Preface
In 1995, some colleagues and I created D-Lib Magazine, an online month-
ly that has become the voice of digital library research and implementa-
tion. We started D-Lib Magazine because digital libraries are bringing
together people from numerous disciplines who know little about one
another. Our aim was to create a magazine that would inform people of the
vast array of expertise that is feeding this field. Computer scientists are
often unaware of the deep understanding of information that librarians
have developed over the years. Librarians and publishers may not know
that the Internet pioneers have been managing online information for
decades. Both librarians and publishers are aware that their fields are sub-
ject to external economic and legal forces, but have only limited knowl-
edge of the implications.
The first few years of D-Lib Magazine show how prescient this vision
was. Among the topics covered are the latest metadata workshop, imple-
mentation projects at the Library of Congress, user interface principles
applied to search and retrieval, a historic review of Z39.50, a digital library
of Japanese folk tales, the JSTOR approach to legal issues, and methods
for handling alternative character sets. Nobody is an expert in all these
areas, yet to be a leader in digital libraries requires some appreciation of
all of them.
This book is my attempt to survey the entire field of digital libraries.
Computers and networks are of fundamental importance, but they are only
the technology. The real story of digital libraries is the interplay of people,
organizations, and technology. How are libraries and publishers using this
new technology? How are individuals bypassing traditional organizations
and building their own libraries? Where is all this leading? The answer to
Preface
In 1995, some colleagues and I created D-Lib Magazine, an online month-
ly that has become the voice of digital library research and implementa-
tion. We started D-Lib Magazine because digital libraries are bringing
together people from numerous disciplines who know little about one
another. Our aim was to create a magazine that would inform people of the
vast array of expertise that is feeding this field. Computer scientists are
often unaware of the deep understanding of information that librarians
have developed over the years. Librarians and publishers may not know
that the Internet pioneers have been managing online information for
decades. Both librarians and publishers are aware that their fields are sub-
ject to external economic and legal forces, but have only limited knowl-
edge of the implications.
The first few years of D-Lib Magazine show how prescient this vision
was. Among the topics covered are the latest metadata workshop, imple-
mentation projects at the Library of Congress, user interface principles
applied to search and retrieval, a historic review of Z39.50, a digital library
of Japanese folk tales, the JSTOR approach to legal issues, and methods
for handling alternative character sets. Nobody is an expert in all these
areas, yet to be a leader in digital libraries requires some appreciation of
all of them.
This book is my attempt to survey the entire field of digital libraries.
Computers and networks are of fundamental importance, but they are only
the technology. The real story of digital libraries is the interplay of people,
organizations, and technology. How are libraries and publishers using this
new technology? How are individuals bypassing traditional organizations
and building their own libraries? Where is all this leading? The answer to
