Diversity in digital
libraries
Related types, institutions, forms
Tefko Saracevic
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ToC
Note on diversity
Examples of:
 National libraries
 Academic libraries
 Public libraries
 Borne digital libraries
 Museums
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Tefko Saracevic
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Subject resources
Societies, organizations
Books on the Web
Archiving the Web
Conclusions
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Diversity?
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Digital libraries come not only from libraries
(academic, public, national …), but from many other
institutions & subjects not at all connected with
a given library (academic, public, national …)
Many shapes, forms
Variety of context & content
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many specific subject oriented
Most importantly: Used by a variety of users &
for a variety of uses
Tefko Saracevic
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But are they DLibs?
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Question could be asked: but are they ALL
digital libraries?
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Or are they just portals because they cover and
organize digital resources?
• when is a portal (links, ecatalog) also a digital library?
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A broad view: if they are organized & used for
accessing information resources why not
consider them DLibs?
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users do not care what they are called or how are
they classified
Tefko Saracevic
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National libraries - US
Library of Congress:
American Memory Project
historical materials –no. of sites
National Library of Medicine
National Agricultural Library
National Archives
Of course, there is a LoC Blog
Digital Libraries Federation
not a national library, but took
over from LoC many
functions of the National
Digital Library that was at
LoC
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National libraries - global
The European Library

Search through resources of
European National Libraries
Europeana
“cultural collections of Europe”
Die Deutsche Bibliothek
Bibliothèque Nationale de France
includes Gallica – digital library
The British Library
includes Turning the Pages
Vatican Library
includes Vatican Secret Archives
Tefko Saracevic
National Library of New Zealand
several demonstration collections in
various fields
free DLib software they developed
The National Library of China
National Library of Singapore
Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Egypt) –
not a national library, but close
Biblioteca National (Mexico)
African Online Digital Library –
international undertaking, work in
progress
National & University Library –
Croatia
includes Digital Heritage
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Academic libraries
California Digital Library
unifies all libraries in UofC
system
Univ of Michigan
Harvard Univ Library
system of over 80 libraries;
open access to digital
collections
Cambridge University Library
includes Open Access movement
Oxford University,
also houses Bodleian Library
with unique historical
collections
browse further through LibWeb
Univ of Utah
also houses Ski Archive
University of Wisconsin Digital
Collections
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Public libraries
US:
New York Public Library
many research collections; branch
libraries; includes Digital Gallery
Albuquerque/Bernalillo County
Library System
including KidClicks
Montclair Public Library
International:
Toronto Public Library
including Virtual Reference Library
Aarhus Public Libraries (Denmark)
City of Swan Libraries (Australia)
including link to Listen NJ
Los Angeles Public Library – e.g.
check databases available,
photocollection or TeenWeb
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Borne digital
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Libraries emerging
only on the Web
Virtual Library
Switzerland, US, UK & other
countries – ‘oldest virtual
library on the Web’
Internet Public Library hosted at
Drexel - merged with Librarians'
Internet Index (LII).
Ibiblio
U North Carolina
“the largest "collections of
collections" on the Internet”
“Public’s library and digital archive”
International Children's Digital
Library
among others, read children books
in great many languages
Academic Info Digital Library
many links to digital collections
& resources in various
subjects
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Museums
Museum of online museums
MuseumStuff.com
a delight
“We have 1000's of museums, zoos,
historical societies and related
organizations in our database”
The State Hermitage Museum
One of the greatest museums in the
world, and one of the best
museum site – developed with
IBM help –take a virtual tour
Muzej Grada Splita
A number of collections
Arheoloski Muzej Zadar
National Museum of Science and
Technology Leonardo da Vinci
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Subject resources
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Many subject specific sites available
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High use in their own subjects or for given tasks
Most are independent of libraries
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new coming up all the time
rich & often unique coverage & services
different approaches & requirements
should they also be considered as DLibs?
many developed with government funding
some clearly commercial
Many lead to other subject resources
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subject resources …
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Humanities
Perseus Digital Library Tufts
University
covers antiquity to renaissance; one
of the best subject sites on the web;
affected the whole field
KIRKE - Katalog der Internetressourcen
für die Klassische Philologie aus
Berlin
German; a variety of resources for
classics
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Diotima
Materials for study of women and gender in
the Ancient World
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
a comprehensive encyclopedia and
library
Abraham Lincoln Historic
Digitization Project
And of course…
at Cornell
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subject resources…
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Government, official
U Mich Document Center
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official documents from all over
the world
US State Department
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about the U.S & other countries
FirstGov
the US government official web
portal
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News
New York Times article archive
1851 – present
Newspaper Archive
“the largest historical
newspaper database
online, contains tens of
millions of newspaper
pages from 1753 to
present.” Requires paid
membership
Dag Hammarskjöld Library (UN)
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subject resources …
 Health
WebMDHealth
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news, medical information
Rxlist
Internet Drug Index
Mayo Clinic HealthOasis
health advice
Kidshealth
sites for parents, kids, teens
 Science
ArXiv Cornell U, National Science
Foundation
e-print service in the fields of
physics, mathematics,
computer science,
quantitative biology
Ocean Planet NASA
presentation of earth & its vast
oceans
Public Library of Science
advocacy of open access
Encyclopedia of Life
an ambitious project – key info about
life on earth – in progress
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subject resources …
Moving Images Collections
“MIC documents moving image collections
around the world.” Part particularly
oriented toward science educators. Now
at Library of Congress, but developed at
Rutgers
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And, of course …
Snoopy
The Official
Peanuts
Website
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Societies, organizations
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Many societies, agencies
developed their sites
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great many rich sources for
searching & resources
differences in requirements,
depth, richness
major (sometimes only)
access point to societal or
subject literature
Societal pages, but available through
RUL (Indexes and databases)
PsycINFO (psychological literature
from the 1800s to the present)
Am Psychology Assoc
ASIST Digital Library
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American Society for Information
Science & Technology
ACM Portal – Digital Library
Association for Computing
Machinery
MLA International Bibliography
 Modern Language Association
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Books on the Web
Million Book Project
digitizing books and providing free
access
Digital books Index
Google Books
started with several universities,
but mushroomed globally
“ ... provides links to more than
Project Gutenberg
165,000 full-text digital books
from more than 1800
“Project Gutenberg is the first
commercial and nonand largest single collection
commercial publishers,
of free electronic books, or
universities, and various private
eBooks.”
sites. More than 140,000 of these
books, texts, and documents are
available free.”
includes list of eBooks: Libraries,
Librarianship, Electronic
Librarianship
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Archiving the Web
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Web sites are highly
unstable – they
disappear, change
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one of the worst feature of
the Web
“digital dark ages”
Several projects try to
archive the Web
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mammoth undertaking
Tefko Saracevic
Internet Archive
85 billion Web pages archived
Includes:
Wayback Machine
on Internet Archive search for
old versions of Web pages
CyberCemetery
“permanent public access to the Web
sites and publications of defunct
U.S. government agencies and
commissions.”
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Conclusion
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Wide and constantly increasing diversity of
DLibs & related collection & portals suggests
several issues
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traditional libraries are not traditional any more
• but come in many DLib forms
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many new “players” have entered the arena
• particularly in subject areas
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conclusions …
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Web companies & libraries are joining hands
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Some libraries are providing model DLibs
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in book digitization e.g. Google project
in providing cataloging & holdings information
e.g. LoC American Memory – example copied widely
But at the end most important is their
usefulness
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… a few more fun examples
Smithsonian 1996 campaign
Web sites
“how presidential candidates
and parties first used the
Web.”
ASIST SIG/CON archive
maintained by Candy Schwartz,
Simmons College
you can see her Digital Libraries
– course resources
Humorous phases of funny faces
from LoC – a 1906 film
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