1. Digital Libraries In a Nutshell
Roy Tennant
The California Digital Library

2. Outline The Vision Definitions Perspectives How to Keep Current
Research
Production
Services
Collections
How to Keep Current

3. 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

4. Definitions: Part I “electronic” “digital” “virtual”
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

5. Definitions: Part II
From the Association of Research Libraries -
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

6. 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)

7. 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.

8. 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 (
Digital Library Federation (

9. Production Issues Services Collections Selecting Acquiring Organizing
Providing Access
Preserving
All the classic activities of libraries through the centuries, but in the digital realm they present both additional opportunities as well as challenges.
I will be focusing on the unique aspects of these activities as they relate to building digital libraries, but in most cases all the usual considerations of these activities still apply. For example, when selecting material one must consider such issues as the cost of the material, its relative importance for your audience, etc.

10. 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 reference
Reference 24x ref.org/

11. 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

12. Selecting Material to Digitize
Focus on unique materials that are likely to have broad interest
Build on strengths (seek critical mass)
Consider infrastructure required
Consider technical limitations

13. Acquiring: Digital Collections
The digital acquisition continuum:
New procedures and workflows are required
tape loading, scanning, format translation, etc.
linking
mirroring
hosting
archiving
LESS
MORE
Amount of Responsibility

14. 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 PhotoCD
Additional step for text conversion
Optical Character Recognition or Re-keying

15. Acquiring: Image File Formats
Archival version: high-resolution TIFF
Online versions:
Preview: low-resolution GIF
Full: medium-resolution JPEG
High: med./high-resolution JPEG or TIFF
Up-and-coming: MrSID, Flashpix, PNG

16. Acquiring: Text File Formats
Original:
MS Word, Adobe Pagemaker, etc.
Adobe Acrobat
Plain text
HTML
SGML or XML

17. 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 (
DOI/Handles (
PURLs (purl.org)
ARKs (

18. 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

19. Organizing: Metadata Appropriate standards or draft standards:
Collection Level:
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) -lcweb.loc.gov/ead/
Item Level:
MARC
Dublin Core - dublincore.org
METS -

20. 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?

21. Preserving Accepted preservation methods:
Acid-free paper
microfilm
photographic reproduction
The digital preservation strategy:
Storing
Refreshing
Migrating
The single most important aspect: institutional commitment

22. Interoperability
The capability of two or more different digital collections to be used as one in a transparent fashion
One example:
Open Archives Initiative:
Requires standards (at minimum) or a common platform

23. How to Keep Current Electronic Discussions: Publications:
DIGLIB:
Web4Lib: sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/
XML4Lib: sunsite.berkeley.edu/XML4Lib/
Publications:
“Digital Libraries” column in LJ — libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com
D-Lib Magazine —
Current Cites — sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/
RLG DigiNews —