1. D igital L ibraries Digital Dreams, or Digital Realities?

2. On Digital Libraries Outline of Presentation of Notes:  Historical Perspectives  What is a “Digital Library”?  Philosophical foundations  Functional foundations  Overview of current research  Opportunities for professional involvement  Challenges and opportunities  Problems with DLs

3. Historical Perspectives: Libraries as private collectionsLibraries as private collections Libraries as Public InstitutionsLibraries as Public Institutions Libraries as “place”Libraries as “place”

4. “Libraries as place have grown to be increasingly expensive, more costly than even government can afford to maintain” Paul Evan Peters in a speech to MU-ITG 1.29.96

5. What is a “Digital Library”? A broad pair of terms open to wide interpretation depending on motives and perspective. Here are some expert opinions from the research oriented perspective:

6. Dr. Edward A. Fox Department of Computer Science and Director, Project Envision Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University “An assemblage of digital computers, storage, and communications machinery together with the content and software needed to produce, emulate, and extend those services provided by conventional libraries based on paper and other material means of collecting, cataloging, finding and disseminating information.”

7. From the Executive Summary of the University of Michigan Digital Library Project supported by NSF/ARPA/NASA Dr. Dan Atkins, School of Information “Digital Library” is a generic name for federated structures that provide humans both intellectual and physical access to the huge and growing world-wide networks of information encoded in multi- media formats.

8. Henry M Gladney, etal Digital Library: Gross Structure and Requirements (report from a workshop) “Notwithstanding our enthusiasm for what digital library services promise, we feel that the glib calls to replace conventional publication entirely must be regarded skeptically.“Notwithstanding our enthusiasm for what digital library services promise, we feel that the glib calls to replace conventional publication entirely must be regarded skeptically. Preserving the cultural heritage … has been better served by paper that digital means currently promise, and there is little funded work towards remedying this.” Preserving the cultural heritage … has been better served by paper that digital means currently promise, and there is little funded work towards remedying this.”

9. Philosophical foundations Philosophical foundations Two basic assumptions:.Knowledge is power.Access to recorded knowledge has always been the key to the advancement of society

10. Information today is often simultaneously everywhere and No place in particular. This differs from the notion of “library as place”

11. Functional foundations of a Digital Library Functional foundations of a Digital Library.Create and capture.Storage and management.Search and access.Distribution.Rights management

12. Overview of current research in DL:  NSF/ARPA/NASA Digital Library Initiatives  The National Digital Library Program at the Library of Congress (The “American Memory” project)  IBM Vatican Project  IBM/CWRU Collaborative Project  Intranets – controllable corporate network structures

13. Opportunities for professional involvement:  Collection development  Organizing principles  Universal points of access  Research in retrieval  User studies  End user training  Standards participation  Cost recovery

14. Challenges and opportunities: How to deal with the enormous archive of previously published works now in print  Continued deployment of a global information technology infrastructure  Development of tools in support of networked information retrieval  Dealing with copyright issues  Adherence to (and development of) standards for interoperability  Inclusion of user-centered design principles  Administrative commitment  Continued sources of funds for research, development, implementation, and testing of digital library prototypes or projects

15. Problems with DLs:  Content is distributed  Content is often unregulated (quality control)  Digital content is highly variable (dynamic)  Digital content is often difficult to track in terms of location  Content lacking context has less meaning/value  Notion of “collection” is absent  Ownership/copyright considerations  Archival role – who is responsible?  Lack of preceding economic models

16. Personal Digital Libraries