Toward a worldwide digital library

advanced forms of information systems because they often involve collaboration support, digital document preservation, distributed database management, hypertext, information filtering , information retrieval, instructional modules, intellectual property rights management, multimedia information services, question answering and reference services, resource discovery, and selective dissemination of information. While physical libraries develop digital components and other business and cultural organizations offer their materials over networks, thousands of digital libraries are emerging around the world, crossing all disciplines and media and ranging from the small, such as community organizations offering online catalogs and news for local constituencies, to the large, such as national libraries offering a wide variety of research and cultural treasures in multiple media.