Canada is one of the most educated countries in the world with the government spending approximately 6% of its GDP on education. However, the education system is not without issues of its own. One such issue is the lack of optimal accessibility; during the pandemic, the lack of in-person schooling as well as inadequate planning and structure online led to education systems highlighting the existing inequalities within the system as well as leaving students disengaged and vulnerable. Additionally, snow days are a common occurrence in Canada where severe weather results in school and university closures as it is nearly impossible for students to get to school, resulting in academic interruptions.
To combat the problem of accessibility and more, digital libraries are gaining popularity in Canada. A digital library can be described as a collection of online text, images, books, videos, and other documents targeted to make education more user-friendly and convenient. In regard to education systems in Canada, digital libraries are often curated by administrators and teachers to ensure students are following a certain syllabus. All in all, digital library providers such as Mintbook, help develop a unique learning experience that proves to be advantageous to both students and teachers. A few of the major benefits of digital libary include quick access, personalization, interactivity and collaboration, cost-effectiveness, and easy information retrieval.
Benefits of Having a Digital Book Library
- Quick Access: Digital libraries would provide students with immediate access to numerous collections of sources on various topics with the use of any smartphone device. Additionally, in contrast to an in-person Canadian community library where students would have to dedicate a great deal of time and effort to find source material that covers a specific topic, digital libraries are capable of providing the same material at a much faster pace. Furthermore, digital libraries often provide students with recommendations on similar research materials which aids in making their study more thorough and cohesive. Alternatively, educational institutes can build structured courses for students and link media from digital libraries within them. For instance, a student taking a course in Quantum Computing at a Canadian university using digital libraries would be able to access relevant course material, curated by the course professor and administrators, immediately and even remotely. Simultaneously, the student can explore their curiosity beyond the linked media within the course, by accessing the digital library platform and looking for pertinent titles under mathematics, physics, computer science, or other interdisciplinary fields. Digital library providers often categorize various text, videos, images, and documents into different headers depending on the subject they cover, however, they also equip the digital library to provide students with instantaneous search results from multiple headers depending on the buzzwords present within the media.
- Personalization: Digital library providers, such as Mintbook, provide both educational institutes as well as students with plenty of customization options. For starters, Canadian universities and schools can use digital libraries to easily create various customized courses. Most importantly, any alterations made to the customized courses by professors and administrators come into effect almost immediately, minimizing any miscommunication between teachers and students. Students can also personalize their digital library experience by customizing their dashboard, setting personal reading goals, bookmarking different media content, and adding notes to text and video materials. In-person courses in Canadian schools and universities often take a ‘one size fits all’ approach to education out of necessity and lack of sufficient resources. However, by incorporating a digital library, education institutes are able to cater to each individual student’s needs in a more consonant manner, reducing preferential treatment and discrimination; students are given the opportunity to customize how they would like to consume the learning material based on their independent learning style.
- Interactivity and Collaboration: Incorporating digital libraries within Canadian education institutes tends to allow for a greater flow of communication between multiple parties. As touched upon previously, any changes in course material made by professors is communicated instantly to students. Certain digital library platform providers also provide institutes with some form of learning management system which is essentially a virtual learning environment that allows organizations to create, document, and deliver learning material. The combination of a digital library and a learning management system helps build a collaborative atmosphere for a community of learners. Students can communicate with each other on online discussion forums and communicate with teachers using course-specific discussion forums; this is likely to boost overall participation as it reduces any anxiety associated with in-person class discussions. Additionally, students can react to each other’s comments and assignments which provides more instances for students to build upon each other’s research work and ask thought-provoking questions. Gamification is another popular element of digital libraries and learning management systems that allows students to engage in friendly competition with their peers; students can test their knowledge of the course material, challenge other students, and view and react to the leaderboard on their individual dashboards.
- Cost-effectiveness: The combination of multiple factors makes incorporating digital libraries within Canadian education institutes a more cost-effective option. Digital libraries have the capacity to mimic in-person classrooms without the need for physical classroom space, multiple external equipment, and various education staff; thereby, reducing costs associated with them. A singular highly qualified teacher would be able to reach a greater number of students than they would be able to do in a physical classroom. Additionally, any changes to the content being taught online can happen instantly with little to no cost, however, updating physical textbooks can be tedious and a very expensive process. Digital libraries and learning management systems also eliminate transportation costs that can be very high in certain Canadian areas that are prone to unpredictable weather.
- Easy Information Retrieval: Accessing information via digital libraries is not only a quicker process but is also more user-friendly. Most digital library providers install an AI chatbot along with the search bar in digital library platforms which allows students to both look up educational content easily and also refine their search by communicating with the chatbot. Without digital libraries, students would have to travel to a physical library and communicate with a qualified librarian to achieve similar results but this can be very time-consuming and anxiety-provoking to some students. As indicated previously, a smart device is the only requirement to be able to access digital library platforms; certain digital library providers have products in place that allow students to make use of digital library content even without access to the internet. One such product is an offline digital library called mBox, provided by Mintbook, which is a digital pocket library that contains preloaded educational material that can be accessed by students anywhere without the use of the internet. Products like mBox can prove to be a valuable asset for Canadian educational institutes in remote areas of the country or where weather conditions can severely impact access to the internet.
Evidently, e-libraries come with a variety of benefits for both administrators as well as students in Canadian educational institutes. With optimizing accessibility and customization, boosting interactivity, and minimizing costs being the key focus of digital library providers, the popularity of digital libraries is likely to continue to rise. To learn more about if a digital library might be the right option for your educational institute, schedule a free demo.
