Unit 10 Reading Notes

Digital Libraries: Challenges and Influential Work

• We live in a world in which the searching and dissemination of information is quite complex, and constantly evolving.
• Information is constantly available and a wide range of users are able to access information because of the availability of the Web. 
• For quite some time now, the goal has been to organize all of these digital collections and all of this information into some semblance of order, so as to create useful, user-centered digital libraries. 
• Having such a massive amount of information available for use can be very beneficial for people, but this is only possible if said information is organized efficiently and with a clear focus in mind. Hence, the federated search concept.
• I found this article quite useful. It's always extremely helpful and important to understand the background/history of information structures such as digital libraries. Having this kind of knowledge contextualizes current digital library efforts, and provides really helpful information that can lead to greater understanding.

Dewey Meets Turing

• The 1994 NSF launching of its Digital Library Initiatives (DLI) put three main groups at the forefront of the effort:  librarians, computer scientists, and publishers. This effectively changed the face of information organization and retrieval.
• This effort quickly spread to other interest groups as well...the impact of this movement is still seen today, and will likely resonate with the constant evolution of information organization and retrieval. The impact of the DLI has really changed the accessibility of information in our society.
• Essential point: computing has truly changed the library and information sharing world. There was (and still is) a universal understanding within the library community that information technology will continue to advance the spread of information in sophisticated ways. 
• The explosion of the World Wide Web threw an interesting twist into this already complex relationship among the library and computer world. Information access was effectively changed forever.
• Throughout this article, the parallels with everyday life (i.e. advent of the Web compared to an unruly teenager) make the information easy to contextualize and understand. I appreciate these kinds of parallels in scholarly articles!
• While information access has been changed completely in many ways, the core goals and structure of the library world remain the same.
• The success of the DLI and related efforts have not broken the purpose and function of libraries. Rather, they have strengthened the goal of providing information access world-wide through increased techology-based collaboration.

Association of Research Libraries

• This article goes into detail regarding the technological surge and its ability to allow universities to develop strong, well-organized institutional repositories.
• In essence, the digital revolution has given universities the opportunity to assume a much more active role in information development and sharing. Instead of relying solely on publishers and accepting a more passive role in the process, universities are taking on a much more inolved role.
• Cost, of course, plays a major role in this profound shift.  The significantly decreased cost of online storage causes a great change, thus allowing a larger number of patrons to access storage and digital infomration in general.
• One key point: the difference between scholarly publishing and less formal practices.
• Many positive results for the Information world can result from digital advances.  One major point: Institutional Repositories can utilize digital technologies to effectively increase the dissemination of quality information among all people.