Course Objectives

This course will give students a thorough grounding for understanding, evaluating and working with a wide variety of digital libraries. As a starting point, the class will use the following definition from the Digital Library Federation:

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.

Students should know

• the goals of digital library work;
• what digital library projects offer today;
• the major issues affecting progress in the field;
• how to design and plan a digital library.

Organization of the Course

The subjects covered are the history of digital libraries, the technology used in them, something about their services and organization, how online information resources might be funded, and the legal problems affecting digital libraries. The specific topics covered are:

• Introduction
• History of digital libraries
• Technology
• Services
• Economics
• Law
• Surveys of US and international projects
• Digital preservation
• Future organizational possibilities

Major Assignments

There are weekly writing assignments, and a student project to design either a digital library on a topic of their choice or to outline a possible research project. Typically, the project is a website showing a few sample items from the projected library and a design for the interface, searching, and user facilities.

Methods of Assessment

Roughly, half the grade comes from the weekly assignments and half from the project. Grades are based primarily on the content and ideas contained, with additional reward for quality of writing, class presentation, literature references, comparisons with other projects, timeliness, and organization.

Bibliography

There is no textbook; all readings are on the Web. They change frequently.