, at least for a certain period of time’. The definition offered by the Equinox Project (Equinox 1999) of electronic library services is—‘The electronic documents and databases the library decides to make available in its collections, plus the library OPAC and home page’.
