Digital Libraries1 David Rashty

Digital Libraries2 “A library is an arsenal of liberty” Anonymous

Digital Libraries3 Contents Introduction Technical considerations –Interoperability –Supporting technologies User interface design Examples Conclusion

Digital Libraries4 Introduction First steps and related concepts

Digital Libraries5 What is a digital library? Introduction

Digital Libraries6 A digital library… is composed of four main components: 1.a collection of digital objects; 2.information referring to those objects; 3.a structure for presenting information; 4.interaction elements. Introduction

Digital Libraries7 Related fields Database management Human computer interaction Information science Library science Multimedia systems Natural language processing Networking and communications Introduction DL

Digital Libraries8 Related concepts User interface –The point of contact between human and machine. Data mining –Extraction of new data or partial information from a database. Information retrieval –Popping up information (not data) from a database according to users needs. Introduction

Digital Libraries9 Technical considerations Interoperability and Supporting technologies

Digital Libraries10 Definition Digital libraries are collections of separately developed entities that are put together in order to facilitate access to information. The central concern of interoperability is to connect such entities in a functional and efficient way. Interoperability

Digital Libraries11 Design questions What are the basic technologies that enable sharing information between different systems? What is the best networking technology for intercomponent communication? Data formats, document models, languages, protection functions? Interoperability

Digital Libraries12 Evaluation criteria The following criteria identify well integrated systems: –High degree of component autonomy; –Low cost of infrastructure; –Ease of contributing components; –Ease of using components; –Task complexity supported by the system; –Scalability in the number of components. Interoperability

Digital Libraries13 An industrial design example Design activities and interaction structure that characterize the industrial engineering design process. Supporting Technologies Pejtersen, A. M. Semantic Information Retrieval. Communications of the ACM, April 998

Digital Libraries14 An industrial design example Technologies and design considerations for the industrial engineering design process: –In addition to common interaction capabilities with information sources, engineers have to be able to judge the sources of information for their reliability and trustworthiness. –A strong commitment to knowledge management is an important feature of industrial engineering systems: engineers need access to previous cases and the distributed human knowledge in the organization. –The system must provide exploration by analogy. –The system must be built around a transparent interface with various functional capabilities. Supporting Technologies

Digital Libraries15 User interface design Best practices

Digital Libraries16 Design concerns Digital libraries must provide search and retrieval systems such that users can navigate information space easily. Users must feel comfortable and receive continual feedback from the system in order to get what they are looking for. Design for globalization demands special attention to usability problems. User interface design

Digital Libraries17 Design concerns Some results from usability studies: –Designers must provide a clear overview of the digital library layout. –The DL must provide facilities to filter search results and save queries for additional refinements. –Search criteria should include simple and advanced searches. –Searches and retrieval of documents should be fast. User interface design

Digital Libraries18 Design concerns Some results from usability studies: –Users expect digital libraries to provide many of the features found in a traditional library such as broad coverage of many topics, readable text, etc. –Users want to search by author, keyword, title, journal, year and volume. –Users want search results to be presented as PDF, HTML or plain text. –The DL must provide good help facilities. –Provide cues for guiding the search process. User interface design

Digital Libraries19 Examples Implementations

Digital Libraries20 ACM Examples Browsing and search possibilities as well as bookmark service for subscribers. Help facilities and information about usage and the system.

Digital Libraries21 ACM Examples Search by author, title, terms. Each one offers a number of options. Options for limiting the search (filtering).

Digital Libraries22 IEEE Examples Easy access to search options as well as clear exposition of the objects in the library. Users have a bird’s eye view of the content in the library.

Digital Libraries23 IEEE Examples Search by terms and options on the scope of the search. Users can see the main elements of the search space.

Digital Libraries24 NCSTRL Examples Search, options and direct access to their archives. Simple search options. Search by author, title and abstract as well as sorting preferences.

Digital Libraries25 Conclusion Research directions and conclusions

Digital Libraries26 Research directions Conclusion More usable and efficient user interfaces Intelligent techniques for searching, browsing and information retrieval Interoperability solutions for the global library

Digital Libraries27 Conclusions Digital libraries are among the most complex existing forms of information systems. Access to information today is simpler and the sources are many. Building effective DL will help people to deal with this situation by guiding them in the process of information search and retrieval. The future of the web depend on interface designers being capable of developing methods of reducing frustration and anxiety for the users. Conclusion

Digital Libraries28 References Online magazine on DLwww.dlib.com Digital library of the ACMwww.acm.org Digital library of the IEEEwww.computer.org Conclusion