Digital Libraries:
Variety of perspectives and
models
Tefko Saracevic, Ph.D.
School of Communication, Information and Library Studies
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.A.
tefko@scils.rutgers.edu
http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/people/
faculty/tefko.html
On the scene
 Several
different communities involved in
digital libraries, each with quite different
perspectives,
concepts, meanings in dealing
concentration, emphasis, approach
 Many
disciplines, institutions involved
 National & global interest
 Large research and developmental projects
 Large operational projects
 Large commercial undertakings
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Why?
 Evolution
of information society
role
of knowledge & knowledge records
importance to records in digital forms
 Strategic
place of information
to
society, economy, future
strategic policies for support in many countries
digital libraries part of that strategy
 Technological
just
imperative
the right time for application to DL
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Basic problems addressed
 Creating
means & ways for dealing with &
using human knowledge records in the new
digitalized and networked world
 What to do with the electronic “book”, journals,
publications, images, sounds, assembly of data?
 Problems are technical, organizational,
managerial, social, legal, economic, cultural …
 Digital revolution may be as far reaching as that
created by Gutenberg & the printed book
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What is a DIGITAL LIBRARY?
 No
single, all-encompassing answer
 Several perspectives

from different communities - different agendas
 Little
communication among them
 Coherent, integrating concept, approach not
yet emerged - but do we need?
 Complex problems in any approach
Many
 Highly
experiments; many experts & “experts”
exciting & volatile area; big $$$$$
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Criteria
1. User community
2. Digital collection
3. Organization - physical, intellectual
4. Interface - access, physical, intellectual
5. Delivery
6. Persistence
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Research support: two models
1. Digital Libraries Initiatives approach:
seek
& fund research topics, mostly in
technological areas
Examples:
 DLI
1 & 2 in the US
 ERCIM DLI: DELOS working group
2. Collaboration seeking approach
involving
different communities: libraries,
publishers, institutions, users …
Germany: Global Info; UK: electronic libraries
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Computer science, engineering
 Concentrating
on R&D
 Technology centered
distributed
& organized knowledge resources
in electronic, digital formats
 diverse
types of information
– texts, images, sounds, multimedia
new
kind of distributed database services to
manage unstructured multimedia resources
 Important
for infrastructure
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Examples of research areas
 Interoperability
between heterogeneous collections
 Data integration - text, video, sound; metadata
 Network protocols and standards
 Search engines & agents for searching, filtering,
navigating, summarizing, integration
 Visualization & other interactive technology
browsing
 Scaling
large volumes of texts & imagery; display
R&D to large collections, applications
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Widening scope of topics
 In
DLI 2 8 projects funded so far:
 Document
selection and expert problem solvers
 Image filtering for medical information
 Automatic reference librarians for the web
 New techniques for humanities collections
 Software data lbrary
 DL classification system
 Undergraduate education:
– DL test bed for science education
– Virtual skeleton for study in anatomy
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Challenges
 Interdisciplinarity
DL appropriated
absent
by computer science and
engineering
 Users
and human issues absent
human
centered design pushed as rhetoric only
 Widening
how
array of topics
do they fit into a digital library concept?
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Library perspective
 Concentrates

on institutions, service, practice
logical extension of libraries
 Content,
collection centered
Creation
of digital collections
 variety
of materials
 repositories of digital materials
Access
 Guided
to collections
by service mission
 various
environments, user communities
 various degrees of integration or separation
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Revolves around Digital Library
Federation (DLF) definition
“Digital libraries are organizations that provide
the resources, including the specialized staff,
to select, structure, offer intellectual access to,
interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of,
and ensure the persistence over time of
collections of digital works so that they are
readily and economically available for use by a
defined community or set of communities.”
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Several models
 Digitizing
Large
model (mostly heritage model):
number in the U.S. - various institutions - e.g.:
Library of Congress: American Memory Project: http://memory.loc.gov

libraries becoming publishers
 Consortium
National

model
Digital Library of the Library of Congress
redefines mission “provide the widest possible access to
knowledge & information for educating a free society.”
 Comprehensive
Example:
service model
California Digital Library (CDL)
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Illustration of use ...
My computer in
Zagreb
HiNet impulses work
Rutgers server
CDL
Through indexes to a journal
Springer, Germany
Found an abstract
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Challenges
 Integration
between print and digital
mixing
new digital technology with print, local with
global; managing diverse resources - all difficult
 Competition
for scarce resources sharpening
 Institutional & social adjustments not easy
 Resistance, threats:
guerilla
warfare within and nuclear annihilation without
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Disciplinary perspective
 Concentrates
on collections & new forms of
publishing in their area - discipline centered
 Association model:
 scientific
& technical societies provide DL in their area
 Example: ACM Digital Library
 Public access to a certain parts
 Subscription for full text - subscription library model
 Disciplinary
providing
 Brown
these
units model:
collection of information in their field e.g.
University Physics Internet Resources
are more link than DL - handbook model
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Publishing perspective
 Commercial
 Example:
digital publishing & library model
Elsevier Science Direct
– own & other journals, mostly digitized print journals
– indexes, abstracts, online services
– various subscription, access & delivery modes
 Replacement
 Example:
of scholarly journal model
e-Print archive
– submission of reports, archiving, searching & free access to full
text in various science fields; issue of peer review not resolved
 Newspaper
 Example
model:
Wall Street Journal Online
– coupling with newspaper morgue & many other resources
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Exchange of roles
 Libraries
and publishers had a well defined
relation - now it is blurring
publishers
have libraries
libraries started publishing
publishers provide server (“shelf”) space
licensing rather than ownership becomes
predominant transaction mode
 Newspapers
based
discovered a new model
on their strength of editorial processes
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Policy perspective
 Legal
issues
 copyright
protection
 database security
 intellectual freedom
 equity
 Technical
issues
 standards
 scaling
 equity
 Above
implementation
& beyond DL, but DL bring out
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Futurists’ perspective
 Concentrate
on social future
 Third wave centered
Manifestation
of the World Brain
 Universal
access to organized world’s
knowledge
 Prophesies: Disappearance of libraries,
books, librarians
 Utopian to a large degree
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Economic issues
 Costs
not insignificant - WHO PAYS?
Presently
 Dilemma
R&D support from agencies - but after?
in library budgets
licensing
of digital publications vs. subscriptions
 Publishers’
economics for digital publications
approaches
vary, not settled, even scared
even: who is a publisher? - lines blurring
 Economics
room
of digital libraries still up in the air
for research & experimentation
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Social issues
 Individual:
role
privacy protection; rights; obligations
in information exchanges, work, needs; life ...
 Organizations:
integration; changing structure
 Traditional libraries: disappearing? changing?
 Impact: on research, business, education?
 Education: professional, continuing, general
 Computing & society: growing disparity between
information rich & poor
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General opportunities
 Building
digital collections of national importance
from existing texts, documents, images
historical,
educational, strategic, legislative …
 Creating
new digital documents & linking them
 Cataloging Internet resources in own domain
 Selecting digital resources from wherever &
creating & maintaining linkages
 Developing/adapting search engines & other
management tools for digital collections
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General opportunities … continued
 Providing
access to digital collections
 Integrating digital & other library collections
incl.
integration of OPACs & library management tools
 Establishing
services for digital libraries
online
access & offline support
education & training of users, and librarians
 Addressing
social, legal, policy issues
 Cooperative national & international ventures
 Outsourcing services; going into business of DL
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Conclusions
“War is too important a matter to
be left to the generals.”
Georges Clemenceau
 Digital
libraries are too important to be left
to any one discipline, any one agency
 Why? Work on digital libraries is defining the
future of handling of human knowledge records
 Caught a lot of interest globally & politically
 They are also redefining the role of libraries in
society & the role of librarians & inf. specialists
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Conclusions … continued
 Digital
libraries provide challenge & opportunity
for cooperative, interdisciplinary ventures
 Provide a GREAT opportunity for many institutions
to participate in many ways
Have
room for smaller institutions & projects
 Digital
libraries will not replace libraries
 But no matter what: libraries and information
agencies cannot escape digital libraries, must change
so
might as well actively join the movement
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