The DAISY Standard: Entering the Global Virtual Library

The emergence of the modern information society and the rapid development of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has spurred libraries serving visually impaired people to cooperate globally in order to manage the transition from analog to digital services. The formation of the DAISY Consortium in 1996 led to the concept and fundamental ideas of the digital talking book. The result is an international standard for digital talking books, which is now becoming a multimedia standard. DAISY has developed new partnerships, new working methods, and new ways of thinking. The digital vision has improved library services to print-impaired people and changed the participating libraries themselves. Today some DAISY libraries are close to becoming fully digitized, and DAISY technology is heading into mainstream use. Users may soon be entering a global virtual library, and the DAISY experience may in many aspects serve as a model for future library developments.