Electronic Library, The

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the literature of digital libraries (DLs), explore some issues and indicate some considerations. The paper also demonstrates the current situation and orientation of research topics and priorities in DLs.

Design/methodology/approach – Keywords such as “DL research”, “DL evaluation”, “DL management”, “DLs”, “DL studies” and so on were searched for on the web as well as in some leading databases, including Emerald, Proquest, SagePub, ScienceDirect and Springer. The search focused on three main categories in relation to DL literature: evaluation or performance appraisal, management, and education.

Findings – The review demonstrates that a lot has been learned in a short time via DL studies. However, a number of issues are yet to be resolved. In other words, research in the arena of DLs is still growing and it is predicted that new horizons will emerge, along with a variety of issues.

Research limitations/implications – The review does not claim to be comprehensive.

Practical implications – It is hoped that matters such as legal issues, social issues, standards, metadata, management of intellectual and digital rights and interoperability, not included here, will be discussed in future works.

Originality/value – The paper can serve as a road-map of digital library research for researchers, designers and users.