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This paper examines the challenges and successes of a virtual Linked Data Study Group that began at a multi-campus academic institution in 2018, and later grew to include a total of seven librarians from multiple institutions across the country. It describes the group's planning for their monthly meetings and the discussions at the meetings which covered such topics as Linked Data basic concepts, BIBFRAME Editor, Sinopia Editor, and Wikidata. It also presents a collaborative project the group undertook after two years' learning. The paper concludes with a summary of what the Linked Data Study Group has achieved thus far, the challenges they faced, and their future plans., Linked Data emerged in the library's digital and cataloging landscape more than ten years ago. Since then, librarians have been eager to learn and understand how Linked Data works. This [...]

One of the largest online photographic archives in the world is available through The Revs Institute (TRI) in Naples, Fla. As of April 2017, more than 460,000 images are online, [...]

Since arriving at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in 2010, I have been interested in exploring new forms of digital librarianship. My interest stems in part from my involvement with [...]

Metadata records made available by content providers often lack the implicit information of their original use environment. Metadata aggregators therefore tend to emphasize completeness as a primary quality for shareable metadata. However, when adding implicit information to item-level records, data providers increase the redundancy of information contained in records from the same collection. The present paper reports on an effort to assess the extent and potential impact of information redundancy in metadata collections aggregated using the Open Archives Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. The first experiment quantifies the resemblance of metadata records on a collection-by-collection basis across 176 metadata collections aggregated for the CIC metadata portal. A second experiment measures the tendency of items from the same collection to appear together in results lists generated for a set of user queries. Results of the analyses correlated and suggest that within some collections item-level metadata records are not sufficiently differentiated to support certain digital library functions well. Metadata collections have a distinct role when included in larger aggregations, and in that role a minimum level of descriptive granularity is required to support digital library functions implemented by service providers. The experiments suggest possible ways to deal simultaneously with metadata record completeness, consistency, and redundancy. Keywords: Metadata; Collections; Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting; Similarity; Digital libraries

The effects of the imposition of Internet legislation on the management of digital libraries is described.

Strategies that can be adopted by Indian libraries to improve access of library users to digital information services are discussed.

A study on alterations in the content of electronic libraries as per the interests of the library users is presented.

A study discussing methods of assessing risks of digital data accumulation and intellectual property issues in an electronic library is presented.

The application of webliometrics, a research method used in the field of library and information science is discussed. The method uses statistics to describe patterns of publications within a given list of hyperlinks to various sources of information available on the Internet.

Digital libraries (DLs) have become one of the most typical ways of accessing any kind of digitalized information. Due to this key role, users welcome any improvements on the services they receive from DLs. One trend used to improve digital services is through personalization. Up to now, the most common approach for personalization in DLs has been user driven. Nevertheless, the design of efficient personalized services has to be done, at least in part, in an automatic way. In this context, machine learning techniques automate the process of constructing user models. This paper proposes a new approach to construct DLs that satisfy a user's necessity for information: Adaptive DLs, libraries that automatically learn user preferences and goals and personalize their interaction using this information. Keywords: Digital libraries; User modeling; Personalization; Adaptive library services

Google's December 2004 announcement to expand its plans to digitize the world's books into scanning collections from five major world libraries in the U.S. and U.K. brought a strong reaction […]

The implementation of a model for managing the cataloguing aspectof a digitization project, at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine is discussed. The usage of digitization in libraries to provide wider access to rare resources, create other options for preservation, improve the legibility of documents and decrease the risks of theft and mutilation of rare items is also discussed.

In this paper, we present a formulation and case studies of the conditions for patenting content-based retrieval processes in digital libraries, especially in image libraries. Inventors and practitioners demand a formulation of the conditions for patenting data-processing processes as computer-related inventions in the form of computer programs. A process for content-based retrieval often consists of a combination of prior disclosed means and also comprises means for parameter setting that is adjusted to retrieve specific kinds of images in certain narrow domains. We focus on requirements for technical advancement (nonobviousness) in the combination of data-processing means, i.e., processes and specification (enablement) on the means for parameter setting in computer programs. Our formulation follows the standards of patent examination and litigation on computer-related inventions in the US. We confirm the feasibility and accountability of our formulation by applying it to several inventions patented in the US. Keywords: Multimedia digital libraries; Content-based image retrieval (CBIR); Patent law; Parameter setting; Intellectual property

Digital libraries (DLs) are a resource for answering complex questions. Up to now, such systems mainly support keyword-based searching and browsing. The mapping from a research question to keywords and the assessment whether an article is relevant for a research question is completely with the user. In this paper, we present a two-layered digital library model. The aim is to enhance current DLs to support different levels of human cognitive acts, thus enabling new kinds of knowledge exchange among library users. The low layer of the model, namely, the tactical cognition support layer, provides users with requested relevant documents, as searching and browsing do. The upper layer of the model, namely, the strategic cognition support layer, not only provides users with relevant documents but also directly and intelligently answers users' cognitive questions. On the basis of the proposed model, we divide the DL information space into two subspaces, i.e., a knowledge subspace and a document subspace, where documents in the document subspace serves as the justification for the corresponding knowledge in the knowledge subspace. Detailed description of the knowledge subspace and its construction, as well as query facilities against the enhanced DLs for users' knowledge sharing and exchange, are particularly discussed. Keywords: Digital libraries; Tactical support; Strategic support; Document subspace; Knowledge subspace

The promise and perils of the creation of electronic flora and fauna databases by documenting their taxonomy, physical properties, distribution, their economic value and thus managing the information of world's natural heritage, are discussed.