Digital Library, Institutional Repositories
Institutional Repositories: Essential
Infrastructure for Scholarship in the Digital Age
Given the date of the article, 2003, a
number of the recommendations that the author made within the article seem to
be taking place presently. The emphasis he places on organizations adopting the
institutional-repository model and the benefits associated with such a model is
already being realized. No doubt, the onset of digital technology and services
has made institutional repositories a much easier and affordable proposition.
The author also speaks about institutional repositories allowing universities
to move beyond just being mere supporters of established publishers in
modernizing scholarly publishing. This has also been realized. For instance on
the Hillman Library ULS website they have been advertising publishing packages
for prospective scholars and authors. Another aspect to the institutional-repository
model is cross-platform organization. Again the University of Pittsburgh ULS
system has been engaging in such integration in the provision of scholarly
articles not only from various online journals but also from other libraries in
the community such as Duquesne University. Institutional repositories also
offer an opportunity for stakeholders to deal with the growing issue of digital
preservation since the storage of digital information is central to the
function of digital repositories. Most importantly, Institutional repositories present
numerous opportunities for advancing the issues of information retrieval, open acess
and collaboration between scholars, authors and information specialists.
Dewey Meets Turing: Librarians, Computer Scientists, and the Digital
Libraries Initiative
The advent of digital libraries was
characterized by a collaborative effort between librarians, computer scientists
and publishers to offer an advanced way of utilizing the internet to provide
information access for patrons. In spite of this noble mission the article is
able to highlight the various contentions each party might have in developing
the system. For example computer scientists wondering about why librarians make
such a big deal about meta data formats if it could be replaced by a newly
developed computer algorithm. More
specifically, both computer scientists and librarians approach digital
libraries with differing expectations and perspectives. Computer scientists see
it as an opportunity to impact society in a positive way while adhering to
their own penchant to act upon novel ideas. Librarians saw it as opportunity to
receive added funds as well as impact on scholarly work and how it was
accessed.
However the internet came and
changed their relationship and expectations, at first causing tensions and then
forcing both to redefine their relationship regards to digital libraries. As a
result the relationship they share is a much more direct one as librarians and
computer scientists have to converse much more with regards to digital library
applications and its use.
Lynch, Clifford A. "Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure for Scholarship in the Digital Age" ARL, no. 226 (February 2003): 1-7. http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/br226ir.pdf
Paepcke, A. et al. (July/August 2005). Dewey meets Turing: librarians, computer scientists and the digital libraries initiative. D-Lib Magazine. 11(7/8). http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july05/paepcke/07paepcke.html
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