Digital Library Collections Research Articles

Knowledge organisation systems in North American digital library collections

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report an investigation into the types of knowledge organisation systems (KOSs) utilised in North American digital library collections.Design/methodology/approachThe paper identifies, analyses and deep scans online North American hosted digital libraries. It reviews the literature related to the application of KOSs on the web, identifies widely used KOSs and tools and reviews the literature related to collaborative collections on the web.FindingsA total of 269 North American digital library collections were examined. The Library of Congress Subject Headings is the most widely used subject representation tool, followed by domain‐specific thesauri, 113 digital library collections make use of locally developed taxonomies. A few collections use the Dewy Decimal Classification and alphabetical indexes.Research limitations/implicationsThis research was limited to North American digital library collections.Practical implicationsThe findings show the popular KOSs used in digital library collections. It also shows the organisational contexts of the examined digital library collections.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the areas of digital libraries and to the application of KOSs and services for subject representation and access.

“A Dirty Place for Americans to Be”: Images of the Russian Civil War in Siberia from the Robert L. Eichelberger Collection at Duke University Libraries

The article describes the contents of a substantial and little‐known collection of Russian Civil War photographs currently held at the Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Special Collections Library, Duke University. The images come from the personal archive of General Robert L. Eichelberger (1886–1961), Assistant Chief of Staff, Operations Division, and Chief Intelligence Officer with the American Expeditionary Forces in eastern Siberia, 1918–1920. The article analyzes the scholarly research value of this collection, which has been scanned as part of the Duke University Libraries digital collections project called Americans in the Land of Lenin: Documentary Photographs of Early Soviet Russia.

An Optimistic Read on Digital Libraries

In the News story “NSF rethinks its digital library” (Special Section on Education & Technology, 2 January, p. [54][1]), J. Mervis captures the uphill struggle digital libraries have faced as they try to sustain funding and gain visibility among educators and students. However, the picture the article paints of sustainability in general and the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) in particular is too pessimistic. The process by which the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) assumed responsibility for the DLESE collection is attracting a good deal of attention through articles, presentations, and grants addressing models of sustainability for digital efforts. The advantages of curated digital libraries are clear to many users. DLESE's collections of Earth science materials, now managed by the NCAR Library, have been selected by educators and scientists specifically because they are scientifically accurate, grade-level appropriate, and effective for teaching. The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, which operated the technical arm of DLESE and continues to run the NSDL Resource Center, is very proud of the impact of these digital library efforts. Although DLESE has lost its NSF funding, the open-source DLESE technical infrastructure underpins initiatives at NASA, NOAA, DOE, and scientific data centers and digital libraries from Britain to China. It is notoriously difficult to demonstrate the impact of educational innovations, but a current project with Denver Public Schools leveraging DLESE collections holds promise for helping us evaluate the value of digital library collections in transforming teacher practice and learning outcomes. In many ways, NSF's investment in digital libraries has been transformative. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.323.5910.54

Building and Managing a Digital Collection in a Small Library

The creation and management of digital library collections is a relatively new field of librarianship that nevertheless has produced a substantial literature. Because the development of digital information resources can be an expensive undertaking, it is not surprising that the institutional pioneers in digital development typically were large academic research libraries or federally funded agencies. As a result, librarians and information managers from such institutions have tended to dominate the professionaldiscourse on digitalization. At an April 2003 conference in Los Angeles presented by the Northeast Document Conservation Center, for example, the speakers were from Harvard University, Duke University, Cornell University, UCLA, the University of California–Berkeley, Columbia University, the Research Libraries Group, the National Archives and Records Administration,and the Library of Congress—hardly a representative cross-section of American libraries.1

Library Advocacy: The National Library Board of Singapore's Experience

The National Library Board (NLB) of Singapore is a centralized library system of some 40 libraries. It comprises one National Library, 23 public libraries and government department libraries including the Parliament Library and Supreme Court Library amongst others. As a publicly funded library system, the NLB has in the past 12 years successfully sought development funding from the government twice. The first was for S$1 billion to build new libraries and upgrade older ones from the period 1996 to 2005. The second was for a further S$100 million to design, build and provide digital library collections and services. This includes setting up knowledge platforms for sharing and collaborations. This article shares some of the learning points from the NLB's experience in negotiating for funds and support from stakeholders. The NLB's ability to convince its stakeholders of its relevance and importance has enabled rapid modernization and implementation of its two proposed roadmaps. The Library continues to serve the people of Singapore effectively in this knowledge age where users are mobile and connected with handheld devices, and always ready to communicate and collaborate with each other.

“Inside every fat man”: balancing the digital library budget

PurposeThe aim of this article is to review digital library collection building in the light of changing patterns of provision and usage, with special reference to mechanisms such as the Big Deal.Design/methodology/approachThe research for the article consisted of a review of recent literature and unpublished research reports.FindingsThe article reviews the current position with regard to the provision of e‐materials, looking at the delivery chain, the role of publishers, agents and librarians, user requirements and current approaches, trends, blockages and opportunities. It is argued that while the Big Deal approach has both improved access and cost effectiveness, a more granular approach is required as user requirements are likely to become more sophisticated. The article is concerned primarily with the UK higher education (UKHE) sector.Practical implicationsThe article will be useful in terms of planning future work on the economic aspects of library provision, and digital library development in particular.Originality/valueThe article presents a summary of the present position and possible future trends in the area of digital library collection building.

MyLibrary: A Digital Library Framework and Toolkit

This article describes a digital library framework and toolkit called MyLibrary. At its heart, MyLibrary is designed to create relationships between information resources and people. To this end, MyLibrary is made up of essentially four parts: (1) information resources, (2) patrons, (3) librarians, and (4) a set of locally defined, institution-specific facet/term combinations interconnecting the first three. On another level, MyLibrary is a set of object-oriented Perl modules intended to read and write to a specifically shaped relational database. Used in conjunction with other computer applications and tools, MyLibrary provides a way to create and support digital library collections and services. Librarians and developers can use MyLibrary to create any number of digital library applications: full-text indexes to journal literature, a traditional library catalog complete with circulation, a database-driven website, an institutional repository, an image database, etc. The article describes each of these points in greater detail.

Thinking outside the library box

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to the emerging concept of local contextualization in digital repositories.Design/methodology/approachThe paper describes the concepts and issues related to local contextualization of digital repositories.FindingsThe paper finds that initial efforts in developing digital repositories focused mainly on digitizing library collections. Emerging trends indicate that expectations of patrons have changed and are increasingly tied to the collection and maintenance of materials that are not directly owned by the library. As repositories continue to evolve, libraries will need to be more proactive in contextualizing their digital repositories to the local environment. Unlike the current “one size fits all” model of digital repositories, contextualization emphasized thoughtful planning and implementation of services that are relevant to the local environment.Originality/valueThis paper describes an emerging trend in digital repository services.

Metadata-enhanced visual interfaces to digital libraries

Information visualization offers a variety of ways in which digital library collections can be represented on the interface and shown to the user. Metadata, a key component of solid digital libraries, has been utilized to enhance visual user interfaces to digital libraries. This paper reports on a study conducted to investigate and analyze a specific category of digital library visual interface that supports information seeking, exploration and retrieval based on metadata representations, namely metadata-enhanced visual interfaces. This study examined 21 metadata-enhanced digital library visual interfaces from the following perspectives: (a) information access and retrieval features; (b) metadata elements; (c) visualization techniques and metaphors. The results demonstrated that the combined use of visualization techniques and metaphors is becoming increasingly prevalent as a design strategy to support users' information exploration. The results also suggest that visual interfaces enhanced with metadata are becoming more widespread to provide a richer representation of digital collections.

Digital Knowledge Resources

Technology has revolutionized the concept of libraries. Networking and computing technologies have now become sufficiently advanced to support the design and deployment of large digital libraries which are capable of supporting the conventional end-user functions. Digital libraries are a natural extension of the evolution in which libraries have been involved for centuries. They represent a fundamental leap forward in the provision of services for, and partnership with, information communities. Because of the ‘digital’ nature, information resources can be shared over the powerful network. With the innovative use of information technology and the integration of many tools and techniques developed thus far and in the foreseeable future, information provision can be more complete, faster, and broad-based. Digital Libraries can be accessed anywhere, any time, by anyone who needs them. Thus, the potential should be great. This article provides an overview of digital and other electronic information resources, their characteristics, growth and developments, and their impact on information access and use. It also deals with issues relevant to building digital library collections and systems.

인용정보와 연구자 홈페이지를 이용한 디지털 도서관 장서개발 방안 연구

오늘날 정보환경은 정보이용자로 하여금 도서관 장서뿐만 아니라 다양한 디지털 정보자원으로의 접근을 가능하게 하였다. 변화하는 환경에서 이용률이 증가하는 디지털 정보자원으로 웹사이트, 각종 데이터, 홈페이지 등을 들 수 있다. 이 연구는 ISI Web of Knowledge의 Essential Science Indicators에서 제공하는 인용정보를 이용하여 임상의학 분야의 피인용 횟수가 높은 저자들과 이 저자들의 논문을 인용한 저자들의 홈페이지에 수록된 연구 성과물을 추출한 후, 의학대학 디지털 도서관 및 학술포털과 비교 분석하였다. 10,000여명의 저자 중 연구 성과물 정보를 제시하는 146명의 홈페이지 연구정보를 분석하였는데, 홈페이지에서만 제공하는 연구정보는 학술지 논문, 단행본, 학술대회 발표논문, 강의노트를 포함하였다. 이 중 학술지 논문은 약 15%, 단행본은 약 32%, 학술대회 발표논문은 약 48%, 강의노트는 100% 모두 홈페이지를 통해서만 접근할 수 있는 연구 성과물로 분석되었다. 실제로 의학대학 도서관과 학술포털에서 제공하는 연구정보가 대부분 일치했던 점을 고려할 때, 저명한 연구자들의 홈페이지를 통한 연구정보의 확충이 디지털 도서관 장서개발의 양적, 질적 향상을 위한 방안이 될 수 있다.

Types of Help‐seeking situations for novice users of digital libraries: A preliminary study

AbstractThe Help‐seeking situation is characterized by a person, who is engaged in the process of information seeking with an IR system in order to achieve his/her tasks/goals, and finds him/herself needing some sort of help in that process. To date, there has been little empirical research investigating the specific types of Help‐seeking situations that lead users to look for help. This paper reports the results of a preliminary study, derived from an ongoing large scale research project focusing on the identification of different types of Help‐seeking situations, along with types of help features used and their related problems. Seventeen subjects representing the general public in Milwaukee and New York City sites were selected for this study. Based on the analysis of pre and post questionnaires, think aloud data and transaction logs, the results present 9 types of Help‐seeking situations related to problems in the area of: domain knowledge, system knowledge, information retrieval knowledge, evaluation of results, and collections of digital libraries. Implications for the design of more effective interactive Help mechanisms are also discussed.

Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides Collection

Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides Collection

Digital libraries: to meet or manage user expectations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review the nature of, and rationale for, user expectations in the digital library setting, and ways in which they may best be met and/or managed.Design/methodology/approachAn analysis of the literature, focusing on empirical studies, and bringing out main themes and issues.FindingsUser expectations of digital libraries are often unrealistic, usually unrealistically high, mainly due to the ubiquity of the web search engine as an information environment. Expectations differ between user groups. Both meeting and managing expectations have been promoted as a solution; it is likely that a mix of the two will be most effective. More empirical and conceptual studies are needed. Ways of making the nature of digital library collections and their organisation “visible”, embedded in a natural way within their interfaces, are desirable.Originality/valueThis is the first paper to review the literature of this topic.

Storytelling in an automated environment

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to report the results of a project incorporating metadata analysis for the creation of curated guides to a digital library of historic photographic images.Design/methodology/approachThe general format and scope of the curated guides was determined by members of the project team. Automated processing was developed to analyze subject terms in metadata of digital images submitted to the digital library collection. The results of the metadata processing were used to narrow the themes of the curated guides, and to help create canned searches that would expose representative collection content. The curated guides were created and made available to users of the digital image collection.FindingsProcessing and analyzing metadata can be a useful tool in the creation of digital library collection guides. However, the usefulness of this method is highly dependent upon consistency and accuracy of the source metadata records.Practical implicationsCreators of digital library collections are shown a method of using existing resources to create collection guides. The value of metadata demonstrated by this application may affect considerations of the cost of metadata creation.Originality/valueThis activity discussed in this paper addresses an established need among digital library practitioners – the need to provide users with guided access to the content of their collections. The method discussed for creating curated guides is repeatable, and could be improved in further applications.

Name Authority Challenges for Indexing and Abstracting Databases

Objective - This analysis explores alternative methods for managing author name changes in Indexing and Abstracting (I&A) databases. A searcher may retrieve incomplete or inaccurate results when the database provides no or faulty assistance in linking author name variations.
 
 Methods -The article includes an analysis of current name authority practices in I&A databases and of selected research into name disambiguation models applied to authorship of articles.
 
 Results - Several potential solutions are in production or in development. MathSciNet has developed an authority file. The method is largely machine-based but it involves time-consuming manual intervention that might not scale up to larger or multidisciplinary databases. The use of standard numbers for authors has been proposed. Solutions in practice include author-managed registration records and linking among several authority files. Information science and computer science researchers are developing models to automate processes for name disambiguation, shifting the focus from authority control to access control. Successful models use metadata beyond the author name alone, such as co-authors, author affiliation, journal name, or keywords. Social networks may provide additional data to support disambiguation models. 
 
 Conclusion - The traditional objective of name authority files is to determine precisely when name variations belong to the same individual. Manually-maintained authority files have served library catalogues reasonably well, but the burden of upkeep has made them ill-suited to managing the volume of items and authors in all but the smallest I&A databases. To meet the access needs of the 21st Century, both catalogues and I&A databases may need to implement options that present a high degree of probability that items have been authored by the same individual, rather than options that provide high precision with the expense of manual maintenance. Striving for name disambiguation rather than name authority control may become an attractive option for catalogues, I&A databases, and digital library collections.

Creating digital library collections with Greenstone

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to introduce Greenstone and explain how librarians use it to create and customize digital library collections.Design/methodology/approachThrough an end‐user interface, users may add documents and metadata to collections, create new collections whose structure mirrors existing ones, and build collections and put them in place for users to view.FindingsFirst‐time users can easily and quickly create their own digital library collections. More advanced users can design and customize new collection structuresOriginality/valueThe Greenstone digital library software is a comprehensive system for building and distributing digital library collections. It provides a way of organizing information based on metadata and publishing it on the Internet or on removable media such as CD‐ROM/DVD.

Interfaces to knowledge organization systems in Canadian digital library collections

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report an investigation into the ways in which Canadian digital library collections have incorporated knowledge organization systems into their search interfaces.Design/methodology/approachA combination of data‐gathering techniques was used. These were as follows: a review of the literature related to the application of knowledge organization systems, deep scanning of Canadian governmental and academic institutions web sites on the web, identify and contact researchers in the area of knowledge organization, and identify and contact people in the governmental organizations who are involved in knowledge organization and information management.FindingsA total of 33 digital collections were identified that have made use of some type of knowledge organization system. Thesauri, subject heading lists and classification schemes were the widely used knowledge organization systems in the surveyed Canadian digital library collections.Research limitations/implicationsThe target population for this research was limited to governmental and academic digital library collections.Practical implicationsAn evaluation of the knowledge organization systems interfaces showed that searching, browsing and navigation facilities as well as bilingual features call for improvements.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the following areas: digital libraries, knowledge organization systems and services and search interface design.

An integrated framework for discovering digital library collections

Information seekers are generally on their own to discover and use a research library's growing array of digital collections, and coordination of these collections' development and maintenance is often not optimal. The frequent lack of a conscious design for how collections fit together is of equal concern because it means that research libraries are not making the most of the substantial investments they are making in digital initiatives. This paper proposes a framework for a research library's digital collections that offers integrated discovery and a set of best practices to underpin collection building, federated access, and sustainability. The framework's purpose is to give information seekers a powerful and easy way to search across existing and future collections and to retrieve integrated sets of results. The paper and its recommendations are based upon research undertaken by the author and a team of librarians and technologists at Cornell University Library. The team conducted structured interviews of forty-five library staff members involved in digital collection building at Cornell, studied an inventory of the library's more than fifty digital collections, and evaluated seven existing Open Archives Initiative (OAI) and federated search production or prototype systems. The author will discuss her team's research and the rationale for their recommendations to: present a cohesive view of the library's digital collections for both browsing and searching at the object level; take a programmatic (rather than project-based) approach to digital collection building; require that all new digital collections conform to library-developed and agreed-upon OAI best practices for data providers; and implement organizational structures to sustain the library's digital collections over the long term.

An integrated framework for discovering digital library collections

Information seekers are generally on their own to discover and use a research library's growing array of digital collections, and coordination of these collections' development and maintenance is often not optimal. The frequent lack of a conscious design for how collections fit together is of equal concern because it means that research libraries are not making the most of the substantial investments they are making in digital initiatives. This paper proposes a framework for a research library's digital collections that offers integrated discovery and a set of best practices to underpin collection building, federated access, and sustainability. The framework's purpose is to give information seekers a powerful and easy way to search across existing and future collections and to retrieve integrated sets of results. The paper and its recommendations are based upon research undertaken by the author and a team of librarians and technologists at Cornell University Library. The team conducted structured interviews of forty-five library staff members involved in digital collection building at Cornell, studied an inventory of the library's more than fifty digital collections, and evaluated seven existing Open Archives Initiative (OAI) and federated search production or prototype systems. The author will discuss her team's research and the rationale for their recommendations to: present a cohesive view of the library's digital collections for both browsing and searching at the object level; take a programmatic (rather than project-based) approach to digital collection building; require that all new digital collections conform to library-developed and agreed-upon OAI best practices for data providers; and implement organizational structures to sustain the library's digital collections over the long term.