The term "digital library" has recently come into use to refer to the
realization of our most ambitious dreams for the application of
high-performance computers and networks to the production, distribution,
management, and use of knowledge in research and educational, and perhaps
other, communities. It synthesizes the "bits on silicon rather than ink on
paper" core concept of the term "electronic library" with the "not only what
you own but what you have access to" one of "virtual library," and it has
generally replaced both of these two prior terms of art.
But there is more going on in the emergence of this term than the quest for
more efficient language. A shift of mind-set is also gathering momentum,
away from building systems for networking printed information toward systems
for managing networked information. Although most contemporary digital
libraries are being built to manage digitized versions of things that were
already available in analog formats (e.g. books, periodicals, and video and
sound recordings), a steadily increasing number now on the drawing boards
are being built to manage "digital" rather than "digitized" information.
The "knowledge objects" enabled by this emergent class of digital libraries
will be much more like "experiences" than they will be like "things," much
more like "programs" than "documents," and readers will have unique
experiences with these objects in an even more profound way than is already
the case with books, periodicals, etc. The relativity principle that from
Einstein forward we have taken for granted as applying to physical space,
and which western philosophers since Immanuel Kant (and, arguably, since
long before him) have worried might also apply to our knowledge of physical
space, has become one of the central, if not the central, information system
design challenges in cyberspace.
This is one of the major reasons why digital library research and
development is now a key priority of Federal agencies like the National
Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (ARPA), and the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA), and of a growing number of other public and private
agencies, institutions, and organizations. One program to watch is the joint
NSF, ARPA, and NASA digital library initiative which is investing $24.4
million in six projects over the next four years.
Each of these projects brings together researchers and users from a leading
university with those from partner libraries, museums, publishers,
government laboratories, state agencies, secondary schools, computer and
communications companies, and other academic institutions. And, they promise
to produce break- throughs in analyzing and accessing video, graphical, and
geo-spatial information in digital environments as well as in serving
diverse communities of users who are interested in the environment, the
earth and planetary sciences, computer science, general science and
engineering, and other disciplines and subjects.
Bill Arms of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives has observed
that it is already clear from these and a number of related projects that
the building of digital libraries requires the careful consideration of at
least the following eight issues:
* the observation of laws, regulations, customs, etc. (such as applicable
sections of the copyright law and user community moral and behavioral
norms and preferences) that bear upon the intellectual content and
technical architecture in question;
* the partitioning of knowledge object functions (such as security
mechanisms) that are (entirely, or mostly) independent of content from
those (such as mechanisms for storage and retrieval) that are dependent
on content;
* the provision of knowledge object names and identifiers that are, at
minimum, independent of physical location(s), globally unique, and
persistent over time;
* the recognition that knowledge objects are more than globs of bits, and
that they contain property definitions, signatures, transaction logs,
and undoubtedly other things in addition to coded content per se;
* the recognition that repositories of knowledge objects are more than
collections of globs of bits, and that they contain "handles" by which
to see and grasp objects, records on how and when objects were accessed
and used, authentication, security, accounting, and billing mechanisms,
and undoubtedly other things in addition to knowledge objects per se;
* the provision of tools and procedures that allow a knowledge object to
be used in quite different ways by quite different users, and to always
be used in ways that go far beyond simple information search and
retrieval as we have known it;
* the recognition that digital library users think in terms of and want
complete, integrated intellectual works, not partial, individual
knowledge objects; and,
* the understanding that progress on designing, building, and operating
digital libraries is being hampered by the fact that the many parties
now involved in such efforts bring very different meanings to the same
words.
We have come to the end of the period in which cheap stunts, brilliant
hacks, and acts of ignorance or desperation can be the principal ways for
creating useful and affordable networked information resources and services.
Strategic thinking, careful research and development, steady progress over
the long run, and significant investments are now the main drivers of
progress.
Said otherwise, now that the going has gotten weird, it's time for the weird
to turn pro.
NSF / ARPA / NASA Digital Library Initiatives
University of California, Berkeley, and its partners "UC Berkeley's Digital
Library Project"
The UC Berkeley Digital Library Project will create "The California
Environment," a large collection of diverse kinds of data about the
environment: technical reports, computer models, county general plans,
aerial and ground photographs, maps, videos, and databases of the California
biota.
University of California, Santa Barbara, and its partners "Alexandria
Digital Library" Library Project is to develop a distributed system that
provides a comprehensive range of library services for collections of
spatially indexed and graphical information.
Carnegie Mellon University, and its partners "Informedia Digital Video
Library" The Informedia Digital Video Library Project is developing new
technologies for creating full-content search and retrieval video libraries.
University of Illinois, and its partners "Building the Interspace: The
Illinois Digital Library Project"
The University of Illinois is building a large-scale digital library
testbed, planned to grow to thousands of users and documents, with the goal
of bringing professional quality search and display to Internet information
services starting with a collection consisting of articles from engineering
and science journals and magazines obtained in SGML format directly from
major partners in the publishing industry.
University of Michigan, and its partners "University of Michigan Digital
Library Project" The University of Michigan Digital Library Project is a
multi-disciplinary collaboration that will emphasize a diverse collection of
information, focused on earth and planetary sciences, and which will be
built to satisfy the needs of many different types of users from high school
students to research scientists.
Stanford University, and its partners "The Stanford Digital Library Project"
The Stanford Integrated Digital Library Project will develop enabling
technologies for an integrated "virtual" library to provide an array of new
services and uniform access to networked information collections starting
with computer science.
Paul Evan Peters is executive director of the Coalition for Networked
Information.
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