Contexts and Contributions: Building the Distributed Library

This report updates and expands on A Survey of Digital Library Aggregation Services, originally commissioned by the DLF as an internal report in summer 2003, and released to the public later that year. It highlights major developments affecting the ecosystem of scholarly communications and digital libraries since the last survey and provides an analysis of OAI implementation demographics, based on a comparative review of repository registries and cross-archive search services. Secondly, it reviews the state-of-practice for a cohort of digital library aggregation services, grouping them in the context of the problem space to which they most closely adhere. Based in part on responses collected in fall 2005 from an online survey distributed to the original core services, the report investigates the purpose, function and challenges of next-generation aggregation services. On a case-by-case basis, the advances in each service are of interest in isolation from each other, but the report also attempts to situate these services in a larger context and to understand how they fit into a multi-dimensional and interdependent ecosystem supporting the worldwide community of scholars. Finally, the report summarizes the contributions of these services thus far and identifies obstacles requiring further attention to realize the goal of an open, distributed digital library system

Strategies for Sustaining Digital Libraries

This collection of essays is a report of early findings from pioneers who have worked to establishdigital libraries, not merely as experimental projects, but as ongoing services and collectionsintended to be sustained over time in ways consistent with the long-held practices of print-basedlibraries. Particularly during this period of extreme technological transition, it is imperative thatprograms across the nation – and indeed the world – actively share their innovations,experiences, and techniques in order to begin cultivating new isomorphic, or commonly held,practices. The collective sentiment of the field is that we must begin to transition from apunctuated, project-based mode of advancing innovative information services to an ongoingprogrammatic mode of sustaining digital libraries for the long haul

Sustaining Collection Value: Managing Collection/Item Metadata Relationships

Many aspects of managing collection/item metadata relationships are critical to sustaining collection value over time. Metadata at the collection-level not only provides context for finding, understanding, and using the items in the collection, but is often essential to the particular research and scholarly activities the collection is designed to support. Contemporary retrieval systems, which search across collections, usually ignore collection level metadata. Alternative approaches, informed by collection-level information, will require an understanding of the various kinds of relationships that can obtain between collection-level and item-level metadata. This paper outlines the problem and describes a project that is developing a logic-based framework for classifying collection-level/item-level metadata relationships. This framework will support (i) metadata specification developers defining metadata elements, (ii) metadata librarians describing objects, and (iii) system designers implementing systems that help users take advantage of collection-level metadata.Institute for Museum and Libary Services (Grant #LG06070020)published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

A Survey of Digital Library Aggregation Services

This report provides an overview of a diverse set of more than thirty digital library aggregation services, organizes them into functional clusters, and then evaluates them more fully from the perspective of an informed user. Most of the services under review rely wholly or partially on the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), although some of them predate its inception and a few use predominantly Z39.50 protocols. In the opening section of this report, each service is annotated with its organizational affiliation, subject coverage, function, audience, status, and size. Critical issues surrounding each of these elements are presented in order to provide the reader with an appreciation of the nuances inherent in seemingly straightforward factual information, such as audience or size. Each service is then grouped into one of five functional clusters: • open access e-print archives and servers; • cross-archive search services and aggregators; • from digital collections to digital library environments; • from peer-reviewed referratories to portal services; • specialized search engines

Sustainability for digital libraries

Economic sustainability is a pressing concern for many digital library projects. One key to achieving economic sustainability is to make the digital library an integral part of its parent organisation. This can be done by having a sound product, launched at the right stage, and valued by users. Influential champions for the digital library are also required and librarians must be prepared to network and cultivate useful contacts. Funding sources can include sponsorship, in-kind support, fee charging and the ultimate aim, integration

Integrating a digital library and a traditional library: Librarians and scientists collaborating for sustainability

ABSTRACT. With the proliferation of digitized materials and digital libraries, academic librarians have an opportunity to use their metadata and database design expertise to cultivate relationships with faculty and digital-object users. This article describes how librarians at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) have made an effort to expand access to resources in a digital library both in their library catalog and in WorldCat

Digital Library Federation (DLF) Aquifer Project

In January 2005, the Digital Library Federation (DLF) renewed its commitment to developing a distributed open digital library by assigning a full time project director to lead the initiative. Called DLF Aquifer to symbolize the pooling of content into a community resource, and the piping or siphoning of content to meet specific needs, the collaboration amongst a subset of DLF member libraries has produced standards, reports, and prototypes over the past year. The work was accomplished through four working groups focused on services, technology/architecture, metadata, and collections, with additional participation by library staff at DLF Aquifer institutions. One prototype was created through a collaboration that extended beyond DLF membership. This project update highlights "Phase I" DLF Aquifer deliverables and provides a brief overview of future plans. Additional details, including the DLF Aquifer business plan, working group rosters, and mode of operation can be found on the DLF Aquifer web site. A list of participating institutions is included here, as an appendix