Digital Libraries: 21st Century Librarianship

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Digital Libraries21st Century Librarianship

• Presented to
• UK ASIST Student Chapter
• November 28, 2005
• by
• Suzie Allard, Ph.D
• University of Tennessee

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• Since the start of this semester there have been
  at least 52 job postings for digital librarians
  or related positions. (23 explicitly state DL!)
• All but 5 REQUIRE an ALA accredited degree.
• ARE YOU READY TO BE A PART OF THIS 21st CENTURY
  PROFESSION????

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A Brief History of DLs Visionaries

• Early 20th century DL visionaries
• H.G. Wells (1937)
• Permanent World Encyclopedia the World Brain
• It is probable that the idea of an encyclopaedia
  may undergo very considerable extension and
  elaboration in the near future.
• Vannevar Bush (1945) Memex

Professionally our methods of transmitting and
reviewing the results of research are generations
old and by now are totally inadequate for their
purpose.
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Brief History Technology Arrives

• Engelbart (1963) Internet pioneer, technology to
  augment human intellect
• Licklider (1965) shape of future libraries
  active desk connected to larger network
• Digital library information retrieval roots in
  work of Salton, Sparck Jones, Belkin, Meadow
  (late 1960s through late 1980s)

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What is a Digital Library?
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DLs combine

• Technologies used for creating, searching and
  using information in the electronic environment
• Human aspects of information seeking and creation

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Characteristics of a DL

• An organization houses maintains the DL.
• Content is paramount!
• The collection is assembled by people using
  specific guidelines to accept and reject content.
• Documents are stored in widely distributed
  databases (networked environment)

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More Characteristics of a DL

• Collection available to a large, geographically
  unspecific audience.
• Access to the DL is through a portal or other
  software device
• Other capabilities may include self-archiving,
  areas for annotated comments, and discussion of
  existing documents. DL may have workspaces that
  support collaboration.

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DLs and Librarians

• DLs may not mimic analog library.
• DLs may blend traditional librarians with
  information system engineers
• DL collections may be supported by academic
  institution, publishers, governments,
  professional societies or discipline based
  coalitions

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Some U.S. DLs

• American Memory Library of Congress

UT Digital Library
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DLS around the World

• UK e-Lib (1994) program has 35 DL oriented
  projects

ICDL (2002) International Childrens Digital
Library

• NDLTD (1996)
• Networked Digital Library of Theses
  Dissertations

Japan has been working on the National Diet
Library (1996)
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Types of DLs
Allard, 2000
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Why have DLs?

• DLs bring the library to the user
• Searching and browsing improved
• Information more easily shared
• Easier to keep information current
• Information is always available
• New forms of information possible
• Allows collaboration and idea exchange
• May save money
• May aid in preservation

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Applications of DLs

• To conduct IT research development
• To preserve archive materials
• For education
• For scholarly communication research
• To facilitate enterprises (info management)
• For commercial purposes
• For personal info management
• For e-governance

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Domains of DLs

• Research development
• Preservation Archives
• Education
• Scholarly communication
• Enterprise (info management)
• Commercial purposes
• Personal info management
• E-governance

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Challenges with DLs
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Challenges

• Technological Obsolescence
• Cost of content refreshing
• Rights management
• Interoperability
• Network Bandwidth
• Management

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Economic Realities

• Economies of scale Cost of producing next item
  reduces as more produced
• Cost to view digital item very low
• Digital information copied and transmitted easily
• Users expect it to be free

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Funding Models

• Institutional support
• Charging for additional services
• Charging for everything
• Support from advertisers
• Creative mechanisms (public appeals, pledges,
  etc,)

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Publisher Models

• Monthly subscriptions example
• Connect time fees Lexis Nexis
• Incentives for signing up new users rewards for
  popular content
• Downloading fees example
• Advertising
• Cost Avoidance DL lowers other costs

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Questions for D-Librarians

• Does the DL need to own the content?
• Who should retain control of the content?
• Who will support access to less used items?
• How will this affect sharing between libraries?
• Who will shoulder administrative costs?

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Institutional Repository

• Captures and preserves intellectual output of a
  single university or a multiple institution
  community of colleges and universities.

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Mission of Institutional Repositories

• Provide means to reform scholarly communication
  -- access to research, control over scholarship,
  greater importance to institution and library
• Demonstrate institution's quality and research
  activities, thus increasing the visibility,
  status, and public value. --SPARC

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Tool Kit for Digital Librarians
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You are the collection designer

• Your Goal
• Bring the documents to your users
• Where you start
• What form are the documents in?
• What structure do they have?
• How do you want them to interact with user?

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Tool Document Preparation

• What do you want the user to see?
• How closely does it need to
• resemble the original?
• Preservation?
• One page? Magnification?

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Tool Document Structure

• Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC)
• Dublin Core
• Resource Description Framework
• Encoded Archival Description (EAD)
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS)

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Tool Document Media

• Audio/Video take more space than images
• Dominant standards
• AV format Audio Only
• MPEG WAV
• AVI AIFF
• QuickTime AU
• Real System

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Tool Document Encoding

• SGML
• HTML
• XML
• TEI
• BibTeX
• Refer

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Tool Policy

• Policy needed to determine and guide the present
  and future state of collections.
• The policies should answer
• What sort of collection are we developing?
• Why are we developing this sort of collection?
• What are our priorities when we consider
  individual audiences, subjects, and formats?

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Tool Building Consortia

• Centralize content
• Centralize technical infrastructure
• OhioLink
• Galileo
• ADT

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Key Tools for Success

• Knowledge of fundamentals of librarianship
• Familiarity with Metadata standards
• Knowledge of Encoding schema
• Interest in Grant writing
• Strong oral and written skills
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Ability to work in a collaborative environment
• Comfort with a rapidly changing environment