 |
 |
DODL: THE FEDERATED DIGITAL LIBRARY A Strategic DLF Initiative to Develop a Shared Collection of Academic Information Resources BACKGROUND The Digital Library Federation's May 1995 charter <http://www.diglib.org/about/dlfcharter.htm> calls for the development of a "distributed, open digital library" (DODL). At the DLF's Strategic Planning session in February 2003 the assembled representatives affirmed this original DLF goal, recognizing that the digital library and the scholarship and teaching it supports would be better served by centrally pooled library content that can appear as a unified whole when this is desirable, and from which we can draw files into local collections for innovative re-use and re-articulation. It was determined at the strategic planning session to appoint an "Initiative Committee" to elaborate further the goals and specifications of such a distributed, open digital library. THE COMMITTEE The appointment of the Initiative Committee is made by the Executive Committee of the DLF. The term of the Initiative Committee is two years, although initial appointments will be a mix of one year and two year terms, so membership might be staggered across the years. Terms are renewable. The Initiative Committee will consist of a chair, five other members, and the DLF Director as staff to the Initiative Committee. First appointees shall be: Dan Greenstein, CDL: 2 years Paula Kaufman, UIUC: 1 year Mike Keller, Stanford: 1 year Wendy Lougee, Minnesota (chair): 2 years Carol Mandel, NYU: 2 years Winston Tabb, Johns Hopkins: 1 year David Seaman, Director of the DLF, will liaise between this committee and the existing and new DLF working groups whose expertise will be needed to carry this out. CHARGE TO THE INITIATIVE COMMITTEE A first report is expected in June 2003. The Initiative Committee is charged with the following: 1. Develop an initial theme or focus for the DODL; 2. Establish functional specifications for assembling, providing intellectual access (meaning provision of metadata as well as discovery and retrieval methods), distributing, and preserving the DODL. Sharable, perhaps open source, software applications are necessary for a common approach to building and operating the DODL across numerous institutional sub-collections. 3. Appoint a technical subcommittee (and perhaps other subcommittees) to advise the Initiative Committee 4. Suggest ways and means to incorporate the following conditions or operations: 4a. For this initiative to be credible, a key shared assumption would be the need for true, digital archives at the project's foundation; 4b. There will be various registries, freely accessible; 4c. The test phase will need access-authorization control; 4d. There will be a common platform for user access, and common coding and formats for various kinds of objects; 4e. Tests should be conducted with user groups as the project progresses to determine how users can manipulate the content creatively, pulling material from the DODL into their own teaching and research environments for re-use that goes far beyond simply visiting the content on individual websites. David Seaman Director, Digital Library Federation 1755 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Suite 500 Washington, DC 20036 tel: 202-939-4750 fax: 202-939-4765 e-mail: [log in to unmask] web: http://www.diglib.org/