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/