In the welcome address, Elio Franzini sets the tone for the day's proceedings by retelling a scene about the reclusive and book-obsessed philologist, Peter Kien, from Elias Canetti's modernist novel, Auto da Fé.1 In the scene, Kien dreams all his books have burned and suddenly realizes that the only safe place for them is in his mind. Franzini uses Peter's realization as an analogy, emphasizing the need for cultural institutions to develop strategic means to supply information to users in the digital age. As Franzini points out, digital media is in some ways replacing reliance on physical artifacts like books; therefore the preservation of culture and knowledge starts to depend more on how effectively this content is delivered to users in ways they want and understand.

Digital Library Futures separates the proceedings into three sessions. In the opening session, three papers about online user assessment are presented. David Nicholas, head of the information center at University College London, describes his findings collected over the past seven years that show user habits via log analysis of various scholarly platforms, such as Elsevier's ScienceDirect. According to Nicholas, users of the web typically “power browse” and jump from site to site, amassing large amounts of information with very little depth, similar to the way search engines harvest data from digital libraries. Daniel Teruggi then discusses an actual user assessment done on Europeana digital library. Teruggi delves into the various evaluation measures, from online surveys and feedback boxes to login analysis and usability testing, which the project team uses to determine whether Europeana (www.europeana.eu) meets user needs. This assessment work, Terruggi states, uncovers important knowledge about how users perceive the portal; namely, they desire the ability to generate and interact with its content, which leads the project team to rethink the purpose and goals for Europeana. Elke Griefender, the final contributor in the session, discusses problems with online user assessment. Griefender analyzes data collected by Denise Troll Covey in her 2002 Digital Library Federation–sponsored paper, “Usage and Usability,” and other recent user studies.² Her investigation reveals that scholars are ineffectively using research methods in the virtual environment and need more training and experience. Griefender finds that researchers oftentimes are using quantitative methods to answer questions better addressed by qualitative methods, or oftentimes they cannot interpret the qualitative results, so they fall back on old methods that do not work in a virtual environment.

The second session turns from research methods and assessment to current digital libraries on the web and their usability. In the first of two papers, Einar Røttingen, professor of music performance at the Grieg Academy, relates his experience using the Edvard Crieg Collection online. He tells the story of how online access to Crieg's autographed manuscripts of Ballade op. 24 allowed him to trace the evolution of the song and make key decisions about how to play it. Røttingen concludes by emphasizing the value of these online music libraries for composers and scholars and the need for collaboration to improve discoverability and content depth on these sites. Next, Susan Hazan looks at the kinds of developments in digital libraries on the web that are pulling users away from traditional libraries. Hazan points out that online libraries like Project Gutenberg, the World Digital Library, and the Internet Archive are adding new content to the web, and sites like Google Books, Flickr, and Facebook are changing the way users interact with that content. Because of the proliferation of these libraries, digital repositories, and social media tools, Hazan suggests that traditional cultural institutions like libraries must get involved in these spaces or risk becoming irrelevant.

The third seesion addresses how institutions can respond to changes in the digital environment. The first two papers focus on national movements to foster digital library collaboration. In the opening paper, Zhu Qiang, executive member of the Library Society of China, discusses initiatives established by Chinese national organizations to foster collaboration on policy and technical issues that are stalling progress on digital libraries. Next, Rossela Caffo describes projects used to centralize online catalogs, interlibrary loan practices, and access to digital content conducted throughout Italy. The final two papers in the session concentrate on making digital libraries better for users. John Van Oudenaeren compiles a list of conditions in today's virtual environment, ranging from user reliance on electronic media to search engine dominance and increased user demand for multimedia content, and he demonstrates how the World Digital Library is taking steps to meet these conditions. In the final presentation, former chair of Elsevier Science and current International Publishers Association president, Herman P. Spruijt, encourages libraries to collaborate with publishers. Rather than seeing publishers as the enemy, Spruijt believes that publishers can compete with digital powerhouses like Google if libraries share knowledge with them about their users.

This small volume provides a thorough, overarching view of current international digital library research and practice. Although the book focuses primarily on developments in Europe, the issues discussed are applicable to any digital library. While not every paper presented at the conference will be useful for every reader, the papers are written concisely, titled informatively, and contain abstracts, which make it easy for readers to find what is most relevant for their needs. The book provides a useful springboard for anyone interested in online user assessment and digital libraries.