Digital Libraries
What is ibiblio
"Home to one of the largest "collections of collections" on the Internet, ibiblio.org is an online public library with freely available software and information, for topics such as music, literature, art, history, science, politics, and cultural studies." ibiblio.org positions itself as a host and directory for freely available information For materials to be included, it need to be: value adding to the public and to the collections; clear of copyright issues; well maintained; non-for-profit; of good quality, etc. URL: http://www.ibiblio.org
What is a digital library(digital library federation) Library community (as represented by the Digital Library Federation)-
'Digital Libraries are that provide the resources, including the specialised staff, to select, structure, offer intellectual access to, interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of, and ensure the persistence over time of collections of digital works so that they are readily and economically available for use by a defined community or a set of communities.'
What is the Perseus Project
A digital library project of Tufts University that began in 1985 Mission: "to make the full record of humanity - linguistic sources, physical artifacts, historical spaces - as intellectually accessible as possible to every human being, regardless of linguistic or cultural background." Focuses on three categories of access: human readable information, machine actionable knowledge, and machine generated knowledge, such as dictionary look-up Features include automated text indexing Web URL: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/
What is Open Library
An initiative of the Internet Archive (home of the Wayback Machine), and brain child of Brewster Kahle Open source, open data, and open documentation Goal - to have "one Web page for every book ever published", to build a catalog that contains every book and share it freely and openly with the public Currently contains over 20 million edition records and 1.7 million scanned version of books (unlike Project Gutenberg, not all books are in digital form) Web link: http://openlibrary.org/.
What is a Digital Library(borgman)
Computer and information science community: A system that provides 'a community of users with coherent access to a large, organised repository of information and knowledge'.
What are advantages of Digital Libraries
Convenient access New forms of search (think facet searching) Eases information sharing Availability Lowered costs (cost of digitization and server maintenance vs. physical space management) Ease of replication of content Enables new forms of content and collection
What is the International Children's Digital Library
Created by an interdisciplinary research team at the University of Maryland in cooperation with the Internet Archive, now maintained by the ICDL Foundation The goal is "to build a collection of books that represent outstanding historical and contemporary books from throughout the world." The collection policy stresses inclusion, tolerance, and acceptance of different countries, peoples, and cultures; target readers aged between 3-13 years old; in the public domain, and of good quality Children are involved in the interface design Website: http://en.childrenslibrary.org/about/collection.shtml
What is a digital Library
Digital libraries are collections of digital content and services selected by a curator for use by a particular user community. Digital libraries offer direct access to the content of a wide variety of intellectual works, including text, audio, video, and data; and may offer a variety of services supporting search, access, and collaboration.
What are some Characteristics of Digital Libraries?
Digital libraries are the digital face of traditional libraries that include both digital collections and traditional, fixed media collections. Digital libraries may include digital materials that exist outside the physical and administrative bounds of any one digital library All the processes and services that are necessary to traditional libraries are still required, though need to be revised and enhanced to accommodate for the differences between fixed media and digital media Digital libraries will serve particular communities or constituencies, as traditional libraries do now, though those communities may be widely dispersed throughout the network. Digital libraries ideally provide a coherent view of all of the information contained within a library, no matter its form or format Digital libraries will require both the skills of librarians and well as those of computer scientists to be viable.
Why is Sustainability an issue?
How is the digital library funded?
Why is Unique identifier an issue?
If a file gets moved, the URL is changed, other permanent, unique identifiers are needed - DOI
What are some Proporties of Traditional Libraries
Objects are information resources Objects are selected on the basis of quality Objects are located in a physical place Objects are organized Objects are subjected to authority control Objects are fixed (do not change) Objects are permanent (do not disappear) Authorship is an important concept Access to objects is limited to specific classes of users Services are offered Human specialists can be found There exist well-defined user group
What are some essential Components of Digital Libraries
Repositories Catalogs Identifier systems User interface
What is NOT a digital library
Search engines are NOT digital libraries Lacks collection management, access, and other services
What is Project Gutenberg
Started in 1971 when Michael Hart was given a million dollars worth of computer time at Xerox Lab 'The first and largest (currently offers 36,000+) producer of free ebooks', the project's mission is to encourage the creation and distribution of ebooks. The Project Gutenberg Philosophy is to make information, books and other materials available to the general public in forms a vast majority of the computers, programs and people can easily read, use, quote, and search Web URL: http://www.gutenberg.org/
What are the challenges in Creating a Digital Library
Technical architecture requirements - Building the digital collection - Digitization - Metadata - Unique identifier - Sustainability Preservation - Digital rights management Copyright/rights management -
Why is Digital rights management an issue?
changes the nature of a collection
What is Goal of copyright law and policy?
is protect the owner's rights, and to foster: oThe progress of science oThe creation of culture oThe dissemination of ideas Owners are given limited property rights to encourage creation and production, however... All works eventually will become part of the public domain, and... There are certain situations in which others can use copyrighted materials without permission or payment - Fair use
Why is Building the digital collection an issue?
oDigitization, acquisition of original digital works, or through access to external materials oIs there bias in the curating process? oUsers want access to intellectual works, not digital library technology and objects
Why are Technical architecture requirements an issue?
oNetwork architecture over a collection of disparate systems oFast connections to the Internet oDatabases that support different digital formats oSearch engines to index and provide access to resources oElectronic document management functions to manage the digital resources
Why is Preservation an issue?
oThe preservation of the storage medium: Tapes? Floppy discs? Hard drive? oPreservation of access to content -- protection against file format from being obsolete: •When is data migration needed? •How to ensure no intellectually significant information is lost in the reformatting? •How to best do it? oWhat happens if a digital publisher goes under?
Why is Copyright/rights management an issue?
oWhat can be digitized? Items in public domain? Unique items within the library's collection? Cooperate with other databases? oWhat is the lending policy for licensed or unlicensed work? Who can access the item for how long? Can multiple users access at the same time? Can copies be made? Can library keep a copy of the work when the license is terminated? oWho can access the works digitized by or for libraries? Is fair use enough to authorize use?
Why is Digitization an issue?
oWhat to digitize? What parts of a collection to digitize? oLabor intensive and expensive
Why is Metadata an issue?
oWhich standard to use? oWho is creating the metadata? Is there quality control?
What is the primary reason for fair use:
to support education and protect the users' rights Fair use is judged upon by four types of considerations (Copyright Act, section 107): The nature of the use The nature of the work used The extent of the use Its economic effect
