Equitable access is currently compromised by the fact that the Internet has few connections outside the more populated parts of Canada, and those connections that do exist are slow. For a digital library to provide equitable access to information, it is imperative that the network have the same universal availability that the telephone system does. Payment Another, more important, question that must be answered is that of cost. This assumption runs counter to one of the fundamental principles on which libraries are based. It will be a cruel irony if the technology that holds so much promise for providing access to digital information to so many effectively restricts it to only the very few who can afford it.
Libraries preserve information.
Libraries with collections of materials in traditional formats have had to be concerned about climate control and the effects of acidic paper on the lifespan of books, but the preservation of digital information will make these time-consuming and costly problems look easy. For example, digital storage media are as yet fragile, with limited lifespans. To preserve digital information, digital libraries will have to migrate information continually from one digital hardware and software configuration to another. The cost of such migration is unknown, and there is no guarantee that future generations will have the funds to do this. This is one of the most difficult challenges to creating digital libraries.