| Book Review: Becoming a Digital Library | |
| Mary Beth Weber | |
| Mary Beth Weber, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J; mbfecko@rci.rutgers.edu | |
Becoming a Digital Library provides an overview of the decisions and actions, rather than a discussion of technical details or software, that culminated in the development of the digital library at Cornell University’s Mann Library. All chapters were written by digital library practitioners who represent various library departments (with the exception of systems), including public services, collection development, and technical services. Each chapter deals with an aspect of creating a digital library, such as resources, staffing, teamwork, and user feedback, which are grouped into three main categories: visions, assets, and technology.
This text is more a history of building a digital library than a guide to be consulted. Much has changed in digital libraries in terms of terminology, technology, and initiatives since it was published in 2004. The introduction states, for example, that “all of research libraries’ millions of documents will be digitized, so digital libraries must be hybrid libraries, including digital materials and pointers to other formats” (xiii). It is notable to see how far the digital library concept has evolved in the three years that have passed since this book was published. It contains a number of terms and links to resources that are dated, established and no longer considered cutting edge, or no longer available. Examples include the terms “hybrid library” and “cyberspace”; discussions of MyLibrary; the Open Archives Initiative being referred to as a new initiative (it is now a fact of life for institutional repositories); and a position description for a metadata librarian that reads more like a position for a traditional MARC-based catalog librarian with the exception that MARC and FGDC (but not MODS or METS) are mentioned. Lastly, most of the references cited at the end of each chapter are dated in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Key concepts such as metadata and digital preservation are noted briefly. This text lacks a chapter specifically devoted to metadata, which is unfortunate since this is what drives resource discovery and retrieval. Instead, it is included in various chapters in the book. There is also no mention of the Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records (FRBR), which date back to 1998 and are often included in discussions of metadata schema and applications.
Digital preservation is covered in Chapter 3, “Resources for the Digital Library,” in a section titled “Creating the Digital Library: Providing Access to Historical Material” (76). A URL is provided to a Cornell document on recommended specific requirements for depositing image collections in a central archive repository. While this document is dated 2001, much of it is still applicable to image formats and digitization.
The term “institutional repository,” which is now more commonly used than “digital library,” appears nowhere in this text, although there is a 2002 Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) reference to it available on the Web.1
Chapter 3 also contains a section titled “What is a Digital Library?” that provides five definitions that are no longer used. They are an interesting illustration of how far the concept of a digital library has evolved in three years. The definitions are: (1) stand-alone digital library or SDL, (2) federated digital library or FDL, (3) harvested digital library or HDL, (4) gathered digital library or GDL, and (5) services for using the digital library or SUDL (50-52). In contrast, a relevant working definition of “digital library” as put forth by the Digital Library Federation (dated 1998) is included: “Digital libraries are organizations that provide the resources, including the specialized staff, to select, structure, offer intellectual access to, interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of, and ensure the persistence over time of collections of digital works so that they are readily and economically available for use by a defined community or set of communities” (xii).
Despite the fact that some of the information in this text is dated, it contains many universal concepts that are applicable and provide good information, such as the chapters on personnel (specifically hiring and training), collection development policies, teamwork, and project implementation and management. This text also touches on issues that are still challenges for digital library initiatives, including copyright, staffing for the digital library, paying for the digital library, and getting appropriate support from one’s administration. Some of the chapters include sidebar descriptions of projects and experiences, often written in the first person, by project participants or leaders; these are insightful and complement the text. Although different individuals wrote the chapters, the writing flows and is cohesive. This is often not the case for works with multiple authors, and speaks to the editor’s contributions.
A quote about engaging the entire institution in digital library initiatives and mainstreaming digital projects is relevant in current context and is also indicative of the spirit of cooperation that likely existed at Mann Library: “the organization relies on the skills of catalogers and the talents of programmers to develop metadata structures, while the institution depends on the vision of public services and the knowledge of selectors to create a repository of information resources” (2). Furthermore, Chapter 2 (“Mainstreaming”) indicates that many of the skills needed to build a digital library are already present in libraries in acquisitions (purchasing, licensing), cataloging (access to resources), and public services (experience with information tools). Becoming a Digital Library illustrates how quickly terms and concepts related to digital library technology change. It provides an interesting look at the digital library development of a leader institution and provides some universal information about personnel, teamwork, and project management that are appropriate to all library environments.
Reference
| 1. | Richard K. Johnson, "“Institutional Repositories: Partnering with Faculty to Enhance Scholarly Communication,”," D-Lib Magazine (Nov. 2002) 8, no. 11www.dlib.org/dlib/november02/johnson/11johnson.html (accessed May 15, 2007) |
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