Digital repository is one sector of digital content creation that receives less mainstream attention. Unlike blogs with accretions of documents and commentary or websites with masses of ephemeral pages that come and go, digital repositories have a more plodding pace of development. They conform to demanding standards for metadata and information…

In the last issue, this journal asked a question on many librarians' minds, and it was pleased with the depth and variety of responses. As suggested by this journal editorial board member Oliver Pesch, readers were asked, "Many libraries have gone to federated searching to win users back from Google. Is it working?" Respondents approached the…

Discusses the Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM), which integrates electronic learning standards to provide a common ground for course development. Describes the Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin- Madison campus. (JOW)

E-learning has the potential to offer significant advantages over traditional classroom learning. However, it requires a complete redefinition of the dynamics of interaction between the various actors of a classroom. Moreover, in this context, the authoring of instructional material requires much more time than in traditional learning. Therefore,…

This paper discusses bibliographic control of knowledge resources on the World Wide Web. The first section sets the context of the inquiry. The second section covers the following topics related to metadata: (1) definitions of metadata, including metadata as tags and as descriptors; (2) metadata on the Web, including general metadata systems,…

This paper examines two fields that contribute to research on digital libraries--information systems and orality-literary studies--and applies them to a particular digital library domain, botanical taxonomic work. Topics discussed include: (1) an introduction to HOSS (i.e., a computationally-oriented hypermedia system) architecture, including the…

Academic libraries today are complex institutions with multiple roles and a host of related operations and services developed over the years. Yet their fundamental purpose has remained the same: to provide access to trustworthy, authoritative knowledge. Consequently, academic libraries--along with their private and governmental counterparts--have…

This document focuses on the role of producers and vendors in the construction of bibliographic catalogs. The paper offers three issues related to cataloging that are becoming more and more significant to users: (1) aggregators and aggregations, i.e., large sets of electronic aggregations, principally of serials; (2) ancillary data, including…

This paper addresses bibliographic services in the 21st century. The paper begins by reviewing achievements of the past 30 years, including Universal Bibliographic Control (UBC), MARC, International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD), and the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition (AACR2). The cataloging of electronic resources is…