International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions

UNIVERSAL DATAFLOW AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

CORE PROGRAMME

OCCASIONAL PAPER

8
DIGITAL LIBRARIES:
DEFINITIONS,
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

Gary Cleveland
IFLA UDT Core Programme

March, 1998
 International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
UNIVERSAL DATAFLOW AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS
CORE PROGRAMME
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national exchange of electronic data by providing the library community with pragmatic approaches to resource sharing. The
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relevant policy issues in an effort to overcome barriers to the electronic transfer of data in library fields.

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 UDT Occasional Papers #8
Universal Dataflow and Telecommunications Core Programme
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions

DIGITAL LIBRARIES:
Definitions, Issues and Challenges
Gary Cleveland
UDT Core Programme
[email protected] March, 1998

The idea of easy, finger-tip access to information— each of these different phrases meant. “Digital
what we conceptualize as digital libraries today— library” is simply the most current and most widely
began with Vannenar Bush’s Memex machine accepted term and is now used almost exclusively at
(Bush, 1945) and has continued to evolve with each conferences, online, and in the literature.
advance in information technology. With the arrival
of computers, the concept centered on large Another factor adding to the confusion is that digital
bibliographic databases, the now familiar online libraries are at the focal point of many different areas
retrieval and public access systems that are part of of research, and what constitutes a digital library
any contemporary library. When computers were differs depending upon the research community that
connected into large networks forming the Internet, is describing it (Nurnberg, et al, 1995). For
the concept evolved again, and research turned to example:
creating libraries of digital information that could be
accessed by anyone from anywhere in the world. • from an information retrieval point of view, it is
Phrases like “virtual library,” “electronic library,” a large database
“library without walls” and, most recently, “digital • for people who work on hypertext technology, it
library,” all have been used interchangeably to is one particular application of hypertext
describe this broad concept. methods
• for those working in wide-area information
But what does this phrase mean? What is digital delivery, it is an application of the Web
library? And what are the issues and challenges in • and for library science, it is another step in the
creating them? Moreover, what are the issues continuing automation of libraries that began
involved in creating a coordinated scheme of digital over 25 years ago
libraries? It has been suggested that digital libraries
will only be viable within such a scheme (Chapman In fact, a digital library is all of these things. These
and Kenny, 1996). This paper provides a very high- different research approaches will all add to the
level overview of digital libraries and briefly outlines development of digital libraries.
each of these questions in turn.
Third, confusion arises from the fact that there are
1. WHAT IS A DIGITAL LIBRARY? many things on the Internet that people are calling
“digital libraries,” which from a librarian’s point
What is a digital library? There is much confusion of view are not. For example:
surrounding this phrase, stemming from three
factors. First, the library community has used • for computer scientists and software developers,
several different phrases over the years to denote this collections of computer algorithms or software
concept— electronic library, virtual library, library programs are digital libraries.
without walls— and it never was quite clear what • for database vendors or commercial document
 suppliers, their databases and electronic that libraries do to develop and organize collections
document delivery services and digital libraries. and to help users find information.
• for large corporations, a digital library is the
document management systems that control The institutions involved in the American Digital
their business documents in electronic form. Library Federation came up with a similar notion of
• for a publisher, it may be an online version of a “digital library.” It also emphasizes the traditional
catalogue. underpinnings of libraries— selection, access, and
• and for at least one very large software preservation— as well as the fact that digital libraries
company, a digital library is the collection of will necessarily be constructed to serve particular
whatever it can buy the rights to, and then communities (Waters, 1998):
charge people for using.
Digital libraries are organizations that provide
A fairly spectacular example of what many people the resources, including the specialized staff, to
consider to be a digital library today is the World select, structure, offer intellectual access to,
interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of,
Wide Web. The Web is a gathering of thousands
and ensure the persistence over time of
and thousands of documents. Many would call this collections of digital works so that they are
huge collection a digital library because they can readily and economically available for use by a
find information, just as they can do banking in a defined community or set of communities.
“digital bank” or buy compact discs in a “digital
record store.” Yet, is the Web a digital library? With the assumption that digital libraries are
According to Clifford Lynch, once of the leading libraries first and foremost, we can list some
scholars in the area of digital library research, it is characteristics. These characteristics have been
not. Lynch (1997:52) states: gleaned from various discussions about digital
libraries, both online and in print (See Arms, 1995;
One sometimes hears the Internet characterized Graham, 1995a; Chepesuik, 1997; Lynch and
as the world's library for the digital age. This Garcia-Molina, 1995):
description does not stand up under even casual
examination. The Internet and particularly its
collection of multimedia resources known as the • digital libraries are the digital face of traditional
World Wide Web was not designed to support libraries that include both digital collections and
the organized publication and retrieval of traditional, fixed media collections. So they
information as libraries are. It has evolved into encompass both electronic and paper materials.
what might be thought of as a chaotic repository
for the collective output of the world's digital • digital libraries will also include digital
"printing presses.".... ...In short, the Net is not a materials that exist outside the physical and
digital library. administrative bounds of any one digital library

Thus, in examining the various examples of what are • digital libraries will include all the processes
called digital libraries, it appears that librarians have and services that are the backbone and nervous
been confused about what a digital library is, that the system of libraries. However, such traditional
word “library” has been appropriated by many processes, though forming the basis digital
different groups to describe either their areas of library work, will have to be revised and
research or signify a simple collection of digital enhanced to accommodate the differences
objects. between new digital media and traditional fixed
media.
So what is a working definition of “digital library”
that makes sense to librarians? As a starting point, • digital libraries ideally provide a coherent view
we should assume that digital libraries are libraries of all of the information contained within a
with the same purposes, functions, and goals as library, no matter its form or format
traditional libraries collection development and
management, subject analysis, index creation, • digital libraries will serve particular
provision of access, reference work, and communities or constituencies, as traditional
preservation. A narrow focus on digital formats libraries do now, though those communities may
alone hides the extensive behind-the-scenes work be widely dispersed throughout the network.

Digital Libraries: Definitions, Issues and Challenges

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• digital libraries will require both the skills of • high-speed local networks and fast connections
librarians and well as those of computer to the Internet
scientists to be viable. • relational databases that support a variety of
digital formats
One thing digital libraries will not be is a single, • full text search engines to index and provide
completely digital system that provides instant access access to resources
to all information, for all sectors of society, from • a variety of servers, such as Web servers and
anywhere in the world. This is simply unrealistic. FTP servers
This concept comes from the early days when people • electronic document management functions that
were unaware of the complexities of building digital will aid in the overall management of digital
libraries. Instead, they will most likely be a resources
collection of disparate resources and disparate
systems, catering to specific communities and user One important thing to point out about technical
groups, created for specific purposes. They also will architectures for digital libraries is that they won’t be
include, perhaps indefinitely, paper-based monolithic systems like the turn-key, single box
collections. Further, interoperability across digital OPAC’s with which librarians are most familiar.
libraries— of technical architectures, metadata, and Instead, they will be a collection of disparate systems
document formats— will also only likely be possible and resources connected through a network, and
within relatively bounded systems developed for integrated within one interface, most likely a Web
those specific purposes and communities. interface or one of its descendants. For example, the
resources supported by the architecture could
For librarians, this definition of a digital library, and include:
these characteristics, are the most logical because it
expands and extends the traditional library, • bibliographic databases that point to both paper
preserves the valuable work that they do, while and digital materials
integrating new technologies, new processes, and • indexes and finding tools
new media. • collections of pointers to Internet resources
• directories
2. WHAT ARE THE ISSUES AND • primary materials in various digital formats
CHALLENGES IN CREATING DIGITAL • photographs
LIBRARIES?
• numerical data sets
• and electronic journals
The optimism and hype from the early 1990’s has
been replaced by a realization that building digital
Though these resource may reside on different
libraries will be a difficult, expensive, and long-term
systems and in different databases, they would
effort (Lynch and Garcia-Molina, 1995). Creating
appear as though there were one single system to the
effective digital libraries poses serious challenges.
users of a particular community.
The integration of digital media into traditional
collections will not be straightforward, like previous
Within a coordinated digital library scheme, some
new media (e.g., video and audio tapes), because of
common standards will be needed to allow digital
the unique nature of digital information it is less
libraries to interoperate and share resources. The
fixed, easily copied, and remotely accessible by
problem, however, is that across multiple digital
multiple users simultaneously. Some the more
libraries, there is a wide diversity of different data
serious issues facing the development of digital
structures, search engines, interfaces, controlled
libraries are outlined below.
vocabularies, document formats, and so on. Because
of this diversity, federating all digital libraries
2.1 Technical architecture
nationally or internationally would an impossible
effort. Thus, the first task would be to find sound
The first issue is that of the technical architecture
reasons for federating particular digital libraries into
that underlies any digital library system. Libraries
one system. Narrowing the field in such a manner
will need to enhance and upgrade current technical
would reduce the technical and political hurdles
architectures to accommodate digital materials. The
required to establish common practices. Further,
architecture will include components such as:
because of the often uncertain futures of both de jure

IFLA UDT Core Programme Occasional Paper

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and defacto standards over time, what those digitizes what materials could be based on factors
standards are is unclear. such as:

2.2 Building digital collections • collection strengths. A particular library with a

strong collection focus could be responsible for
One of the largest issues in creating digital libraries digitizing selected portions of it and adding new
will be the building of digital collections. Obviously, digital works to it.
for any digital library to be viable, it must eventually
have a digital collection with the critical mass to • unique collections. If a library has the only
make it truly useful. There are essentially three copies of something, they are obviously the ones
methods of building digital collections: to digitize it

1. digitization, converting paper and other media • the priorities of user communities. Such
in existing collections to digital form (discussed priorities will justify holding the materials
in more detail below). locally, for example, because of the demands of
2. acquisition of original digital works created by a curriculum
publishers and scholars. Example items would
be electronic books, journals, and datasets. • manageable portions of collections. When
3. access to external materials not held in-house there is no other overriding criteria, then
by providing pointers to Web sites, other library material can be divided up among institutions
collections, or publishers’ servers. simply according to what is reasonable for any
one institution to collect or digitize
While the third method may not exactly constitute
part of a local collection, it is still a method of • technical architecture. The state of a library’s
increasing the materials available to local users. technical architecture will also be factor in
One of main issues here is the degree to which selecting who digitizes what. A library must
libraries will digitize existing materials and acquire have a technical architecture up to the task of
original digital works, as opposed to simply pointing support a particular digital collection.
to them externally. This a reprise of the old access
versus ownership issue but in the digital • skills of staff. Institutions whose staff don’t
realm with many of the same concerns such as: have the necessary skills can’t become a major
node in a national scheme.
• local control of collections
• long-term access and preservation Yet, no matter how a collection is built— of materials
digitized in-house, of original digital works, or of
What about digital collection building in a providing access to materials by pointing to other
coordinated scheme? There are many reasons why external resources libraries in a collective must
building digital collections is a good candidate for ensure it is preserved and made available in
coordinated activity. First, acquiring digital works perpetuity. For example, if the only copies of digital
and doing in-house digitization are expensive, works reside on a particular publisher’s server, then
especially to undertake alone. By working together, what happens if the publisher goes bankrupt? Or if
institutions with common goals can gain greater the market value of a particular work approaches
efficiencies and reduce the overall costs involved in zero? What if all of part of a digital collection of a
these activities, as was the case with retrospective library were lost, such as through some catastrophic
conversion of bibliographic records. Second, it also event? Ensuring long-term preservation and access
reduces the redundancy and waste of acquiring or will require policies and a scheme by which
converting materials more than once. Third, redundant permanent copies are stored at designated
coordinated digital collection building enhances institutions. Preservation issues will be discussed
resource sharing and increases the richness of further later in the paper.
collections to which users have access.

How can specific materials to be processed by a

given institution be identified? Who collects and/or

Digital Libraries: Definitions, Issues and Challenges

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2.3 Digitization possible with original materials (e.g., fragile,
rare materials)
Recall that one of the primary methods of digital • and whether copyright restrictions or licensing
collection building is digitization. What does this will permit conversion.
term mean exactly? Simply put, it is the conversion
of any fixed or analogue media such as books, 2.4 Metadata
journal articles, photos, paintings, microforms into
electronic form through scanning, sampling, or in Metadata is another issue central to the development
fact even re-keying. An obvious obstacle to of digital libraries. Metadata is the data the
digitization is that it is very expensive. One estimate describes the content and attributes of any particular
from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the item in a digital library. It is a concept familiar to
organization responsible for the JSTOR project, puts librarians because it is one of the primary things that
the cost of digitizing a single page at $2 to $6 dollars librarians do they create cataloguing records that
US (Chepesuik, 1997:48). describe documents. Metadata is important in
digital libraries because it is the key to resource
How do you go about deciding what parts of a discovery and use of any document. Anyone who
collection to digitize? There are several approaches has used Alta Vista, Excite, or any of the other
available, at least theoretically: search engines on the Internet knows that simple
full-text searches don’t scale in a large network.
• retrospective conversion of collections— One can get thousands of hits, but most of them will
essentially, starting at A and ending up a Z. be irrelevant. While there are formal library
However ideal such complete conversion would standards for metadata, namely AACR, such records
be, it is impractical or impossible technically, are very time-consuming to create and require
legally, and economically. This approach can specially trained personnel. Human cataloguing,
arguably be dispensed with as a pipe dream. though superior, is just too labour extensive for the
already large and rapidly expanding information
• digitization of a particular special collection environment. Thus, simpler schemes for metadata
or a portion of one. A small collection of are being proposed as solutions.
manageable size, and which is highly valued, is
a prime candidate. While they are still in their infancy, a number of
schemes have emerged, the most prominent of which
• highlight a diverse collection by digitizing is the Dublin Core, an effort to try and determine the
particularly good examples of some collection “core” elements needed to describe materials. The
strength first workshop took place at OCLC headquarters in
Dublin, Ohio, hence the name “Dublin Core.” The
• high-use materials, making those materials that Dublin Core workshops defined a set of fifteen
are in most demand more accessible. metadata elements much simpler than those used
in traditional library cataloguing. They were
• an ad hoc approach, where one digitizes and designed to be simple enough to be used authors, but
stores materials as they are requested. This is, at the same time, descriptive enough to be useful in
however, a haphazard method of digital resource discovery.
collection building.
The lack of common metadata standards— ideally,
These approaches can be used alone or in defined for use in some specified context— is yet
combination depending upon a particular another a barrier to information access and use in a
institution’s goals for digitization. digital library, or in a coordinated digital library
scheme.
Nested within these approaches are several criteria
for selecting individual items. These include: 2.5 Naming, identifiers, and persistence

• their potential for long-term use The fifth issue is related to metadata. It is the
• their intellectual or cultural value problem of naming in a digital library. Names are
• whether they provide greater access than strings that uniquely identify digital objects and are
part of any document’s metadata. Names are as

IFLA UDT Core Programme Occasional Paper

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important in a digital library as an ISBN number is names (Lynch, 1998).
in a traditional library. They are needed to uniquely
identify digital objects for purposes such as: • Uniform Resource Name (URN). URNs are a
development of the Internet Engineering Task
• citations Force (IETF). A URN is not a naming scheme
• information retrieval in itself, but a framework for defining identifiers
• to make links among objects (Lynch, 1998). They contain a naming
• and for the purposes of managing copyright authority identifier (a central authority given the
task of assigning identifiers) and an object
Any system of naming that is developed must be identifier (assigned by the central authority).
permanent, lasting indefinitely. This means, among Like PURLs, URNs must be resolved, through a
other things, that the name can’t be bound up with a database or other such system, into actual URLs.
specific location. The unique name and its location Unlike PURLs, however, a URN can be resolved
must be separate. This is very much unlike URLs, into more than one URL, such as one for each of
the current method for identifying objects on the several different formats. There is currently no
Internet. URL’s confound in one string several working URN system.
items that should be separate. They include the
method by which a document is accessed (e.g., • Digital Object Identifier (DOI) System. DOI
HTTP), a machine name and document path (its is an initiative by the Association of American
location), and a document file name which may or Publishers and the (American) Corporation for
may not be unique (e.g., how many index.html files National Research Initiatives designed to
do you have on your Web site?). URLs are very bad provide a method by which digital objects can be
names because whenever a file is moved, the reliably identified and accessed. The CNRI
document is often lost entirely. Handle system, which underlies DOI, is a
system that resolves digital identifiers into the
A global scheme of unique identifiers is required, information required to locate and access a
one that has persistence beyond the life of the digital object. The main impetus of the DOI
originating organization and that is not tied to system is to provide publishers with a method by
specific locations or processes. These names must which the intellectual property right issues
remain valid whenever documents are moved from associated with their materials can be managed.2
one location to another, or are migrated from one
storage medium to another. The issue of persistent naming raises it head in a
coordinated scheme, as well. Persistent names is an
Three examples of schemes proposed to get around organizational problem, rather than an engineering
the problem of persistent naming are PURLs, URNs, problem. Technically, a system to handle names is
and Digital Object Identifiers. possible, however, unique identifiers will only persist
if some institution takes responsibility for their
• PURLS. PURLs are persistent URLs. They are management and migration from a current
a scheme developed by OCLC in an attempt to technology to succeeding generations of
separate a document name from its location and technologies. Thus, one goal of a coordinated digital
therefore increase the probability that it will library scheme would be to identify an institution or
always be found. PURLs work through a institutions that would take charge of issuing,
mapping of a unique, never-changing PURL to resolving, and migrating a system of unique names.
an actual URL. If a document moves, the URL
is updated, but the PURL stays the same. In 2.6 Copyright / rights management
operation, a user requests a document through a
PURL, a PURL server looks up the Copyright has been called the “single most vexing
corresponding URL in a database, and then the barrier to digital library development” (Chepesuik,
URL is used to pass the document to the user.1 1997:49). The current paper-based concept of
Because PURLs also confound a name with an copyright breaks down in the digital environment
access method, like URLs, they are not true because the control of copies is lost. Digital objects

1 2
For more information, see www.purl.org. See www.doi.org.

Digital Libraries: Definitions, Issues and Challenges

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are less fixed, easily copied, and remotely accessible stored on older media could be lost because
by multiple users simultaneously. The problem for there will no longer have the hardware or
libraries is that, unlike private businesses or software to read them. Thus, libraries will have
publishers that own their information, libraries are, to keep moving digital information from storage
for the most part, simply caretakers of medium to storage medium.
information they don’t own the copyright of the
material they hold. It is unlikely that libraries will • the preservation of access to content. This
ever be able to freely digitize and provide access to form of preservation involves preserving access
the copyrighted materials in their collections. to the content of documents, regardless of their
Instead, they will have to develop mechanisms for format. While files can be moved from one
managing copyright, mechanisms that allow them to physical storage medium to another, what
provide information without violating copyright, happens when the formats (e.g., Adobe Acrobat
called rights management. PDF) containing the information become
obsolete? This is a problem perhaps bigger than
Some rights management functions could include, that of obsolete storage technologies. One
for example: solution is to do data migration that is,
translate data from one format to another
• usage tracking preserving the ability of users to retrieve and
• identifying and authenticating users display the information content. However, there
• providing the copyright status of each digital are difficulties here too— data migration is
object, and the restrictions on its use or the fees costly, there are as yet no standards for data
associated with it migration, and distortion or information loss is
• handling transactions with users by allowing inevitably introduced every time data is
only so many copies to be accessed, or by migrated from format to format.
charging them for a copy, or by passing the
request on to a publisher The bottom line is that no one really knows how
yet how to best migrate digital information.
2.7 Preservation Preserving digital information: The Report of
the Task Force on Archiving of Digital
Another important issue is preservation keeping Information (RLG, 1995) by the US
digital information available in perpetuity. In the Commission on Preservation and Access and
preservation of digital materials, the real issue is RLG states, “the preservation community is only
technical obsolescence. Technical obsolescence in beginning to address migration of complex
the digital age is like the deterioration of paper in digital objects” and such migration remains
the paper age. Libraries in the pre-digital era had to “largely experimental.” Even if there were
worry about climate control and the de-acidification adequate technology available today,
of books, but the preservation of digital information information will have to be migrated from
will mean constantly coming up with new technical format to format over many generations, passing
solutions. a huge and costly responsibility to those who
come after.
When considering digital materials, there are three
types of “preservation” one can refer to: • the preservation of fixed-media materials
through digital technology. This slant on the
• the preservation of the storage medium. issue involves the use of digital technology as a
Tapes, hard drives, and floppy discs have a very replacement for current preservation media,
short life span when considered in terms of such as microforms. Again, there are, as yet, no
obsolescence. The data on them can be common standards for the use of digital media
refreshed, keeping the bits valid, but refreshing as a preservation medium and it is unclear
is only effective as long as the media are still whether digital media are as yet up to the task of
current. The media used to store digital long-term preservation. Digital preservation
materials become obsolete in anywhere from two standards will be required to consistently store
to five years before they are replaced by better and share materials preserved digitally
technology. Over the long term, materials (Chepesuik, 1997).

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 Graham, P.S. (1995b). Long-term intellectual preservation. URL:
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perspective. Library Hi Tech, 52(13), 8-24.
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on the May 18-19, 1995 IITA Digital Libraries Workshop.
URL: http://www-diglib.stanford.edu/diglib/pub/reports/iita-
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They have created many digital library initiatives Lynch, C.A. (1998). Identifiers and their role in networked
information applications. Feliciter, January, 1998, pp. 31-35.
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several years accumulated experience, the initial the Web. URL:
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digital library has been replaced by sober second Miller, J.S. (1996). W3C and digital libraries. D-Lib Magazine,
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technical and legal constraints that must first be Proceedings of the Second Annual Conference on the Theory
and Practice of Digital Libraries. Austin, Texas, June 11-13,
overcome. As with most other technical 1995, pp. 147-153.
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have to move forward in small, manageable, Schatz, B. and Chen, H. (1996) Building large-scale digital
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Shreeves, E. (1997). Is here a future for cooperative collection
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Digital Libraries: Definitions, Issues and Challenges

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