LIS 506 (Fall 2006) LIS 506 Information Technology Week 11: Digital Libraries & Institutional Repositories

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Overview Digital libraries – what is & what is not a Digital Library? Digital Objects and Repositories Logical Layers of Digital Libraries

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) What Is a Library? A building or suite of rooms A collection of books or materials An institution An information system

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Purposes, Functions, and Goals of Libraries collection development and management subject analysis index creation provision of access reference work preservation

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Digital Libraries Mean different things to different people. Computer scientists Library professionals Scholars General users

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Definition 1: A Digital Library is: A service An architecture A set of information resources A set of tools and capabilities to locate, retrieve, and utilize the information resources available. (Fox, 1993).

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Definition 2 A digital library is a collection of information which is both digitized and organized. “Practical Digital Libraries” – Lesk (1997).

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Definition 3: Digital Libraries are extension and enhancement of information storage and retrieval systems that manipulate digital data in any medium and exist in distributed networks. Digital libraries are a set of electronic resources and associated technical capabilities for creating, searching and using information. (Borgman, 1996).

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Definition 3 Digital Libraries are an extension, enhancement and integration of a variety of institutions such as libraries, museums, schools, etc. Digital Libraries are constructed, collected and organized by (and for) a community of users, and their functional capabilities support the information needs and uses of that community.

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Definition 4: Digital libraries are organizations that provide the resources, including the specialized 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 set of communities". Digital Library Federation. (1999).

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Characteristics of DLs Full-text digital content Revised and enhanced library processes and services collection development and management subject analysis index creation provision of access reference work preservation Often beyond a single traditional library

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Are these Digital Libraries? DIALOG Web Amazon.com

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) A single, completely world-wide digital system? One thing digital libraries will not be is a single, completely digital system that provides instant access to all information, for all sectors of society, from anywhere in the world. This is simply unrealistic. Cleveland, Gary. (1998) Emergence of a worldwide digital library in the form of a loosely coupled federation of DLs?

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) DL-Related Issues Will the building disappear? Will the book go digital? Will the book still be the building block? How should information be organized in DLs? Who are DL professionals? What skills are needed for running a digital library? “Will librarians, publishers, and computer centers go the way of switch board operators and chauffeurs?”

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Logical Layers of DL Digital objects Digital repositories Collections Digital libraries Information space

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Digital Objects A fundamental unit of digital libraries Must be digital or digital representation Includes metadata A collection of packages consisting of a group of elements Definable Describable

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Digital Objects A document is a digital object. Is a figure in a document a digital object? If yes, does it need a separate metadata? If not, how do you search for the figure? In database design, we differentiate entities and weak entities. Should we call the figure weak object?

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Digital Repositories A repository must have its own “collection of digital objects.” Provide the mechanisms for the deposit, storage and access to digital objects Is a collection of links a repository? When can a repository claim having a collection?

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Digital Collections A collection is logically defined as a set of criteria for selecting resources from the broader information space. A collection must be accessible through its various indexing services have tools for indexing, management, and resource discovery.

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Digital Libraries Three levels of services Digital Libraries Digital Collections Digital Repositories How do we differentiate them?

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Repositories Provide the mechanisms for the deposit, storage and access to digital objects Collections Provide the mechanisms for the aggregation of access Include various indexing services Digital Libraries Include user interface and user services

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Search Features of DL Basic features Boolean logic Full text searching Phrase searching Proximity searching Field searching Query refinement Relevance ranking Browse of indexes Controlled vocabulary Related items

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Browsing features of DL Browsing primary sources Following reference links Browsing nearby items? Browsing conceptual space Thesaurus Classification Visual concept space

LIS 506 (Fall 2006) Institutional Repository What did Lynch say and what do you think about What it is Functions Information included Why important How to succeed Factors How to go about these aspects How is it related to DLs?