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Digital Libraries

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Database Systems

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Synonyms

Electronic libraries

Definition

Digital libraries (DLs) are complex information systems that have facilities for storage, retrieval, delivery, and presentation of digital information. They are complex in nature because of the broad range of activities they may need to perform, and because they may need to serve multiple types of audiences. Thus, the broadest definitions include the people and agents/actors involved, as well as the software, content, structure/organization(s), services, policies, procedures, etc.

Historical Background

One of the earliest detailed works about digital libraries (DLs) was prepared by Licklider [8], who envisioned a network of computers with digitized versions of all of the literature ever published. However, the term “digital library” became widely used only around 1991, in connection with a series of workshops funded by the US National Science Foundation, which later led to significant NSF support of R&D DL projects (http://www.dli2.nsf.gov/),...

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Recommended Reading

  1. Candela L., Castelli D., Ioannidis Y., Koutrika G., Pagano P., Ross S., Schek H.-J., and Schuldt H. Setting the foundations of digital libraries: the DELOS manifesto. D-Lib Mag., 13(3/4), 2007.

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  2. Christel M., Wactlar H., and Stevens S. Informedia digital video library. In Proc. 2nd ACM Int. Conf. on Multimedia, 1994, pp. 480–481.

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  3. Digital Library Curriculum Development Project homepage (2007). http://curric.dlib.vt.edu/.

  4. Gonçalves M.A. Streams, Structures, Spaces, Scenarios, and Societies (5S): A Formal Digital Library Framework and Its Applications. PhD Thesis, Virginia Tech, Department of Computer Science, 2004.

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  5. Gonçalves M., Fox E., Watson L., and Kipp N. Streams, structures, spaces, scenarios, societies (5S): a formal model for digital libraries. ACM Trans. Inf. Syst., 22:270–312, 2004.

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  6. Janée G. and Frew J. The ADEPT digital library architecture. In Proc. ACM/IEEE Joint Conf. on Digital Libraries, 2002.

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  7. Kochtanek T. and Hein K.K. Delphi study of digital libraries. Inf. Process. Manage., 35(3):245–254, 1999.

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  8. Licklider J.C.R. Libraries of the Future. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1965.

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  9. Pomerantz J., Oh S., Wildemuth B., Yang S., and Fox E.A. Digital library education in computer science programs. In Proc. ACM/IEEE Joint Conf. on Digital Libraries, 2007.

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  10. Pomerantz J., Oh S., Yang S., Fox E.A., and Wildemuth B. The Core: Digital Library Education in Library and Information Science Programs. D-Lib Magazine, 12(11), 2006.

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  11. Pomerantz J., Wildemuth B., Oh S., Fox E.A., and Yang S. Curriculum development for digital libraries. In Proc. ACM/IEEE Joint Conf. on Digital Libraries, 2006, pp. 175–184.

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  12. Reddy R. and Wladawsky-Berger I. Digital Libraries: Universal Access to Human Knowledge – A Report to the President. President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC), Panel on Digital Libraries 2001.

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  13. Sen N. TKDL - A safeguard for Indian traditional knowledge. Curr. Sci., 82(9):1070–71, 2002.

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  14. Smith T.R. and Frew J. Alexandria digital library. Commun. ACM, 38(4):61–62, 1995.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA

    Venkat Srinivasan, Seungwon Yang & Edward A. Fox

Authors
  1. Venkat Srinivasan
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  2. Seungwon Yang
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  3. Edward A. Fox
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 266 Ferst Drive, 30332-0765, Atlanta, GA, USA

    LING LIU (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Database Research Group David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. TAMER ÖZSU (Professor and Director, University Research Chair) (Professor and Director, University Research Chair)

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© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Srinivasan, V., Yang, S., Fox, E.A. (2009). Digital Libraries. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_874

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