Digital Libraries

Lillian N. Cassel

Fall 2009

A digital library• An informal definition of a digital library is a managed collection of information, with associated services, where the information is stored in digital formats and accessible over a network. --

• William Arms, Digital Libraries, 1999

• A focused collection of digital objects, including text, video, and audio, along with methods for access and retrieval, and for selection, organization, and maintenance of the collection. --

• Witten and Bainbridge, How to Build a Digital Library 2003

Overview of this course

• This course is about presentation of information on the Web, with special attention to Digital Libraries.

• Required coursework will include– Readings, discussion (in class and online), and

projects. There will be no examinations, unless circumstances indicate a need for one.

• Class web page and WebCT/Blackboard

Goals for Class 1

• Introduce the concept of a digital library• Introductions: Who are we and what do we want to achieve in

this class?• Review the course structure

– Look at WebCT– Describe assignments, projects to be expected– Look at the calendar

• Introduce some tools – Concept maps• Make sure we know what a traditional library is!• Introduce the 5 S model for digital libraries

Some tools - concept maps

• Concept Maps– A graphical representation of concepts, ideas,

topics, entities and relationships among them.– A useful tool: cmap from IHMC

• See http://cmap.ihmc.us/• Explore the cmap page, including a concept map about

concept maps• Do a pencil & paper concept map on a subject of interest

to your group -- a sport, a season of the year, a career interest, whatever. Use at least 20 nodes. We will look at a selection of these and offer suggestions.

What is a library?

• An active exercise to explore what we know about, and think about, traditional libraries.

• How do we translate these characteristics to the digital world?– Is that the right model? Are we

unnecessarily constraining the digital environment? Are there things that do not translate?

The 5 S model

• There are many details to digital libraries

• The 5S model gives us a base to work from in creating a new DL

• The 5S model is the work of Edward A. Fox and his students at Virginia Tech. These slides rely heavily on that work.

The 5S model

• Streams– The flow of information in various formats

• Structures– Organizational aspects of the DL

• Spaces– Views of components; real or abstract images

• Scenarios– Services and behaviors

• Societies– Communities and relationships among them

Model Primitives Formalisms Objectives

Stream Text; video, audio, software program

Sequences, types Describes properties of the DL content, encoding and textual material or particular forms of multimedia data.

Structure Collection, catalog; hypertext; document; metadata; organizational tools

Graphs; nodes; links; labels; hierarchies

Specifies organizational aspects of the DL content

Space User Interface; index; retrieval model

Sets; operations; vector space; measure space; probability space

Defines logical and presentational views of several DL components

Scenarios Service, event; condition; action

Sequence diagrams; collaboration diagrams

Details the behavior of DL services

Societies Community; managers; actors; classes; relationships; attributes; operators

Object-oriented modeling constructs; design patterns

Defines managers responsible for running DL services; actors that use those services, and relationships among them

5S Summary

Source: http://www.dlib.vt.edu/projects/5S-Model/

Some examples

• The Etana project – Nice because the things that are “in” the

digital library are real (not digital) objects

• CITIDEL and computingportal– These are projects with local involvement– You may want to connect to these

Etana - A DL for archeology

An example application of 5S - Etana: A DL for an archeological site

Text Video Audio

*Site *Sub-partition *Container *Artifact*LocusRegion

Taxonomies

Temporal Artifact-specific

Space model

Structuremodel

Metadata

Drawing Photo 3DStreammodel

*Partition

Society model

Archaeologist

General public

Geographic space

Service Manager

Information Satisfaction

Value added

Repository buildingScenario

model Services

Domain specific

User interface Metric space

Spatial

Source: E. A. Fox http://feathers.dlib.vt.edu/

CITIDEL

• The Computing and Information Technology Interactive Digital Education Library

• Located at Villanova

• Built in DSpace

• www.citidel.org

Ensemble

• ComputingPortal.org

• A larger example of what a digital library can be.– A real community center– Upcoming events, things to share, meeting

places

• Underlying repository is fedora

• Front end through Drupal

Class 1 summary

• Course plan described and discussed• Class members surveyed• Tools – concept maps -- introduced• Concept mapping practiced• The idea of a library, and of a digital library,

explored.• The 5S model introduced• Some example digital libraries explored

Next week:

• Check the calendar– Readings and an assignment due

• The 5 S model for digital libraries (and other information retrieval systems) continued

• .Always check the calendar. I will update that as things change