Exploring Digital Libraries: Foundations, Practice, Prospects

by Karen Calhoun

Overview

A landmark textbook on digital libraries for LIS students, educators and practising information professionals throughout the world. Exploring Digital Libraries is a highly readable, thought-provoking authorative and in-depth treatment of the digital library arena that provides an up-to-date overview of the progress, nature and future impact of digital libraries, from their collections and technology-centred foundations over two decades ago to their emergent, community-centred engagement with the social web. This essential textbook: • Brings students and working librarians up to date on the progress, nature and impact of digital libraries, bridging the gap since the publication of the best-known digital library texts • Frames digital library research and practice in the context of the social web and makes the case for moving beyond collections to a new emphasis on libraries’ value to their communities • Introduces several new frameworks and novel syntheses that elucidate digital library themes, suggest strategic directions, and break new ground in the digital library literature. • Calls a good deal of attention to digital library research, but is written from the perspective of strategy and in-depth experience • Provides a global perspective and integrates material from many sources in one place - the chapters on open repositories and hybrid libraries draw together past, present and prospective work in a way that is unique in the literature. Readership: Exploring Digital Libraries suits the needs of a range of readers, from working librarians and library leaders to LIS students and educators, or anyone who wants a highly readable and thought-provoking overview of the field and its importance to the future of libraries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783300297
Publisher:	Facet Publishing
Publication date:	01/01/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Karen Calhoun B.A., M.S., M.B.A. is an internationally respected librarian and change leader who is currently at the University of Pittsburgh helping to develop community-centred services. She is an active researcher, writer, speaker and consultant on digital libraries and related disciplines and has just completed a celebrated tenure at OCLC.

Table of Contents

1. Emergence and definitions of digital libraries

• Overview
• The emergence of digital libraries (1991-2001)
• Early digital-library projects
• Definitions of digital libraries
• Conclusion

2. Outcomes of digital libraries’ first decade

• Overview
• A new field of research and practice
• The transformation of scholarly communication processes
• Technical innovations
• Digitization and digital preservation
• Metadata and standards
• Working digital libraries
• Conclusion
• References to websites in Table 2.1

3. Key themes and challenges in digital libraries

• Overview
• The key themes of digital library work
• Key challenges
• Conclusion

4. Digital library collections: repositories

• Overview
• The traditional library worldview
• Repositories, libraries and the web
• The evolution of digital library repositories
• Conclusion

5. Hybrid libraries

• Overview
• Changing information-seeking behaviors
• Libraries’ response: changing hybrid library collections
• Changing technologies for hybrid libraries
• Conclusion

6. Social roles of digital libraries

• Overview
• Introduction
• Foundations of digital libraries’ social roles
• A possible framework of social roles
• Conclusion

7. Digital libraries and their communities

• Overview
• Approach
• Successful, sustainable digital libraries
• Inception: Purpose and focus
• Inception: Branding and awareness
• Creation: Community and needs orientation
• Creation: User-centered design, ease of use and reliability
• Growth: Quality content
• Maturity: Funding and sustainability
• Conclusion

8. The prospects of open access repositories

• Overview
• Successful subject-based repositories
• The value of institutional repositories
• The policy and legal frameworks
• Deposit mandates
• Other issues with self-archiving
• ‘Google has won’
• Making institutional repositories more valuable
• Future of repositories
• Conclusion

9. Digital libraries and the social web: scholarship

• Overview
• Introduction
• Background: Web 2.0 and Library 2.0
• What is the social web?
• Digital libraries and the social web
• Digital libraries’ social evolution: a visual framework
• Scholarship
• From personalization to collaboration
• Scholarly collaboration on the social web
• Conclusion

10. Digital libraries and the social web: collections and platforms

• Overview
• Visualizing the shift from collections to platforms
• The dilemma of the national or local collections focus
• Optimizing the reach and visibility of digital libraries
• Mass digitization and digital libraries
• Large-scale digital libraries, portals and platforms
• Crowdsourcing and citizen science
• Conclusion