Chapter two

History and vision of

Digital Libraries

Dep’t of Information Science: INSC2092

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Lessons outline:
 History of DL
 Vision of DL
 DL Initiative phase II
 Current development of DL

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 History of DL

The History of DL contains three parts of stages:

 Early Stage
 Booming Stages  And 
 Development Period

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Early stages of DL

 The emergence and development of digital libraries at

this stage were driven by two main forces:
 First, digital technological development:- especially in
multimedia and networking, offered more efficient and
new ways in information processing and management.
 Second, people : they wanted to share important
information like library materials, scientific databases
in education and research.
 So digital library systems came into being.
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 Cont’d…

 In early stages DL were various types of digital collections

like:
 Personal information resources
 workgroup organizational information and
collaboration environments
 Electronic thesis started as early as 1987 by Edward Fox.
 Many libraries started to replace their card catalogs with
OPAC systems, and were beginning to store abstracts and
periodicals on CD-ROMs.
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 Booming stage

 High levels of attention and funding were first

given to digital libraries in the early and mid
1990s, which led to a booming era with large
number of visions and projects……..
 Digital Library Initiative: the biggest and
most important digital library research project
is coined in this era.

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 Developing Period

 The rapid expansion of the Internet and Web generated

the sudden advances in the research and development
in digital libraries and proposes of many questions to
researchers are takes place.
 Since 1995, various kinds of conferences, workshops
and forums on digital libraries were held, and articles
flooded discussing all kinds of questions from various
perspectives on digital libraries.

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 Vision of Digital Library

 To employ the fullest potential of digital technology in

partnership with users by enabling seamless and open
access to all types of information without limits to
format or geography, and
 To enhance the ability of libraries, archives and
museums to collaborate among themselves and with
others to offer the broadest and most complete service
possible.  

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 Digital libraries initiative - phase II

 Innovative digital libraries research and applications will

be jointly supported by:
 National Science Foundation (NSF),
 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA),
 National Library of Medicine (NLM),
 Library of Congress (Loc),
 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),
 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and
others.

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 Cont’d…

 By this initiative digital libraries research and applications efforts

have reproduce :
 new communities of researchers
 information providers and users have become engaged.
 the definition of a digital library has developed.
 technologies have advanced.
 stores of digital content have increased dramatically and
 new research directions have emerged.
 These advances point to a future in which vast amounts of digital
information will be easily accessible to and usable by large segments
of10the world's population.
 Cont’d..
To achieve this, digital libraries initiative - phase II plans to:
 Selectively build and extend research and tested activities in
promising digital libraries
 Accelerate development, management and accessibility of digital
content and collections
 Create new capabilities and opportunities for digital libraries to
serve user communities.
 Encourage the study of interactions between humans and digital
libraries in various social and organizational contexts.

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 Cont’d …
 DLI phase II is concerned with developing concepts,
technologies and tools to gain use of the fuller knowledge and
meaning inherent in digital collections. This means:
 for users:- intelligent search, retrieval, organization and
interfaces tools.
 for content and collection providers :- new information types,
structures, document encoding and meta data to develop
context.
 for system builders :- designing HW and SW capable of
interpreting and implementing users' requests to provide the
user with the structured information required.
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 DLI phase II cont’d..

Program goals of DLI phase II:

 The primary purposes of this initiative are to provide

leadership in research fundamental to the development
of the next generation of digital libraries:
 To advance the use and usability of globally
distributed, networked information resources, and
 To encourage existing and new communities to focus
on innovative applications areas.

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National Science Digital Library (NSDL) Projects

 NSDL:- provides high quality online educational resources

for teaching and learning, with current emphasis on the
sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics
(STEM) disciplines:- both formal and informal, institutional
and individual, in local, state, national, and international
educational settings.
 NSDL:- also offers customized consultation and technical
services for organizations seeking to efficiently and
effectively serve their audiences with educational content.

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 Current Development of DL

 Database Integration and Searching Capabilities. 

 Dynamic Linking.
 Hybrid Information Content. 

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Summary

Why Digitize?
 To Provide better access
 to support collection management and
preservation
 To Preserve fragile materials
 To Support educational and research activities
 To Fulfill strategic mission and goals of institution