Librarians are familiar with the single-line form, the consolidated index, which represents a very large portion of a library's print and online collection. Their end users are familiar with the idea of a single search across a comprehensive index that produces a large, relevancy-ranked results list. Even though most patrons would not recognize…

According to the "Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections," a good collection is broadly available and avoids unnecessary impediments to use. Two challenges, however, are the constant change in users' expectations and the increasing volume of information in local repositories. Therefore, as academic and research…

This paper discusses digital libraries on the Internet. The resource repository hierarchy, consisting of two major paradigms, search engines (SEs) and digital libraries, is presented. SEs are classified into three categories: basic-SE, directory, and meta-SE. The following six major characteristics of a library are summarized: collection of data…

Librarians and archivists face challenges when adapting traditional collection development practices to meet the unique characteristics of Web-published materials. Likewise, preservation activities for Web-published materials must be undertaken at the outset of collection development lest they be lost forever. Standards and best practices for…

Describes an experiment where local as well as remote distributed information resources of the digital library collections of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Ghent library have been used as starting points for metadata reference links into other parts of the collections. Discusses global and local relevance. (LRW)

This annual report of the Digital Library Federation describes projects initiated in response to the following program priorities: (1) focus attention on libraries of materials that are born digital, including a social science data workshop and guides to quality in visual resource imaging; (2) integrate digital materials into the fabric of…

The Making of America (MoA) Testbed Project, coordinated by the Digital Library Federation, is a multi-phase endeavor. Its purpose is to investigate important issues in the creation of an integrated but distributed digital library of archival materials (i.e., digitized surrogates of primary source materials found in archives and special…

Academic libraries today are complex institutions with multiple roles and a host of related operations and services developed over the years. Yet their fundamental purpose has remained the same: to provide access to trustworthy, authoritative knowledge. Consequently, academic libraries--along with their private and governmental counterparts--have…

This proceedings of the IATUL 1999 conference of the contains the following papers: "From Industry to Higher Education and Libraries: Building the Fast Response Library" (A. S. Apostolou & C. H. Skiadas); "Managing the Learning Agenda in a Converged Service Environment" (Richard Biddiscombe); "Management of Electronic Information" (Michael…

Describes the development of a prototype Web-based outreach information system for a collection of educational resources in agriculture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Discusses distance education, student expectations, Web searching, testbed collections, metadata issues, indexing and searching full-text, and Dublin Core…

Considers the changing nature of academic libraries in light of new technology and offers suggestions for libraries to keep patron use and interest. Highlights include metadata and MARC formats as opposed to commercial standards; OPAC marginalization; digitization; distance education; institutional allegiance; ethics and competition; and the need…

This paper describes work being carried out in the fields of online education provision and library systems, beginning with a description of the current state of the art with regard to online learning environments and educational materials management. Suggestions and solutions for librarians dealing with the management of educational digital…