Research and Education Networks (REN) established by the universities around the world are now opening up whole new set of possibilities to exploit information technology in higher education [1,4]. Nowhere the benefit of REN is as vivid as it is in the transformation of the libraries and the emergence of digital libraries (DL). The libraries of the world are currently undergoing revolutionary changes [2]. Research library provides two core function- (a) collection and archiving of human knowledge and (b) scholarly communication- dissemination of quality scientific knowledge. Digital technology is transforming both. Grand projects are now underway to digitize all available books that mankind posses. Some estimate as much as 10 million[1] books will be freely available on our desktops in few years. Some of the most valuable resources used to be available only to the limited scholars in the developed world. But now one can ‘scroll’ the intricate details of original Diamond Sutra- which its original printer Wang Jie “reverently made for universal free distribution on behalf of his two parents” in 868 AD, or literally ‘turn’ the pages of Sultan Bayber’s magnificent Quran (digital library of British Library, 2005). Scholarly materials now can be made universally available irrespective of time and distance constraints.

The tree of modern knowledge has transcended into numerous branches of specializations. The area of scholarly communication is now served by a whopping 43,000+ active journals and periodicals [11]. RENs make it possible full-text resources from at least 14,000 of these to be delivered right at the user's desktop in any part of the world in seconds. There is now new tool for indexing, abstracting, cross-referencing. Integrated electronic processing is also being used to dramatically reduce the edit and publishing time.

Potential benefits of digital libraries are more pronounced for the libraries of the developing countries. An average US university spends about US$ 5 million in journals and periodicals, about US$ 2 million in monographs. It has about 3-8 million books and subscribes about 22,500 serials, and it adds about 30,000 books per year [2]. These are astronomical figures (20-150 times more) compared to the ability of most university in the developing world. For developing world the cost of collection and archiving of traditional print media is becoming prohibitively expensive. Particularly, hard hit areas are cost of periodicals and technological journals. Many libraries are rapidly shrinking. Digital content reduces the cost to a library by a factor of ten [3]. A federated model further shrinks the cost per institution. It seems developing countries can benefit more from the digital library technology. Digital technology might be the only way to narrow this access gap.

Table-1 Some National University Libraries Around South Asia
Institution	Books	Serials	DL
Jauharlal Nehru University, India	500,000	800	Yes
Bombay University, India	700,000	n/a	Yes
Chepauk Library, Madras University, India	509,263	642	Yes
Calcutta University, India	800,000	795	Yes
Punjub University, Pakistan	442,300	N/A	Yes
LUMS, Pakistan	52,000	325	Yes
Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan	195,000	276	Yes
University of Colombo, Sri Lanka	400,000	970	Yes
Tribhuvan University, Nepal	n/a	n/a	No
Royal University of Bhutan	n/a	n/a	No
University of Malaya Library, Malaysia	1,239,749	3631	Yes
Maldives has no University	X	x	x
Dhaka University, Bangladesh	550,000