Introduction To Digital Libraries and Repositories Amos Kujenga

Introduction To Digital Libraries and Repositories Amos Kujenga ADLSN Training Coordinator akujenga@gmail. com Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 5 – 7 November 2014

Presentation Objectives • To get participants to understand the concepts of Digital Libraries (DLs) and Institutional Repositories (IRs); • To get participants to be aware of some of the more important trends and technologies supporting the development of Digital Libraries and Institutional Repositories.

Digital Libraries Defined • We can think of a “traditional” library as “a managed and organised collection of information resources, of all kinds, with services provided so that the collection can be used effectively”. • A Digital Library can be defined as "a managed and organised collection of information resources, preserved for a long time, with associated user services, where the information is stored in digital format, and accessed over a computer network".

Digital Libraries Explained • A DL is about managed and organised collections and user services. • Collections and user services are computerised, rather than physical. • Information is available in a digital format, and services are provided over computer networks. • Typically accessed from computers and other devices such as smart phones, and tablets via the Internet.

Institutional Repositories • An ‘Institutional Repository' is a special kind of Digital Library. • Managed by an organisation to make journal articles, reports, etc, authored by its community publicly available. • Usually run by an institution’s central library. • Materials in this kind of repository are usually freely available to anyone, and so they are sometimes called 'open access archives'.

Important Trends & Technology

Digitisation • ‘Born digital‘ materials • Much DL content has to be created by a process of digitization: converting print-on-paper resources to digital form, usually by scanning. • Several large-scale projects, sponsored by companies such as Google and Microsoft, aim to convert large library collections into digital form. • Most content being produced now is ‘born digital’ and so does not need to be digitised.

DL & IR Challenges

Metadata • Some metadata formats are very general, and applied in many circumstances. • Dublin Core is the best known of the 'general' formats. • Other metadata formats serve very specific purposes: for describing education materials, archival records, museum objects, and government websites, for example. Each specialised metadata format has its own set of fields for those aspects of particular importance for its subject matter. • Metadata can also help libraries work together, to make their collections searchable 'in one go'.

Metadata • Commonly referred to as 'data about data‘ • Metadata is information about information resources, including the contents of digital libraries. • It takes the form of structured records, in a consistent standard format. • There are many different metadata formats, some simple, some very complex. • They can include information about many aspects of information resources, including: • description of the item: format, size, etc; • its subject or topic; • author, title, publisher, date issued or modified, etc; • preservation or archiving information; • access rights, copyright, etc.

Examples of Digital Libraries • New Zealand Digital Library – http: //www. nzdl. org • National University of Science & Technology (Zimbabwe) – Nu. Stone Digital Library – http: //library. nust. ac. zw/gsdl/cgi-bin/library. cgi

Additional Information • IFLA Digital Libraries resources listing, 2008. Resource listing on all aspects of digital libraries. http: //www. ifla. org/II/diglib. htm • SPARC Europe, 2009. Resources from the European alliance of research libraries, including explanation and examples of repositories and digital preservation. http: //www. sparceurope. org • SHERPA, Open. DOAR (Directory of Open Access Repositories), 2009. Quality assured listing of academic open access repositories worldwide http: //www. opendoar. org