Conclusions

The ultimate goal of the DLs and VLEs is to support and enable the quality of teaching and learning experiences. All the human and organizational issues of the integration of digital libraries and VLEs in the context of academic libraries show the problems and challenges that the library profession is facing in the digital age. Since academic libraries seem to have always brought innovations in the library and information science field, reflections and well informed and intelligent decisions would have an impact on what libraries will become technically and organizationally. It is suggested that integration should be the catch word, in the design, re-design, implementation, and maintenance of digital libraries and VLEs. It demands the academic institution's management to strategically embrace the needs of the learners in such a competitive and ever changing academic settings. But it also calls for both communities to bring robust and informed theoretical and conceptual frameworks to their practices.

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Sirje Virkus, Tallinn University, 2010