DELOS NoE
Digital Library research directions
ELAG/DELOS workshop on
IT Profiles and Curricula for Libraries
Parma, 13-14 October, 2005
VIttore Casarosa
ISTI – CNR
[email protected]
DELOS Network of Excellence
An initiative funded until 2007 by the European Commission,
under the 6th Framework Program.
Presently it has 55 members:
European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics►Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie dell’Informazione –
CNR►Swiss federal Institute of Technology Zurich►University of Bath►University of Athens►Technical University of
Crete►Università degli Studi di Firenze►Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.►University
of Glasgow►Universität Duisburg-Essen►Stichting Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica►Risoe National
Library►Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas►Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” – DIS►Brunel
University►National Technical University of Athens►Università degli Studi di Padova►Università degli Studi di
Milano►University for Health Informatics and Technology Tyrol►Max-Planck-Ges.z.F.d.W.vertr. d. MPI fuer
Informatik►Kuratorium OFFIS e.V.►Queen Mary & Westfiled College►University of Strathclyde►Ionian University, Archive
and Library Science Department►Université Paris-sud XI/Laboratoire de Recherche en Informatique►University of
Southampton►The University of Edinburgh►Institute for Information Processing and Computer Supported new Media
►Vienna University of Technology►University of Urbino►Norwegian University of Science and Technology – DCIS►Lund
University /Lund University Libraries, Head Office►Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en
Automatique►Aristotelio Panepistimio Thessalonikis ►National Archief ►Univesitaet Bremen ►Phonogrammarchiv der
Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften ►Universität zu Köln►Consorzio Forma►Swedish Institute of Computer
Science AB►Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia►Masarykova univerzita v Brne►Universiteit van
Amsterdam►Università Della Svizzera Italiana►Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Számítástechnikai és Automatizálási
Kutatóintézet►Università degli Studi di Bari - Dipartimento di Informatica
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Main Objective
To define and conduct a joint program of activities in
order to integrate and coordinate the on-going
research activities of the major European research
teams in the field of digital libraries for the purpose
of developing the next generation digital library
technologies
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Other Objectives
•
•
•
•
•
Network and structure European research on digital
libraries, so as to consolidate an emerging community
Contribute towards improving the effectiveness of European
research in the digital library field
Provide a forum where researchers, practitioners, and
representatives of interested applications and industries can
exchange ideas and experiences
Promote cooperation between European and national digital
library initiatives
Improve international cooperation in DL research areas
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Activity Organization
• The Network activities are organised into
a set of
Research Clusters (Work Packages):
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–
–
–
–
–
–
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WP1: Digital Library Architecture
WP2: Information Access and Personalization
WP3: Audio/Visual and Non-Traditional Objects
WP4: User Interfaces and Visualization
WP5: Knowledge Extraction and Semantic Interoperability
WP6: Preservation
WP7: Evaluation
WP8: Dissemination and Spreading of Excellence
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Dissemination and
Spreading of Excellence

Network Web Site

Electronic Newsletter

Thematic Workshops

Brainstorming Workshops

Joint Workshops

National Awareness Events

Summer Schools
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Information Space for DLs
High
Databases/IR
Structure of
User Behavior
Digital
Libraries
Web
Low
Structure of Data
High
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Conceptual Framework
Usage
Management
Contents
Digital Library System
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Grand 107-Year Vision #1
Digital libraries should enable any citizen
to access all human knowledge
anytime and anywhere,
in a friendly, multi-modal, efficient,
and effective way,
by overcoming barriers of distance,
language, and culture
and by using multiple Internet-connected
devices
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Grand 10-Year Vision #2
The potential exists for digital libraries to
become the universal knowledge
repositories and communication
conduits for the future, a common
vehicle by which everyone will access,
discuss, evaluate, and enhance
information of all forms
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Digital Library Management Systems
Visualisation
(specialised)
Personalisation
Customisation
Visualisation
(generic)
User Interface
(specialised)
User Interface
(generic)
Management
Access
(generic)
Access
(specialised)
Preservation
(generic)
Spoken-Word
Audio Mgmt
Preservation
(specialised)
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Research Directions
Horizontal issues
Circles of User Experience
Layers of System Architectures
User-related research
System-related research
Foundation research
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System-related research

Digital Library System Architectures
– Addressing large-scale distribution, scalability, availability, reliability,
self organization, etc.
– Peer-to-peer, GRID middleware, Service-Oriented Architecture

Information Access to Digital Libraries
– Indexing for novel data types (e.g. similarity measures)
– Query routing

Audio/Visual Digital Libraries
– Automatic meta-data extraction
– Content-based retrieval
– A/V user interface

Semantic Interoperability in Digital Libraries
– Integration of higher-level ontologies
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Foundation research

Reference Model for Digital Library Systems
– Conceptual framework for the architecture, functionality,
operations and behavior of a DL
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User-related research

User Interfaces for Digital Libraries
– New query and browse paradigms (non-conventional objects)
– Task-specific user interfaces
– Collaboration oriented functionality (e.g. annotation)

Digital Library Visualization
– Visual clues in presentation of information
– Direct user manipulation of visualized information
– Adaptabilty to different devices

Personalization in Digital Libraries
– Modelling of user preferences
– Increased use of context
– Query routing
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Horizontal issues

Digital Library Curation and Preservation
– Integration of preservation functionality into system design
– Automation of the selection and ingest of materials into a
preservation repository

Digital Repositories
– Access policies
– Infrastructures

Digital Library Evaluation Methodologies and
Infrastructure
– Framework for comparative evaluation of DL systems
– Multilingual information access (CLEF)
– XML information access (INEX)
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Digital Libraries
<adjective><content abstraction><created entity>



adjective
:= Digital
content abstraction := ‘’
created entity
:= Library
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New name for Digital Libraries ?
Digital
Data
Libraries
Pervasive
Information
Environments
Dynamic
Knowledge
Spaces
Universal
Gardens
Ubiquitous
Commons
Collaborative
Forums
Architectures
Worlds
Realms
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What’s in a name ?
DIGITAL LIBRARIES
DYNAMIC
UNIVERSAL
KNOWLEDGE
ENVIRONMENTS
KNOWLEDGE
COMMONS
... what's in a name? that which we call a rose,
by any other name would smell as sweet…...
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The end
Many thanks for your attention
Further information at:
www.delos.info
or
[email protected]
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