A Case for the Federated Digital Library

In this brief article, David Seaman, the director of the Digital Library Federation, makes a case for building the Distributed Online Digital Library, a unified collection of digital objects from libraries across the country.

"Deep Sharing: A Case for the Federated Digital Library"
by Seaman, David.
EDUCAUSE Review 38(4) (July/August 2003): 10-11.
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0348.pdf

The proposal is that libraries would contribute not just the metadata, but the actual digital files into a central repository. Other libraries, or conceivably other individuals, could then download the actual content and recombine materials from diverse collections to create a new type of collection or service. Clearly there are many challenges ahead, not the least of which are political and legal in nature, but if it can be done at all, Seaman makes a fairly compelling case that it should be attempted.

Posted by Tom on September 22, 2003