Kyle Banerjee - Building Digital Libraries: Second Edition

ALA Neal-Schuman purchases fund advocacy, awareness, and accreditation programs for library professionals worldwide.

KYLE BANERJEE has twenty years of library experience and extensive systems knowledge. He has planned and written software to support library systems migration since 1996. He is the coauthor of Building Digital Libraries (2008) and Digital Libraries: Content and Systems (2006), and is the author of numerous other publications.

TERRY REESE is the head of digital initiatives at the Ohio State University Libraries. Over the past seventeen years, his research interests have centered on the changing nature of library metadata and the ways in which this data can be reused and transformed in different contexts. He is the author and creator of MarcEdit, a cross-platform library metadata editing tool that is designed to lower the technical barriers for users working with various forms of library metadata, and is the coauthor of Building Digital Libraries (2008), and is the author of numerous other publications.

2019 by the American Library Association

Extensive effort has gone into ensuring the reliability of the information in this book; however, the publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.

ISBNs

978-0-8389-1635-3 (paper)

978-0-8389-1723-7 (PDF)

978-0-8389-1714-5 (ePub)

978-0-8389-1724-4 (Kindle)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Banerjee, Kyle, author. | Reese, Terry, Jr., author.

Title: Building digital libraries : a how-to-do-it manual for librarians /Kyle Banerjee, Terry Reese.

Description: Second edition. | Chicago : ALA Neal-Schuman, an imprint of the American Library Association, 2019. | Series: How-to-do-it manuals for librarians? | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018001090 | ISBN 9780838916353 (print : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780838917145 (epub) | ISBN 9780838917237 (pdf) | ISBN 9780838917244 (kindle : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Digital libraries.

Classification: LCC ZA4080 .R44 2018 | DDC 027dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018001090

When we created the first edition of this book in 2006, cultural heritage organizations largely thought about institutional repositories in terms of publishing open-access content. These issues are still present, but the variety of needs that repositories must serve has expanded, as has the content they provide. Moreover, repositories have become a much more integral part of library operationsthe long-term success of libraries and cultural heritage organizations partly depends on their ability to create and integrate digital library platforms into their identities.

As we considered writing this new edition, we wanted to address this shift in thinking and expand the book to explore the wider issues surrounding digital libraries and the infrastructure that makes them possible. We hope weve succeeded, and that this book will help practitioners and students understand how the landscape has changed for cultural heritage organizations. We further hope that this book will afford its readers a better understanding of how one can initiate and sustain digital endeavors in libraries.

As in other areas of life, many others have helped us throughout the writing of this book. Friends, colleagues, and family members endured our endless musings on technical and library topics and shared ideas that really changed how we look at things.

We are grateful to Rachel Chance and others working behind the scenes at ALA Neal-Schuman Publishing for their support. Our names might be on the cover, but our colleagues have put in an enormous amount of work to make this book much better than it otherwise would have been, while leaving us to work on the fun parts.

First and foremost, I want to dedicate my efforts to my dad. He always liked to say that people get so fixated on ants that they dont notice elephants walking by. The multitude of technologies, standards, methods, reports, and activities associated with digital libraries are as overwhelming as any swarm of ants, so I hope I can help you to discover the far more interesting and helpful elephants.

I feel lucky to have worked with Kate Thornhill and David Forero, who challenged me to think differently and who remind me why I joined this field in the first place. They looked over early drafts of my work and offered many insights.

I would also like to thank Terry, who has been a partner in crime both personally and professionally since we first met. His attitude and encouragement have helped me get excited about working every day, even after all these years.

Lastly, Im grateful to Bonnie Parks, who has awakened things I didnt even know I had in me and has taken me in directions I never dreamed I would go.

I would like to specifically thank my friends and colleagues at the Ohio State University Libraries, specifically Magda El-Sherbini, who has been a sounding board and trusted friend throughout my tenure there. I also would like to thank my coauthor, Kyle, who has pushed and prodded to make sure Id make my deadlines, while still providing great suggestions and feedback throughout the process. More importantly, Kyle has been my friend and mentor since 2000, when we first met. I often wonder what I would have ended up doing had he not encouraged me to pursue my degree in library science, though Im happy that he did.

Finally, Id be remiss if I didnt mention my family. To my two boys, Kenny and Nathan, I really appreciate your interest in the process of writing this book. You may not have realized it, but the questions you guys have been asking over the past six months really helped me work on making my writing more accessible and filled with less techno-speak. And to my wife and partner, Alyce, Im grateful for all her suggestions and patience throughout the writing process. If I accomplish anything in this world, it is due to the support and faith that she has always shown in me.

Digital collections take many forms and serve many objectives. This book aims to help you understand the broad issues surrounding institutional repositories (IRs), digital asset management systems (DAMs), online educational resources (OERs), and digital libraries. For the purposes of this book, the differences between these different types of collections are unimportant, and the terms repository or digital repository will be used to refer to any system that is used to organize, store, retrieve, and disseminate digital resources.

Understanding digital libraries is as much a matter of recognizing what you dont need to know as it is about learning what you do need to know. There are too many types of repositories to discuss them individually, so we focus on concepts that can help you understand any system. Commercial and open source systems designed to fulfill very divergent needs depend on a countless array of standards and technologies, so this book introduces you only to those that will likely be significant for your own project, with the expectation that you will consult specialized references for greater detail on specific tools, methods, standards, and technologies.

The of this book discusses creating a digital repository, including how to determine whether your library should create one at all, since building a repository requires a permanent commitment of resources that would otherwise be used to support other services. This chapter also discusses determining the scope or extent of your project, securing support for initial and ongoing expenses, and tools you can use to help get started.