Introduction to Digital Libraries

Adapted from lectures by

Dr. Jianqiang Wang, UB DLIS

And

Dr. Andrew Large, McGill University

Agenda• What is a digital library?

– Examples and definitions

• Why develop (or not develop) digital libraries?– Benefits and challenges for users, libraries, etc.

• How to build digital libraries?– Technology, content, service, community

Plan

• History

• Definitions

• Advantages

• Issues

The Rise of Digital LibrariesBegan with projects to provide access to full text of electronic

journals:

• Mercury Electronic Library Project (1989-92) – Carnegie Mellon University – campus-wide DL of CS articles

• CORE (Chemistry Online Retrieval Experiment) – (early 1990s) – Cornell, OCLC, ACS, CAS, Bellcore – chemistry journals

• TULIP (The University Licensing Project) – 1991-95 - Elsevier + 9 US universities – digitized 43 Elsevier journals

But the term “digital library” not employed

Digital Library Initiative, 1994-1998

Supported by NSF, NASA & DARPA

To develop methods to collect, store & organize digital information, and to make it available for searching, retrieval & processing via communication networks. Supported research in data capture, metadata, browsing, searching & networking

Six projects funded in US universities

DLI-2, 1998-2004

Sponsored by 8 US agencies (including NLM & LC).• To extend research in promising DL areas• To accelerate development, management &

accessibility of digital content & collections• To create new opportunities for DLs to serve existing

& new user communities• To encourage study of interactions between humans

& DLs in various social & organizational contexts• 36 projects funded

DL Program in UK

• eLib (Electronic Libraries) Programme 1994-

Supported D rather than R:• Digitization• Digital preservation• Electronic document delivery

Has funded + 70 projects

DL Program in CanadaCanadian Initiative on Digital Libraries – alliance of

libraries and other orgs collaborating to ensure better use of digital information and better service to users.

Issues:• Digitization• Rights management• Long-term archiving• Access policies• Metadata• Digital preservation• Promotion• Advocacy• ……

DL “Design Space Dimensions”(Marchionini & Fox, 1999)

• Technology – networking, IRS, interfaces• Content – collection of materials• Community – social, economic, political &

cultural – libraries function to help individuals and communities communicate

• Services – to serve needs of users

Definitions

• Computer science digital library = database of full-text digital objects

retrievable via metadata

• Librarianship Digital library = collection of digital objects selected

according to a collection policy for a specific user community; accompanied by cataloguing records; preserved for future generations

Digital Libraries

So: DLs now seen : as an extension of, enhancement of, and integration with physical places where resources are selected, collected, organized, preserved, and accessed in support of a user community.

These places may be libraries

But they might also be museums, archives, art galleries or other other community settings, including classrooms, offices, laboratories, homes and public spaces.

Digital-Physical Library

• Some DLs are autonomous “virtual” institutions

• But many DLs exist as a part of a “physical” library

So What is a Digital Library?

• Encompasses two ideas:1. “a set of electronic resources and associated

technical capabilities for creating, searching and using information…”

2. “constructed, collected, organized by (and for) a community of users, and their functional capabilities support the information needs and uses of that community…”

Christine L. Borgman

Core Attributes of DL

• Electronic digital formats• Networked (shareable information)• Organization apparent (a library not a pile)

– Collection development policy– Systematic data structuring and tagging

• Use (fair) policy• Persistent• Guidance and referral • Community-based

Gary Marchionini

Questions

• Is the Web a digital library?

• Is the UB library’s OPAC a digital library?

• Is Google a digital library?

• Is Amazon a digital library?

DL Advantages: UsersIn the main, the advantages of digital collections:

• Resource richness• Multimedia content• Remote access• Distributed access• Ease of access• Ease of searching/browsing• Ease of manipulation

Advantages: Librarians

• No physical storage• No physical handling• Help with preservation

Issues• Interoperability• Standards• Metadata• Interface design• Information retrieval• Data display• Equity of access• Intellectual property rights• Conservation• Preservation• User authentication• Management• Future of physical libraries

Interoperability

Ability of 2 or more systems to exchange information and then to use that information

“Task of building coherent services for users when the individual components are technically different and managed by different organizations” (Arms, 2000)

Standards

“an explicit definition that can be communicated, that is not subject to unilateral change without notice, and that, if properly followed, will yield predictable and consistent results” (Crawford, 1991)

DLs involve many standards:• Metadata• Presentation –character encoding, formats• Document locators – URLs, URNs• Protocols

Metadata

“data associated with objects which relieves their potential users of having to have full advance knowledge of their existence or characteristics” (Dempsey & Heery, 1998)

MARC

Dublin Core

EAD (Encoded Archival Description)

Dublin Core metadata automatically generated from a web

page by the Dublin Core Metadata Editor

Interface Design

“that part of a computer and its software that people can see, hear, touch, talk to, or otherwise understand or direct” (Galitz, 2002)

• Input component• Output component

Most DLs use web-based interfacesConventional & non-conventionalDifferent user communitiesPersonalizationLanguage and cultural factors

Why Do Librarians Work on DLs?

• Digital libraries are the logical extensions of physical libraries– Amplify existing resources and services

• Digital libraries are the logical augmentations of physical libraries– Enables new kinds of human problem solving and

expression

Librarians’ Topics on DL

• Improve the services– The future role of libraries– Digitalization – Organization, access and preservation of digital

objects – Management issues– Relations to publishers– Etc.

Why Do Stakeholders Work on DL?

• “Powerful tool, new market”

• Wide usage of computers– Information is much more easily available and

accessible

Stakeholders’ Topics on DL

• Get the benefits– Governments: how to bridge the gap in societies– Publishers: how to use new distribution methods

and competitive means– Teachers: how to use the new media and content

for teaching– Scientists: how to make DLs help our studies

Extracted from Edward A Fox “Digital Libraries”

DLs and Other Topics

• DL vs Information Architecture– Traditional library and printing as means of information transfer– Digital library and Internet/Web as means of information transfer

• DL vs Information Technology– DL is a subtopic of IT, where IT is much broader

• DL vs Information Retrieval– Big overlap between the two. IR concentrates on how to allow people

to access the information, DLs also the whole process of collecting, representing, organizing, retrieving, and managing information

• DL vs Database– Databases are used as tools for DL storage of information, but

databases concentrate on representing structured data, DLs can handle unstructured, semi-structured and structured data

Questions to Librarians

• Are DLs a threat or an opportunity?

• Will there be a future for librarians in DLs?

• What can librarians do in DLs?

• As an individual and as a profession, what should librarians do to enhance their future in the new era?

DL Design Space

Adapted from Marchionini & Fox 1999

Technology

Services

Content

Community

Technologies• Infrastructure

– Networking (including the Web)– Computing (including distributed) and mass storage– Ubiquitous access (home, car, office)

• Content development and management– Databases, multimedia, …

• Access– Indexing and metadata– Retrieval, display, and transfer

• Human-computer interface– Natural language, GUI, visualization, mobile …

Content• Creation, selection, and acquisition

– Digitized traditional objects and born digital objects– Digitization, representation, and rights

• Indexing and metadata– Policies and standards– Interoperability, Scalability, Extensibility

• Maintenance and preservation– Backup, version control, and link management– Archives, authority, migration, dispensation

Digital Objects

Digital Objects

Text Graphic

Articles,ReportsBooks

Software Data Set Audio Video Images

2-D,3-DVirtualReality

Photos,CATScans

moviesfilms

SpeechMusicradio

GenomeGISdatabase

Simulation

Preservation risks:File Format Obsolescence

Case study: the programmers who knew it had diedIn 1999, USC neurobiologist Joseph Miller asked NASA to check some old data the Viking probes had sent back from Mars in the mid-1970s. Miller wanted to find out whether certain information on gas released by Martian soil was actually evidence of microbial life. NASA found the tapes he requested, but they didn't find any way to read them. It turns out that the data, despite being only about 25 years old, was in a format NASA had long since forgotten about. Or, as Miller puts it, "The programmers who knew it had died."

Service

• Access: search and selection – Full text retrieval, cross-language retrieval– Interaction and visualization

• Hypertext and citation services• Content management

– Preservation, evaluation

• Reference• Learning and instruction

Community

• Human factors: acceptance by people– DLs unite not divide people

• Economic factors: costs and justifications– DLs become cheaper and self stainable

• Legal issues– DLs protect copyright, privacy, stakeholders

• Information security and authority– Quality control, encryption, watermarking, …

Equity of Access

• Technical accessibility – hardware, software, networks, electricity

• Intellectual accessibility – literacy, information literacy

• Physical accessibility – especially for users with visual impairment

Digital Divide – individual, regional and international

Intellectual Property rights

• Copyright – literary and artistic works

• Open Access – Open access publishing– Open access self-archiving

Conservation

• Positive aspects – reduced handling of fragile and rare materials

• Negative aspects – digitization process

Preservation (Archiving)

Critical role traditionally played by libraries, archives & museums

DL Problem areas:• Ownership• Technological obsolescence• Medium degradation

User authentication

To determine user access or user privileges

Third-party contractual obligations

Log-in procedures

Management

• Planning• Financing• Change management• HRM – training, status

Future of Physical Libraries

“So long as human beings continue to use the knowledge they have inherited from their ancestors and learned from their contemporaries, so long as human ingenuity and creativity increases the store of information, there will be a need for persons and institutions to collect, to catalog, to preserve, and to guide. Books, and libraries, have changed over the thousands of years since the invention of writing…But the essential task of the librarian has remained the same: to collect and preserve the record of human accomplishment and imagination, and to put this record in the hands of those who would use it.” (Lerner, 1998)

And

“Digital libraries are about new ways of dealing with knowledge; preserving, collecting, organizing, propagating, and accessing it – not about deconstructing existing institutions and putting them in an electronic box” Witten & Bainbrige, 2003)

But

“In the long run, there appear to be no barriers to digital libraries and electronic publishing. Technical, economic, social, and legal challenges abound, but they are being overcome steadily. We cannot be sure exactly what form digital libraries will take, but it is clear that they are here to stay” Arms (2000)

Discussion Questions

• Do physical libraries have a future alongside digital libraries?

• Are digital libraries reducing or increasing the divide between the information rich and the information poor (both at an individual and a national level)?

• Are digital libraries in the long run jeopardizing our cultural heritage?

Want to Learn More?

Take LIS563 – Digital Libraries