DIGITAL LIBRARY RESOURCES
Selected Web Resources, Journal Articles, and Books

Association for Computing Machinery. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Digital Libraries, March 20-23, 1996. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 1996.

The published proceedings include nineteen research papers covering numerous aspects of digital libraries. Content is organized into seven major areas: Multimedia Digital Libraries; Library and Information Science Perspectives; Human-Computer Interaction: Browsing and Visualization; Human-Computer Interaction: Images and Spatial Organization; Documents; Information Retrieval; and Document Indexing and Analysis. The proceedings also provide abstracts of an additional twelve research sessions held at the Conference. The conference was attended by experts from industry, education, and government, including representatives from the Library of Congress, Xerox PARC, the National Library of Medicine, General Electric, and a number of U.S. and foreign universities, including University of California, Berkeley, Florida State University, Stanford University, Tufts University, Rutgers University, and University of Massachusetts.

Berkeley Digital Library SunSite. Digital Library Information Resources

Berkeley's list of digital library information resources provides a wealth of information on almost any aspect of digital libraries, ranging from copyright issues, to imaging technology and techniques, to digital library standards. The General Resources list provides links to a variety of resources that help define the scope and purpose of digital libraries, including guides to organizing and selecting materials. A good overview of what a digital library is can be found in Donald J. Waters' "What Are Digital Libraries?".

BUBL Electronic Journal Collection

Housed at the Andersonian Library, Strathclyde University, UK, the BUBL Information Service provides electronic access to contents, abstracts, or full text of over 250 journals at no charge. Of particular use for this study are their links to library and information science journals and computing and information technology journals. Title lists within subjects are annotated to indicate at what level they are covered online -- contents, abstracts, or full text. The lists are also searchable.

Chesnutt, David R. "SGML and the Digital Libraries of Tomorrow." Journal of Academic Librarianship 24.3 (May 1998): 232-236.

Chesnutt begins by suggesting that "it seems likely that SGML will be the keystone of tomorrow's digital libraries," and goes on to explain what SGML is and is not. The author finds that SGML offers a number of advantages over other formats, especially over proprietary standards such as word processing languages, including cross-platform transportability and ease of manipulation for publication. Chesnutt cites the Library of Congress' commitment to the SGML standard as further reinforcement that it may survive as the standard for digital libraries.

Crawford, Walt. "Paper Persists: Why Physical Library Collections Still Matter." Online 22 (January/February 1998): 42-44.

Crawford's article could easily have been entitled "The Book Is Dead. Long Live the Book." Crawford argues that, in spite of all the proclamations and predictions that digital text, digital libraries will eventually replace printed text and printed collections, the book is nowhere close to being dead or outmoded. Instead, he argues, printed works and digital information will continue to grow side by side and libraries will not become all digital any time soon. His reasons are compelling: books are comfortable, portable, reliable, and economical means of providing large amounts of information in compact form; digital publishing is not without its costs and can sometimes cost more than providing the same information in printed form; publishers must make profits in order to continue publishing so they will never publish digitally unless they can ensure the same kind of return on their investment that they can expect from selling multiple copies of a book. Although a fairly brief treatment of the subject, Crawford's article encapsulates all the reasons that physical library collections will continue to be viable in spite of the proliferation of digital alternatives.

Digital Libraries: Resources and Projects. (15 September 1998).

Maintained by IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions), this bibliography of resources is an excellent point of departure for reading about issues in digital libraries, reviewing the work of current digital library projects, and for identifying periodicals and conferences that support research into digital libraries. An added benefit of IFLA's resource list is that all the identified resources are available online.

D-Lib Magazine

Sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and based at the Corporation For National Research Initiatives, D-Lib Magazine electronically publishes stories contributed by researchers working on the development of digital libraries technology. Back issues dating to July 1995 are all available from D-Lib's Web site. The site also includes a Ready Reference section that provides links to further information on digital library research coordinating and funding bodies, federally-funded cooperative projects in the United States, centers for research on digital libraries in the U.S., programs and projects outside the U.S., digital library meetings, conferences, and workshops, clearinghouses for digital library research, subject area gateways, calendars of events, and technical reports and papers on digital libraries.

Feldman, Susan. "Advances in Digital Libraries 1998: Conference Showcases the Move From Dream to Reality." Information Today 15.6 (June 1998): 17+.

Feldman reviews the primary topics covered at the Advances in Digital Libraries conference held April 1998 in Santa Barbara, California. Notable DL Projects highlighted at the convention include the California Digital Library, University of Michigan's digital science library for grades six through nine, Carnegie Mellon University's Digital Video Library, and Stanford University's Infobus. In addition to highlighting DL projects, the conference also examined trends in electronic document delivery and user access and usability.

Foster, Clifton Dale. "The Library Without a Roof." Online 19 (September/October 1995): 20.

The Library Without a Roof Project was begun at University of South Alabama Library in November 1993. A joint project of the Library, AT&T, BellSouth Cellular, and Notable Technologies, the goal of the project was to provide students access to information outside the physical confines of a library using PDAs (personal digital assistants). Foster reviews project background and suggests that providing wireless access to library resources is a viable alternative to physical library collections and hard-wired access.

Fox, E., ed. Digital Library Source Book, 1993.

Although dated, Fox's work provides a good historical background for placing today's developments in digital library technology into perspective. Included in the source book are procedings from workshops on digital libraries held in July and December 1992. In his preface, Fox envisions a "National Electronic Science, Engineering, and Technology Library" and calls on the National Science Foundation to spearhead research into developing national electronic libraries. Fox also suggests that success of any national digital library initiative will rest with effective partnering between government, educational, and business organizations.

Hunt, Leta and Philip J. Ethington. "The Utility of Spatial and Temporal Organization in Digital Library Construction." Journal of Academic Librarianship 23 (November 1997): 475-483.

Hunt and Ethington explore "two powerful properties of all information objects that have not yet been fully exploited," space and time, geographical and temporal location, as additional aids to finding materials contained in a digital collection. They provide numerous examples of types of materials (photographs, maps, manuscripts, etc.) that could be useful to researchers but typically elude them because they do not fall into the categories of materials that are usually easily located in standard classification schemes. The authors suggest that the temporal and spatial keys that are user-searchable would open up archival materials to researchers more readily. For example, if a user were able to search easily for photographs of Harlem in the early 20's and 30's and relate these materials to primary materials (letters, manuscripts, etc.) of the same time period, new historical relationships might be more readily discovered. The authors suggest further that providing additional accesses is a realizable goal if undergraduates supervised by graduate students were used to provide the additional verbal clues in a library's searchable database. Tables, graphs, and further references provide additional resources for readers interested in further studying spatial and temporal access to digital collections.

Kilker, Julian and Geri Gay. "The Social Construction of a Digital Library: a Case Study Examining Implications for Evaluation." Information Technology and Libraries 17.2 (June 1998):60+.

Kilker and Gay describe the results of a case study of the Making of America digital library using the SCOT (social construction of technology) framework. The SCOT framework focuses on the impact of a resource on relevant social groups, on the usability of the resource, and on the closure the technology establishes with users. The primary focus of the study was to test the user interface to the Making of America library and to test the library's usability across different social groups. The primary value of this article is in its description of how SCOT works.

Larson, Ray R. Search Capabilities for Users of Digital Libraries: Tools and Paradigms.

Larson's paper examines user access to digital information. Issues he covers include organization of digital information, identification and indexing of information, and retrieval methods for providing users with appropriate information. Larson's paper is a couple of years old at this point (1996), but still is useful for identifying areas that need further research and development.

Lesk, Michael. Practical Digital Libraries : Books, Bytes, and Bucks. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1997.

A superb resource for gaining an understanding of the issues involved in creating, maintaining, and providing access to digital collections, Lesk's text is organized into twelve highly readable and thoroughly documented chapters covering almost anything related to digital libraries. Lesk begins with an overview of libraries, their evolution and primary concerns, proceeds to explain access methods, digitization processes, and distribution means for digital information, and even explores copyright and patent issues as well as economic concerns in providing information over the Internet. Once he has covered the current state of knowledge, Lesk goes on to project what the libraries of the future will be like. Lesk ensures readers can satisfy their information needs by providing both a detailed bibliography of related sources and a complete index of key concepts covered in the text.

Marcum, Deanna B. "Digital Libraries: For Whom? For What? Journal of Academic Librarianship 23 (March 1997): 81-84.

Marcum cites Eli Noam's claim that the academic system that has been fairly stable for more than 2500 years is now breaking down because "today's production and distribution of information are undermining the traditional flow of information and with it the university structure" as a wake-up call for libraries and librarians. Based on Noam's observations, the traditional library may not continue to be the ultimate repository of information but may be superceded by online systems where individuals rather than institutions are the suppliers of information that is ingested and digested by knowledge seekers. The implications for librarians are far-reaching, but necessarily should include embracing technology as the means for providing information and an implicit mandate to cooperate in developing a national digital library, accessible to all researchers. Marcum cites the efforts of the National Digital Library Federation to refocus libraries' collection efforts toward developing standards for providing universal access to materials in a digital environment.

Masinter, Larry. Document Management, Digital Libraries and the Web, June 9, 1995

Masinter's premise is that document management systems, digital libraries, and the World-Wide Web have many common architectural elements that lend themselves to "integrating the three application areas." After reviewing the scope and organization of each of the areas, Masinter goes on to discuss their commonalities, including document identification means, metadata, authentication, authorization and accounting concerns, document types, and searching. His final section is a discussion of opportunities to create "synergy" among the three areas. Masinter's article also includes a list of references for further research.

Matson, Lisa Dallape and Bonski, David J. "Do Digital Libraries Need Librarians? An Experiential Dialog." ONLINE, 21: (November 1997): 87-92.

Ultimately Matson and Bonski answer their question in the affirmative – digital libraries do need librarians. The experiential dialog that the two authors develop in their article is between technology and librarianship. The two work at the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) and have been cooperating to provide their clientele not only with data but with an interface to the data that is simple to use yet sophisticated enough to provide the right information at the right time. Their dialog reveals that librarians (like Lisa) and software engineers (like David) are in essence "living in parallel universes," both working toward the same end – providing users with information efficiently. The two conclude that librarians and systems engineers are essentially defining a new profession in which librarians assume the role of "living metada" and technology provides the force to "bring the right information to the right user at the right time."

Paepcke, Andreas. "Digital Libraries: Searching Is Not Enough: What We Learned On-Site." D-Lib Magazine, May 1996.

Paepcke provides an overview of a study he conducted at a "large, diverse company" producing computers and other electronic equipment to determine what were the "information needs and habits of workers in technical work settings." The full results of his study appeared in the July 1996 issue of the CSCW Journal. Paepcke's findings were that research into digital libraries should address five basic areas: locating and selecting information; retrieving information from selected sources; interpreting information retrieved; managing retrieved information at the local level; and sharing of information. He suggests that digital libraries have the potential of facilitating organizational research and development projects.

Payette, Sandra D. and Oya Y. Rieger. "Supporting Scholarly Inquiry: Incorporating Users in the Design of the Digital Library." Jounal of Academic Librarianship 24.2 (March 1998): 121-129.

Informed by the conviction that the design challenges involved in building a digital library are not just technical but center more clearly on user requests for and use of information, Payette and Rieger focus their discussion on efforts at the Mann Library at Cornell University to build a user-friendly gateway to electronic information. Reviewing user studies that focused on how researchers look for information, what kind of information they look for, and differences in user approaches to seeking information, the authors conclude that users can be better served by systems that utilize a consistent interface, that make use of "visual maps" of information available through the library, that minimize the use of hierarchical structures, that provide multiple means of achieving the same search results, that provide full text when available, that follow Z39.50 standards, and that provide easy access to related resources. Payette and Rieger also provide their readers with sufficient references to further research studies of user interaction with electronic information resources.

Payette, Sandra D. and Oya Y. Rieger. "Z39.50: the User's Perspective." D-Lib Magazine (April 1997).

Payette reviews some of the findings of a user study of electronic library systems at Cornell University. Payette's focus is on user perspectives on using a common interface to access information. Results of surveys conducted indicated that users favored a single interface to facilitate querying multiple databases even if some more specific search features of individual databases could not be implemented (for example, concept code searching, etc.). Payette views the Z39.50 client as the solution to single interface searching, but cautions that cross database searching does have its drawbacks.

Pollock, Annabel and Andrew Hockley. "What's Wrong with Internet Searching." D-Lib Magazine (March 1997).

Pollock and Hockley argue that current Internet search services do not adequately server user needs for finding information. Their observations are based on two trials conducted in 1995 and should be weighed accordingly. Internet search services have achieved major gains in responding to user needs since the two trials were conducted, so some of Pollock's and Hockley's criticisms may already have been resolved. Their first observation, for example, that "search engines should concentrate on doing simple searches well, before trying to support more sophisticated users," seems to have been adequately addressed by most of the major search services. AltaVista, for example, has shifted its focus toward producing relevant retrieval for a simple search over development of its advanced search interface. Pollock's and Hockley's observations can be used as a check-list for reviewing what the search services have done to improve user interfaces and for assessing what still needs to be done.

Public-Access Computer Systems Review

A project of the University of Houston Libraries, this online publication pulishes research into the development of user interfaces to libraries. Included in its scope are articles on digital libraries, document delivery, electronic publishing, multimedia, OPACs, and networked resources. Available online since 1990, the journal is accessible by keyword, subject, and author search and provides a continuously updated list of top 10 articles.

Schatz, Bruce R. "Information Retrieval in Digital Libaries: Bringing Search to the Net." Science 275.5298 (17 January 1997): 327-334.

Schatz predicts the development of the "interspace," essentially the next level of development of the Internet. In approaching this soon to be realized information system, Schatz reviews technological development over the past half century, beginning with Vannevar Bush's much cited 1945 article predicting the development of the Memex. In his overview, Schatz touches on indexing systems, Boolean searching, the development of the Web, and full-text databases. He sees concept searching being further refined so that users eventually will be able to more easily find information in the billions of documents that will be readily accessible online. Schatz's article is thoroughly documented.

Schneider, Karen G. "A Nice Little Digital Library; Everglades Digital Library." American Libraries 28.9 (October 1997): 76.

Schneder's brief article highlights the Everglades Digital Library, a project of science librarian Gail Clement at Florida International University in Miami. The article reviews how Ms. Clement got started, what her goals were in creating the library, and her experiences with providing users what they need electronically. Addressing user needs has been the primary goal guiding the development of the library.

Tenopir, Carol and Lisa Ennis. "The Digital Reference World of Academic Libraries." Online 22.4 (1 July 1998): 22-28.

Beginning with the premise that "print is not yet obsolete," Tenopir and Ennis go on to examine the surge of interest by both reference librarians and library users to find everything online. The authors cite (based on survey results) the trend toward dropping print subscriptions to indexing/abstracting services in favor of CD ROM or online analogs but maintain that print reference sources (subject encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc.) are still highly used and favored reference works. Tenopir and Ennis see reference departments leaning more now toward Web-based indexes and abstracting services and away from CD ROM sources that tend to have more access limitations (library-only, limited simultaneous users, etc.). Their final observation is that, although electronic sources abound, libraries are still not poised to shift all their monetary resources into a completely electronic reference collection.

Van House, Nancy A., Mark H. Butler, Virginia Ogle, and Lisa Schiff. "User-Centered Iterative Design for Digital Libraries." D-Lib Magazine (February 1996).

This article reviews work at University of California Berkeley to provide access to color images and metadata from the Film Library of the California Department of Water Resources. The Film Library's Web-accessible database is called Cypress. The authors of the article conducted interviews with Cypress users to determine how well the current system served its users and what improvements could be made to the user interface.

Woerner, Christine. Annotated Bibliography - Digital Libraries (11 July 1996).

Although a bit dated at this point, Woerner's bibliography provides links to information about digital libraries available in journals and on the Internet. Concise annotations provide users with further information about each of the resources included. Woerner's list is organized according to the following categories: case studies; library as place; archiving, organization and preservation; politics of librarianship and the digital library; meditation and interaction in the digital library; and authority, authenticity, originality, and intellectural freedom in the digital library.

Young, Arthur P. "Libraries and Digital Communication: Collision or Convergence?" Journal of Academic Librarianship 22 (January 1996): 11-13.

Young's discourse centers on the print versus digital display controversy and asks readers to evaluate, based on his encapsulation of the major arguments for and against digitalization of information, whether these are legitimate arguments. Young tends toward the view that information is information regardless of format. So what if you read Dickens online instead of in hand. Citing major proponents of both print and online media, Young finally argues that we are in a transition stage where the final outcome is yet to be decided. He seems to favor the promulgation of electronic texts and argues that digital replication or representation of traditional printed works will yet win out. Is this really an argument at this point?

Comments & Suggestions
to Jim Alderman.

Updated 8 December 1998.