Diversity in digital libraries

1. Diversity in digital libraries Related types, institutions, forms Tefko Saracevic

2. Note on diversity Examples of: National libraries Academic libraries Public libraries Borne digital libraries Museums Subject resources Societies, organizations Books on the Web Archiving the Web Conclusions ToC Tefko Saracevic

3. Diversity? • Digital libraries come not only from libraries (academic, public, national …), but from many other institutions & subjects not at all connected with a given library (academic, public, national …) • Many shapes, forms • Variety of context & content • many specific subject oriented • Most importantly: Used by a variety of users & for a variety of uses Tefko Saracevic

4. But are they DLibs? • Question could be asked: but are they ALL digital libraries? • Or are they just portals because they cover and organize digital resources? • when is a portal (links, ecatalog) also a digital library? • A broad view: if they are organized & used for accessing information resources why not consider them DLibs? • users do not care what they are called or how are they classified Tefko Saracevic

5. Library of Congress: American Memory Project historical materials –no. of sites Of course, there is a LoC Blog Digital Libraries Federation not a national library, but took over from LoC many functions of the National Digital Library that was at LoC National Library of Medicine National Agricultural Library National Archives National libraries - US Tefko Saracevic

6. The European Library Search through resources of European National Libraries Europeana “cultural collections of Europe” Die Deutsche Bibliothek Bibliothèque Nationale de France includes Gallica – digital library The British Library includes Turning the Pages Vatican Library includes Vatican Secret Archives National Library of New Zealand several demonstration collections in various fields free DLib software they developed The National Library of China National Library of Singapore Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Egypt) – not a national library, but close Biblioteca National (Mexico) African Online Digital Library – international undertaking, work in progress National & University Library – Croatia includes Digital Heritage National libraries - global Tefko Saracevic

7. California Digital Library unifies all libraries in UofC system Univ of Michigan Harvard Univ Library system of over 80 libraries; open access to digital collections Univ of Utah also houses Ski Archive University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Cambridge University Library includes Open Access movement Oxford University, also houses Bodleian Library with unique historical collections browse further through LibWeb Academic libraries Tefko Saracevic

8. US: New York Public Library many research collections; branch libraries; includes Digital Gallery Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library System including KidClicks Montclair Public Library including link to Listen NJ Los Angeles Public Library – e.g. check databases available, photocollection or TeenWeb International: Toronto Public Library including Virtual Reference Library Aarhus Public Libraries(Denmark) City of Swan Libraries (Australia) Public libraries Tefko Saracevic

9. Libraries emerging only on the Web Virtual Library Switzerland, US, UK & other countries – ‘oldest virtual library on the Web’ Internet Public Libraryhosted at Drexel - merged with Librarians' Internet Index (LII). Academic Info Digital Library many links to digital collections & resources in various subjects Ibiblio U North Carolina “the largest "collections of collections" on the Internet” “Public’s library and digital archive” International Children's Digital Library among others, read children books in great many languages Borne digital Tefko Saracevic

10. Museum of online museums a delight The State Hermitage Museum One of the greatest museums in the world, and one of the best museum site – developed with IBM help –take a virtual tour National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci MuseumStuff.com “We have 1000's of museums, zoos, historical societies and related organizations in our database” Muzej Grada Splita A number of collections Arheoloski Muzej Zadar Museums Tefko Saracevic

11. Subject resources • Many subject specific sites available • new coming up all the time • rich & often unique coverage & services • different approaches & requirements • should they also be considered as DLibs? • High use in their own subjects or for given tasks • Most are independent of libraries • many developed with government funding • some clearly commercial • Many lead to other subject resources Tefko Saracevic

12. Humanities Perseus Digital Library Tufts University covers antiquity to renaissance; one of the best subject sites on the web; affected the whole field KIRKE-Katalog der Internetressourcen für die Klassische Philologie aus Berlin German; a variety of resources for classics Diotima Materials for study of women and gender in the Ancient World Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy a comprehensive encyclopedia and library Abraham Lincoln Historic Digitization Project And of course… at Cornell subject resources … Tefko Saracevic

13. Government, official U Mich Document Center official documents from all over the world US State Department about the U.S & other countries FirstGov the US government official web portal Dag Hammarskjöld Library(UN) News New York Times article archive 1851 – present Newspaper Archive “the largest historical newspaper database online, contains tens of millions of newspaper pages from 1753 to present.” Requires paid membership subject resources… Tefko Saracevic

14. Health WebMDHealth news, medical information Rxlist Internet Drug Index Mayo Clinic HealthOasis health advice Kidshealth sites for parents, kids, teens Science ArXivCornell U, National Science Foundation e-print service in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology Ocean PlanetNASA presentation of earth & its vast oceans Public Library of Science advocacy of open access Encyclopedia of Life an ambitious project – key info about life on earth – in progress subject resources … Tefko Saracevic

15. Moving Images Collections “MIC documents moving image collections around the world.” Part particularly oriented toward science educators. Now at Library of Congress, but developed at Rutgers And, of course … Snoopy The Official Peanuts Website subject resources … Tefko Saracevic

16. Many societies, agencies developed their sites great many rich sources for searching & resources differences in requirements, depth, richness major (sometimes only) access point to societal or subject literature Societal pages, but available through RUL (Indexes and databases) PsycINFO (psychological literature from the 1800s to the present) Am Psychology Assoc ASIST Digital Library American Society for Information Science & Technology ACM Portal – Digital Library Association for Computing Machinery MLA International Bibliography Modern Language Association Societies, organizations Tefko Saracevic

17. Million Book Project digitizing books and providing free access Digital books Index “ ... provides links to more than 165,000 full-text digital books from more than 1800 commercial and non-commercial publishers, universities, and various private sites. More than 140,000 of these books, texts, and documents are available free.” includes list of eBooks: Libraries, Librarianship, Electronic Librarianship Google Books started with several universities, but mushroomed globally Project Gutenberg “Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks.” Books on the Web Tefko Saracevic

18. Web sites are highly unstable – they disappear, change one of the worst feature of the Web “digital dark ages” Several projects try to archive the Web mammoth undertaking Internet Archive 85 billion Web pages archived Includes: Wayback Machine on Internet Archive search for old versions of Web pages CyberCemetery “permanent public access to the Web sites and publications of defunct U.S. government agencies and commissions.” Archiving the Web Tefko Saracevic

19. Conclusion • Wide and constantly increasing diversity of DLibs & related collection & portals suggests several issues • traditional libraries are not traditional any more • but come in many DLib forms • many new “players” have entered the arena • particularly in subject areas Tefko Saracevic

20. conclusions … • Web companies & libraries are joining hands • in book digitization e.g. Google project • in providing cataloging & holdings information • Some libraries are providing model DLibs • e.g. LoC American Memory – example copied widely • But at the end most important is their usefulness Tefko Saracevic

21. Smithsonian 1996 campaign Web sites “how presidential candidates and parties first used the Web.” ASIST SIG/CON archive maintained by Candy Schwartz, Simmons College you can see her Digital Libraries – course resources Humorous phases of funny faces from LoC – a 1906 film … a few more fun examples Tefko Saracevic

22. Tefko Saracevic