Digital Libraries: Policy, Planning and Practice

Citation

Fourie, I. (2005), "Digital Libraries: Policy, Planning and Practice", The Electronic Library, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 371-372. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470510603796

Under the capable editorship of Judith Andrews and Derek Law, a team of international experts from countries such as England, South Africa, The Netherlands, USA, Scotland, and Israel made an excellent contribution to the literature on digital libraries. The emphasis is on policy, planning and practice issues, and especially on how research has been developed for workplace applications. I can agree with Andrews' and Law's explanation that “the value of this book is that it provides an overview of how we have arrived at the current position, a consideration of key policy issues that need to be addressed, and insight into the decision‐making process of those who are working at the ‘coal face’ and a vision of future directions”. This makes Digital Libraries: Policy, Planning and Practice an excellent choice for all LIS professionals and managers involved in digital and hybrid library practices who expect to learn from the experiences of others. It is also an excellent choice for LIS educators specialising in this field and post‐graduate students who need an overview of developments, practical realities and expectations for the future.

Two chapters are devoted to overviews of the eLib and digital library research programmes established in the UK and the USA respectively. Both these programs had a substantial influence on digital library developments elsewhere in the world. Apart from the opportunity to learn from their successes and failures, the differences between the two programmes are also noted.

In the first part on policy and planning issues, the following themes are explored: financial aspects of digital libraries and how to pay for them, how to deal with content and service issues, the problems of open‐access to peer‐reviewed research through author/institution self‐archiving, digital preservation, and the evaluation of electronic information services.

The Glasgow experiences in developing a metropolitan digital library, as well as the experiences of the Digital Library of the University of Central England, the Digital Music Library Projects at Indiana University, the Digital Library program at the Library of Congress, and the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) are shared. The focus is on the implementation of digital libraries and other practical issues.

In the final chapter Mel Collier shares some of his ideas on a potential way forward for digital libraries. According to him aspects of special importance include interoperability, middleware, user interfaces, identifiers, document formats and e‐business. The involvement of digital libraries in learning, the promotion of learning and dealing with different learning styles seems of special importance. Collier aptly concludes by explaining that in the Tilburg University Library experience, the library of the future is by definition something that will never be attained, but the spirit of it, namely the commitment to innovation should live on in digital libraries. This adds to our need for a solid overview of current practices.

The chapters are all well‐written in an academic, well‐referenced but clear and easy‐to‐follow style. The excellently edited publication is also well bounded with a detailed nine‐page index. Digital Libraries: Policy, Planning and Practice concludes with a very useful and extensive bibliography. It is highly recommended to its intended audience, and is considered good value for money.