Librarians are familiar with the single-line form, the consolidated index, which represents a very large portion of a library's print and online collection. Their end users are familiar with the idea of a single search across a comprehensive index that produces a large, relevancy-ranked results list. Even though most patrons would not recognize…

Defines digital library collections and outlines two classes of collection metadata. Describes the Alexandria Digital Library (ADL) Project approach to collection metadata, including the ADL system architecture and collection guidelines and the format and use of the ADL collection metadata. Appendices include ADL collection metadata and example.…

Since its humble beginning, Digital Past, a centralized local history digitization initiative at the North Suburban Library System (NSLS), a multitype consortium in Wheeling, Illinois, has now grown into a large centralized collaboration that consists of 32 libraries and a museum as its primary contributors. With Digital Past, there are various…

This article draws on two projects funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation concerning the ways colleges and universities can support the legitimate sharing of digital learning resources for scholarly use. The 2001-03 Visual Image User Study (VIUS) assessed the scholarly needs of digital image users-faculty, staff, and students. That study led to…

Twenty-three posters address topics including access to information; metadata; personal information management; scholarly information communication; online resources; content analysis; interfaces; Web queries; information evaluation; informatics; information needs; search effectiveness; digital libraries; diversity; automated indexing; e-commerce;…

Forty-six panels address topics including women in information science; users and usability; information studies; reference services; information policies; standards; interface design; information retrieval; information networks; metadata; shared access; e-commerce in libraries; knowledge organization; information science theories; digitization;…

This Proceedings contains 53 of the 67 papers reviewed and selected by the Organizing/Reviewing Committee for presentation at the National Online Meeting, 1999. The volume begins with the introductory presentation by the Program Chairman, Martha E. Williams, "Highlights of the Online Database Industry and the Internet 1999." The balance of the…

With the explosion in information resources being developed by computer scientists, subject specialists, librarians, and commercial companies, the challenge for the information professional is to keep abreast of the most significant developments and to distill the information for a wide range of users. This paper looks at some of the developments…

The concept of a community of practice (CoP) is prevalent in several venues for teachers' professional development, especially in online environments. However, there are few descriptive accounts that effectively represent a CoP in a manner that will be of use to other designers. In order to illuminate potential difficulties which may arise when…