Design and usability of digital libraries : case studies in the Asia-Pacific (2005)
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- Footnote
- Rez. in: JASIST 58(2007) no.1, S.152-153 (J.P. Bolstad): "Over the past decade, digital library research and technology have evolved and progressed rapidly. The desire to create new and better digital library systems has inspired researchers and academics worldwide to join forces and work together to develop more efficient and user-friendly technologies. Primarily inspired by ideas presented at the Fourth International Conference on Asian Digital Libraries, which was held in 2002 in Singapore, this book illustrates a selection of diverse digital library systems that have been created in recent years, as researchers have continued to further their ideas about new developments and trends in digital libraries. In Design and Usability of Digital Libraries, the editors, Theng and Foo, compile a collection of 20 valuable case studies written by various researchers. These case studies address not only the successes that have been achieved in improving digital library research and technology, but also the problems and failures that have been discovered. Thus, researchers can perhaps learn from the errors that have occurred in these case studies and prevent the same mistakes from happening in the future. This book also demonstrates the large amount of collaboration that has occurred among various research groups throughout different countries in the Asia Pacific region. The representation of such diverse perspectives from different places is what makes the book interesting because it is particularly enlightening to read about what other countries have developed in terms of digital libraries. In general, the book is organized uniformly and is easy to follow. Each chapter represents one case study and the order of the chapters makes complete sense, as the text flows smoothly from beginning to end. The first chapter begins with a basic history of digital libraries, which helps to familiarize readers with the concept of what a digital library is and provides a brief introduction to how digital libraries came to be. The next few chapters touch on such topics as the design architecture and systems of digital libraries, implementation issues and challenges when designing digital libraries, use and impact of these libraries in societies, considerations that need to be taken into account regarding users and usability, as well as projections of future trends of digital libraries. The editors brilliantly piece together all of the chapters to make the entire book cohesive.
The chapters are generally less than 20 pages, which allows for concise presentations of each case study. Each chapter contains, more or less, a brief abstract, introduction, related works section, methodology section, conclusion, and references. The chapters are further categorized into six thematic sections. Section I focuses on the history of digital libraries in the Asia Pacific. Section II, composed of four chapters, focuses on the design architecture and systems of digital libraries. The next five chapters, in section III, examine challenges in implementing digital library systems. This section is particularly interesting because issues such as multicultural and multilingual barriers are discussed. Section IV is about the use of and impact of digital libraries in a society. All four chapters in this section emphasize improvements that need to be made to digital libraries regarding different types of users. Particularly important is chapter 14, which discusses digital libraries and their effects on youth. The conclusion of this case study revealed that digital libraries need to support peer learning, as there are many social benefits for youth from interacting with peers. Section V, which focuses on users and usability, consists of five chapters. This section relates directly to the implementation challenges that are mentioned in section III, providing specific examples of cross-cultural issues among users that need to be taken into consideration. In addition, section V discusses the differences in media types and the difficulties with transforming these resources into digital formats. For example, chapter 18, which is about designing a music digital library, demonstrates the difficulties in selecting from the numerous types of technologies that can be used to digitize library collections. Finally, the chapter in section VI discusses the future trends of digital libraries. The editors successfully present diverse perspectives about digital libraries, by including case studies performed in numerous different countries throughout the Asia Pacific region. Countries represented in the case studies include Indonesia, Taiwan, India, China, Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Philippines, Japan, and Malaysia. The diversity of the users in these countries helps to illustrate the numerous differences and similarities that digital library designers need to take into consideration in the future when developing a universal digital library system. In order to create a successful digital library system that can benefit all users, there must be a sense of balance in the technology used, and the authors of the case studies in this book have definitely proved that there are distinct barriers that need to be overcome in order to achieve this harmony.
Even though each chapter is short, the entire book covers a vast amount of information. This book is meant to provide an introductory sampling of issues discovered through various case studies, not provide an in-depth report on each of them. The references included at the end of each chapter are particularly helpful because they lead to more information about issues that the particular case study raises. By including a list of references at the end of each chapter, the authors want to encourage interested readers to pursue more about the topics presented. This book clearly offers many opportunities to explore issues on the same topics further. The appendix at the end of the book also contains additional useful information that readers might want to consult if they are interested in finding out more about digital libraries. Selected resources are provided in the form of a list that includes such topics as journal special issues, digital library conference proceedings, and online databases. A key issue that this book brings up is how to include different cultural materials in digital libraries. For example, in chapter 16, the concerns and issues surrounding Maori heritage materials are introduced. The terms and concepts used when classifying Maori resources are so delicate that the meaning behind them can completely change with even a slight variation. Preserving other cultures correctly is important, and researchers need to consider the consequences of any errors made during digitization of resources. Another example illustrating the importance of including information about different cultures is presented in chapter 9. The authors talk about the various different languages used in the world and suggest ways to integrate them into information retrieval systems. As all digital library researchers know, the ideal system would allow all users to retrieve results in their own languages. The authors go on to discuss a few approaches that can be taken to assist with overcoming this challenge.
- LCSH
- Information storage and retrieval systems / Case studies
- Subject
- Information storage and retrieval systems / Case studies
