Information technologies have been quite firmly established in the people lives of all ages, social status, nationality, gender, etc. Regardless of whether a person wants to take up the latest technologies or prefer conservatism, the modern world left him little choice – to take an active part in public life, study or work, you need to at least be able to use some of the technical tools to search for information in Internet and possess other skills.
Over recent years, e-libraries get more and more popularity and importance for anyone who is interested in or looking for books. These libraries have many advantages over conventional – any user can for a few seconds find the right publication, regardless of his/her location, time of day it is required for him/her, etc.
Interestingly, the first e-library was named “Project Gutenberg”, and it appeared in 1971. This was a project that basically had public initiatives on creation and distribution of world literature in text format.
Most of the texts were in English, as its creator, Michael Hart was an American and then studied at the University of Illinois. By 2010, the oldest e-library in the world announced that its server stored 34,000 texts.
Any electronic library involves quite a wide choice of specialized literature or fiction, convenient categories, the ability to download a book and use the various pieces of the text on your own (meaning the physical use of the text, while in the context of the current legislation, the knowledge about the use of media, each user must remember the copyright laws).
Today training in higher education institution is almost impossible without the use of e-library resources. Some teachers and students welcome this innovation, while others believe that the use of e-libraries reduces the interest of students for search work, makes the finding of information easier and more affordable without raising students’ responsibility and attitudes to learning.
One of the benefits of using e-library is the ability to gain access to the rarest publications (which the student is unable to take from the usual library due to the remoteness of the storage place from his residence, the lack of tolerance for the passage to the library, etc.). It is in e-libraries, students often find rare and interesting information which contributes to a more extensive study of a subject or topic.
E-library can be used by anyone, regardless of age, occupation, interests or preferences. Here you will find material for fans of classical literature and contemporary directions in literature, technical documentation and specialized publications. Even the youngest readers will be able to choose various children’s stories, fairy tales and poems in these e-libraries.
And also it is important that students using resources of e-libraries save a lot of time and can spend it on self-education. It became much easier to quote statements of various writers and artists – there is no need to enter large amounts of text manually – just select them in the electronic version of the book and paste into the work.
Opponents of the use of e-libraries in education argue that with the advent of the information age, students do not want to read, and try to download anything from the Internet. In this case, it may be noted that a student who does not want to learn, somehow find a way to not pay proper attention to his studies. At the same time, for students who wish to obtain more knowledge, the Internet and e-libraries provide almost unlimited possibilities. That is expensive experience.
