From digital libraries to digital preservation research: the importance of users and context
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/00220411011023625 |
| Date | 09 March 2010 |
| Published date | 09 March 2010 |
| Pages | 207-223 |
| Author | Gobinda Chowdhury |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
From digital libraries to digital
preservation research: the
importance of users and context
Gobinda Chowdhury
University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to point out the commonalities of research in digital libraries
and digital preservation with regard to the issues of users and context of information.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper’s approach is a review of selected literature and
reports of research projects focusing particularly on digital preservation research.
Findings – It is noted that just like the digital library community the digital preservation research
community is also confronted with the challenges of capturing, storing and making use of the
information related to users and context.
Practical implications – The paper points out some current research in digital preservation that
aims to handle the users and context information for building future digital preservation systems. It
highlights some major challenges in these areas.
Originality/value – The paper reports on the state of the art research in digital preservation.
Keywords Digital libraries,Information science, Collections management,Information management,
User studies
Paper type Literature review
Introduction
A review paper on digital library research that appeared in this journal exactly ten
years ago (Chowdhury and Chowdhury, 1999), observed that digital library research
was then at its infancy but was growing fast. Over the past decade it has com e to
adulthood, not a very long time compared to the lifespan of library and information
science research, but a reasonably long time from the perspectives of the rapid changes
in the world of the internet and web. During the first few years of its origin and
development the field of digital library research has evolved and changed rapidly, with
continuing discussions and debates on the definition and connotation of the term
digital library. Gradually with the maturity of the field, and sharing of ideas among
digital library researchers originating from many different fields such as library and
information science, computer science, and engineering, psychology, linguistics, etc. an
agreement with regard to the definition of digital libraries seems to have been reached.
The DELOS Network of Excellence on Digital Libraries (The DELOS Digital Library
Reference Model: Foundations for Digital Libraries, 2007) envisages a digital library as:
...a tool at the centre of intellectual activity having no logical, conceptual, physical, temporal
or personal borders or barriers on information.
It is important to note that a digital library has been considered here as a tool
facilitating intellectual activities across spatial, temporal and personal boundaries. The
DELOS characterization of digital libraries (The DELOS Digital Library Reference
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
From libraries to
preservation
research
207
Received 1 January 2009
Revised 10 July 2009
Accepted 17 July 2009
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 66 No. 2, 2010
pp. 207-223
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/00220411011023625
Model: Foundations for Digital Libraries, 2007) further states that the field of digital
library has:
... moved from a content-centric system that simply organises and provides access to
particular collections of data and information to a person-centric system that aims to provide
interesting, novel, personalised experiences to users, and consequently.
...its main role has shifted from static storage and retrieval of information to facilitation of
communication, collaboration and other forms of interaction among scientists, researchers or
the general public on themes that are pertinent to the information stored in the Digital
Library.
Two important points about the nature of emerging digital libraries should be noted
here: first a digital library is becoming a person-centric system as opposed to a generic
collection and service, and second its goal is now to facilitate communication,
collaboration and interactions, and not just providing access to digital information.
So, a modern digital library is a space – a centre of intellectual activities – with
content, available in different forms and formats in a distributed network environment,
as well as tools and facilities for user-centric access, use, interactions, collaborations
and sharing. Thus, as opposed to the early stages of digital library research the focus
has shifted from system and content to the users and interactive use and sharing in a
networked environment. This in a way echoes the conclusion made in the JDOC 1999
review paper where the authors concluded that in order to build and live in a true
digital library world, “we have to change our generation-long habits and have to get
used to our new shoes. This will take some time, because it will involve a paradigm
shift in our habits of the creation, distribution and use of information” (Chowdhury and
Chowdhury, 1999).
So, has there been a paradigm shift “in our habits of the creation, distribution and
use of information” within the past ten years, since the publication of that work? The
answer is perhaps both yes and no: yes in the sense that indeed most users have
changed their habits to a great extent in the way they access and use information in the
digital world; and no in the sense that content producers (publishers, database service
providers, etc.) perhaps are still following the same paradigm of content creation and
distribution, or are trying to replicate the old practices within the context of the digital
world, without taking any revolutionary steps and breaking away from the old
practices of content creation distribution and access.
Early research studies of digital library users (Greenstein and Thorin, 2002) reveal
that:
.users want seamless access to heterogeneous information resources irrespective
of where, by whom, or in what format they are managed; and
.users prefer somewhat personalised service in a networked information
environment that meets their specific needs.
User study has become an integral part of digital library research over the past decade
or so. A recent survey of digital library literature for the past 11 years (1997-2007)
reveals that usability and user studies cover over a third of the published literature
(34.5 per cent or 199 out of 577), and that major areas covered in those studies include:
usability, interface interaction/design, HCI/user interface and accessibility.
JDOC
66,2
208
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