Organisation-oriented super-peer networks for digital libraries

Abstract. The transition from traditional paper libraries to digital libraries enables new strategies for the use and maintenance of artifact collections. We present an organisation-oriented super-peer network which represents the organisational structures of distributed digital libraries in a natural way and is able to integrate distributed resources as well as local devices. Organisational structures can be considered in searching and accessing distributed services and documents. The approach leads to a generalized support for the self-organisation of widely distributed, loosely coupled, and autonomous digital library systems which can be structured by arbitrary inter- and intra-organisational relationships.