Title
Smart Objects, Dumb Archives: A User-Centric, Layered Digital Library Framework
Abstract
Currently, there exist a large number of superb digital libraries, all of which are, unfortunately, vertically integrated and all presenting a monolithic interface to their users. Ideally, a user would want to locate resources from a variety of digital libraries dealing only with one interface. A number of approaches exist to this interoperability issue exist including: defining a universal protocol for all libraries to adhere to: or developing mechanisms to translate between protocols. The approach we illustrate in this paper is to push down the level of universal protocols to one for digital object communication and for communication for simple archives. This approach creates the opportunity for digitral library service providers to create digital libraries tailored to the needs of user communities drawing from available archives and individual publishers who adhere to this standard. We have created a reference implementation based on the hyper text transfer protocol (http) with the protocols being derived from the Dienst protocol. We have created a special class of digital objects called buckets and a number of archives based on a NASA collection and NSF funded projects. Starting from NCSTRL [2] we have developed a set of digital library services called NCSTRL+ and have created digital libraries for researchers, educators and students that can each draw on all the archives and individually created buckets.
Year
DOI
Venue
1999
10.1045/march99-maly
D-Lib Magazine
Keywords
Field
DocType
digital object,dumb archives,superb digital library,digital library,smart objects,universal protocol,dienst protocol,layered digital library framework,digital object communication,hyper text transfer protocol,simple archives,available archives,digital library service,vertical integration,heterogeneity,interoperability,information retrieval,service provider
World Wide Web,Interoperability,Computer science,Reference implementation,Service provider,Smart objects,Digital library,Hypertext Transfer Protocol,Multimedia,User-centered design,Communications protocol
Journal
Volume
Issue
Citations 
5
3
11
PageRank 
References 
Authors
2.84
9
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Kurt Maly1567139.93
Michael L. Nelson21458198.74
Mohammad Zubair358789.90