Creating digital library collections with Greenstone
| Date | 01 December 2005 |
| Published date | 01 December 2005 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830510636337 |
| Pages | 541-560 |
| Author | Ian H. Witten,David Bainbridge |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
THEME ARTICLE
Creating digital library collections
with Greenstone
Ian H. Witten and David Bainbridge
Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato,
Hamilton, New Zealand
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce Greenstone and explain how librarians use it to
create and customize digital library collections.
Design/methodology/approach – Through an end-user interface, users may add documents and
metadata to collections, create new collections whose structure mirrors existing ones, and build
collections and put them in place for users to view.
Findings – First-time users can easily and quickly create their own digital library collections. More
advanced users can design and customize new collection structures
Originality/value – The Greenstone digital library software is a comprehensive system for building
and distributing digital library collections. It provides a way of organizing information based on
metadata and publishing it on the Internet or on removable media such as CD-ROM/DVD.
Keywords Digital libraries,Collections management, User interfaces
Paper type Technical paper
1. Introduction
Digital libraries are organized, focused collections of information. They concentrate on
a particular topic or theme – and good dig ital libraries will articulate the principles
governing what is included. They are organized to make information accessible in
particular, well-defined, ways – and good ones will include a description of how the
information is organized (Lesk, 2005).
The Greenstone digital library software is a comprehensive suite of software for
building and distributing digital library collections (Witten and Bainbridge, 2003). It
provides a new way of organizing information and publishing it on the Internet or on
removable media (e.g. CD-ROM/DVD). It is widely used in a large number of countries:
see www.greenstone.org for a representative selection of example sites.
Greenstone is produced by the New Zealand Digital Library Project at the
University of Waikato, and distributed as open source, multilingual software in
cooperation with UNESCO and the Human Info NGO. The dissemination of
educational, scientific and cultural information, and particularly its availability in
developing countries, is central to UNESCO’s goals, and appropriate, accessible
technology such as Greenstone is seen as a vital tool in this context.
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
The Greenstone digital library software has grown out of the stimulating research environment
of the New Zealand digital library project, and the authors gratefully acknowledge the profound
influence of all project members. In particular, John Thompson pioneered the librarian interface
described in this paper.
Digital library
collections
541
Received 7 June 2005
Revised 30 July 2005
Accepted 8 August 2005
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 23 No. 4, 2005
pp. 541-560
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/07378830510636337
Aim and scope
Greenstone aims to enable users, particularly in universities, libraries, and other public
service institutions throughout the world, to build their own digital library collec tions
in the fields of education, science and culture. UNESCO hopes this will encourage the
effective deployment of digital libraries to share information and, where appro priate,
place it in the public domain. The key points that Greenstone makes it its core business
to support include:
.design and construction of collections;
.distributed on the web and/or removable media;
.customized structure depending on available metadata;
.end-user collection-building interface for librarians;
.reader and librarian interfaces in many languages; and
.multiplatform operation.
The Appendix summarizes some relevant facts about Greenstone, grouped unde r
“Technical” and “User base”.
The liaison with UNESCO and Human Info has been a crucial factor in the
development of Greenstone. Human Info began using Greenstone to produce
collections in 1998, and provided extensive feedback on the reader’s interface. UNESCO
wants to empower developing countries to build their own digital library collections –
otherwise they risk becoming read-only societies in the information revolution.
UNESCO selected Greenstone in 2000, and arranges user testing, helps with
internationalization, and mounts courses. Internationalization is a central goal: today
the Greenstone reader’s interface is available in 35 languages, and the librarian’s
interface, including all documentation, is available in four (English, French, Spanish,
Russian).
Software distribution and development
Greenstone is issued under the terms of the GNU General Public License. It originated
in 1996 (Witten et al., 1996), and the current production version (Greenstone2) was
designed about seven years ago, although it is continually being extended. A complete
redesign and reimplementation, Greenstone3, has been described (Bainbridge, 2004)
and released, informed by experience with the current system and the problems and
challenges faced by users, inter national collection develop ers, and practicing
librarians. Greenstone3 allows documents to be dynamically added to collections;
provides more flexible ways to dynamically configure the run-time system by adding
new services; lowers the overhead incurred by collection developers when accessing
this flexibility to organize and present their content; and modularizes the internal
structure. The design is based on widely accepted standards that were unavailable
when Greenstone2 was designed.
The production version, Greenstone2, is recommended for end-user librarians, while
Greenstone3 is an emerging system currently intended for experimental use by
computer scientists and information technologists. Greenstone3 is fully compatible
with its predecessor, and can run old collections without any modifications whatsoever
and make them indistinguishable from the original both visually and in terms of
interaction. Librarian-level users can adopt Greenstone2 today, secure in the
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