Digital Libraries In a Nutshell
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Transcript of Digital Libraries In a Nutshell
Digital LibrariesIn a Nutshell
The California Digital Library
Roy Tennant
Outline
The VisionDefinitionsPerspectives
Research Production
Services Collections
How to Keep Current
The Vision
Anyone, anywhere, will be able to easily locate and use any image, text, database, or other type of digital resource — often in sophisticated ways or in association with other related objects
The only requirements: access to the Internet authorization or payment if required
Definitions: Part I
“electronic” information stored and accessed by
electronic devices“digital”
information stored and accessed by computers (an electronic device)
“virtual” in essence rather than in actual fact
Definitions: Part II
From the Association of Research Libraries -http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/ARL/definition.html
Not a single entity Requires technology to link the resources of many Linkages are transparent to the user Collections are not limited to document
surrogates, but include items that are exclusively digital
Perspectives: Research
Research Perspective Goal: to further knowledge Participants: computer
science/library/information science faculty, a few line librarians
Example:U.S. Digital Library Initiatives (also called the
National Science Foundation DL projects)
Sample Research Issues
Advanced search techniques e.g., query by image content
Federation of large, disparate, and distant collections
Complex digital object behaviors GIS overlays, moving image navigation,
etc.
Perspectives: Production
Production Perspective Goal: to create digital library collections
and services Participants: libraries (mainly larger
research libraries, but not exclusively) Examples:
Library of Congress American Memory (memory.loc.gov/)
eLib Programme (www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/)Digital Library Federation (www.clir.org/diglib/)
Production Issues
ServicesCollections
Selecting Acquiring Organizing Providing Access Preserving
Services
The challenge: providing services when and where they are needed
Examples: Guides to Internet resources
Librarians’ Index - lii.org/KidsClick! - kidsclick.org/
Network-based referenceReference 24x7 -
247ref.org/
Selecting Digital Material
The process: how do you discover what is available? how can you evaluate the quality of resources? how can cost effectiveness be determined? (books
remain, databases frequently don’t)Considerations:
Purchase or license agreement funding source infrastructure required staff time to mount and maintain
Selecting Material to Digitize
Focus on unique materials that are likely to have broad interest
Build on strengths (seek critical mass)Consider infrastructure requiredConsider technical limitations
Acquiring: Digital Collections
The digital acquisition continuum:
New procedures and workflows are required tape loading, scanning, format translation, etc.
linking mirroring hosting archiving
Amount of ResponsibilityLESS MORE
Acquiring: Non-Digital Collections
Digitization methods: scanner (flatbed, slide, handheld, etc.) digital camera:
low-resolution - $US300-3,000+high-resolution - $US25,000-35,000+
Kodak PhotoCDAdditional step for text
conversion Optical Character Recognition
or Re-keying
Acquiring: Image File Formats
Archival version: high-resolution TIFFOnline versions:
Preview: low-resolution GIF Full: medium-resolution JPEG High: med./high-resolution JPEG or TIFF
Up-and-coming: MrSID, Flashpix, PNG
Acquiring: Text File Formats
Original: MS Word, Adobe
Pagemaker, etc.Adobe AcrobatPlain textHTMLSGML or XML
Organizing: Naming and Addressing
Object naming: Objects should be named in a fashion that
promotes longevity (e.g., stay away from any kind of implied meaning)
Object addressing: URLs (www.w3.org) DOI/Handles (www.cnri.reston.va.us) PURLs (purl.org) ARKs (www.ckm.ucsf.edu/people/jak/home/)
Organizing: Metadata
Structured description of an object or collection of objects
Three basic types: descriptive — e.g., title, creator, subject —
used for discovery administrative — e.g., resolution, bit depth
— used for managing the collection structural — e.g., table of contents page,
page 34, etc. — used for navigation
Organizing: Metadata
Appropriate standards or draft standards: Collection Level:
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) -lcweb.loc.gov/ead/
Item Level:MARCDublin Core - dublincore.orgMETS - www.loc.gov/standards/mets/
Providing Access
How can we make our resources easily available to a diversity of users with a multiplicity of purposes?
How can we integrate access to both print and digital resources?
How can we interoperate with other digital collections?
Preserving
Accepted preservation methods: Acid-free paper microfilm photographic reproduction
The digital preservation strategy:: Storing Refreshing Migrating
The single most important aspect: institutional commitment
Interoperability
The capability of two or more different digital collections to be used as one in a transparent fashion
One example: Open Archives Initiative:
http://www.openarchives.org/Requires standards (at minimum) or a
common platform
How to Keep Current
Electronic Discussions: DIGLIB: www.ifla.org/II/lists/diglib.html Web4Lib: sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/ XML4Lib: sunsite.berkeley.edu/XML4Lib/
Publications: “Digital Libraries” column in LJ —
libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com D-Lib Magazine — www.dlib.org Current Cites — sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/ RLG DigiNews — www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/