Digital libraries are organized collections of information resources and associated tools for creating, archiving, sharing, searching, and using information that can be accessed electronically. Digital libraries differ from traditional libraries in that they exist in the "cyber world" of computers and the Internet rather than in the "brick and mortar world" of physical buildings. Digital libraries can store any type of information resource (often referred to as documents or objects) as long as the resource can be represented electronically. Examples include hypertexts, archival images, computer simulations, digital video, and, most uniquely, real-time scientific data such as temperature readings from remote meteorological instruments connected to the Internet.

The digitization of resources enables easy and rapid access to, as well as manipulation of, digital library content. The content of a digital library object (such as a hypertext of George Orwell's novel, 1984) includes both the data inherent in the...