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Reports from DLF Initiatives

An index of reports that document the incremental progress of those DLF initiatives that do not result in formal publications.

  1. Architectures
  2. Preservation
  3. Collections
  4. Standards and good practices
  5. Use and users
  6. Library roles and responsibilities
  7. Reports about the DLF
Reports are grouped below under the program area in which they appear.

1. Architectures

Practical implementation of FEDORA

FEDORA. An Open Source Digital Object Repository Management System
Web pages describing practical implementation work

Open source software for libraries

Draft report of a meeting convened by the Digital Library Federation on October 5-6, 2001 in Washington DC to consider Open Source Software for Libraries (October, 2001)
Report of a meeting convened in October 2001 by the DLF to consider how to assess various claims made for open-source software (OSS) and, if appropriate, to identify steps to move OSS activity into the mainstream of digital library development in a manner that might appeal to all sectors of the library community.

Open Archives Initiative

A New Approach to Finding Research Materials on the Web (July 2000)
by Priscilla Caplan - describes the potential benefits to libraries and their users of the Open Archives Initiative and the Internet gateways that may be constructed with it.
The Open Archives Initiative and Digital Libraries (January 2001)
by Daniel Greenstein - introduces the OAI and supplies a brief history of the DLF's involvement with it as an organization.
DLF Evaluation of the Open Archives Initiative (January 2001)
by Daniel Greenstein - describes the work the DLF is undertaking in support of the development of a small number of Internet gateways through which users will access distributed digital library holdings as if they were part of a single uniform collection.

Tools for electronic publishing

Tools for Academic Electronic Publishing (March 2001)
by Maria Bonn - a discussion paper presented to a meeting of librarians and scholarly publishers to explore possible shared technical developments.

Reference linking

First Workshop on Linkage from Citations to Electronic Journal Literature (March 1999)
by staff at NISO. Report of a one day invitational workshop held on February 11, 1999.
Report of the Second Workshop on Linkage from Citations to Journal Literature (July 1999)
by staff at NISO. Report of a one-day invitational workshop held on June 9, 1999.
NISO/DLF/CrossRef Workshop on Localization in Reference Linking (August 2000)
by staff at NISO. Report of a one-day invitational workshop held on July 24, 2000.

Digital certificates and authentication

Assessing Shibboleth as a means of authenticating and authorizing access to electronic scholarly publications. A DLF/CNI workshop
by Peter Brantley (NYU), D Greenstein (DLF), Clifford Lynch (CNI). This document frames a review process initiated by DLF and CNI.
A Digital Library Authentication and Authorization Architecture (March 2000)
Describing an architecture, protocol and operational model for using X.509 digital certificates for authentication and a directory service to serve user attributes to determine the level of authorized access to licensed online materials. The model was developed by the participants at a DLF-sponsored meeting January 19-20, 1999.
Digital Library Authentication and Authorization (March 2000)
Describes the DLF initiative to develop an architecture, protocol and operational model for using X.509 digital certificates for authentication, etc.
Digital Certificate Infrastructure. Frequently Asked Questions (1999)
FAQ published jointly with the Corporation for Research and Educational Networking about the use of digital certificates, and targeted generally to senior campus administrators.(PDF format)

Distributed finding aids

Supporting Access to Diverse and Distributed Finding Aids (July 1999)
by John Price Wilkineport. Project that explores the means and costs of searching encoded finding aids that are distributed at different institutions.

2. Preservation

Preservation of electronic scholarly journals

Minimum criteria for an archival repository of digital scholarly journals, version 1.2 (May 2000)
by Daniel Greenstein and Deanna Marcum. Outlines minimum criteria agreed at invitational workshops of librarians and publishers respectively. The criteria serve as a touchstone for the repositories being planned by projects involved in The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's e-journal archiving program.
Website of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's e-journal archiving program (from February 2001)
Numerous web-documents introducing the program and describing its aims and giving details about the individual projects including their successful grant applications and periodically updated progress reports.

3. Collections

Archivists' toolkit

Summary report of a meeting held on February 4-5, 2002 to consider requirements for am archivists' toolkit (March, 2002)
by Brad Westbrook, reports on a meeting convened to evaluate need for such a toolkit and to begin specifying requirements

Registry of digital reproductions of paper-based books and serials

Registry of Archival Masters of Digital Monographs and Serials. Functional Requirements (December, 2001)
by Dale Flecker. Revised version of the registry's functional specification so as to suit the registry for recording information about born digital monograph and serial publications
Registry of Digital Reproductions of Paper-Based Monographs and Serials. Functional Requirements (December, 2001)
by Dale Flecker. Revised version of the registry's functional specification
Report on a meeting convened to evaluate possible implementation paths for a registry of digital monographs and serials December 2001)
by Daniel Greenstein, refines the functional requirement for the registry and begins to outline an implementation path
Registry of Digital Reproductions of Paper-based Books and Serials (July 2001)
by Dale Flecker and Daniel Greenstein. Introduces the DLF's work developing a functional specification and business case for such a registry and facilitating its development.
More Access at Less Cost: The Case for a Digital Registry (July 2001)
by Gerald George. Making a case for and explaining the benefit to libraries of a registry of digital reproductions of paper-based books and serials.
Registry of Digital Reproductions of Paper-based Books and Serials.Functional requirements (July 2001)
by Dale Flecker. Functional specification for a registry of digital reproductions of paper-based books and serials.
Draft report (April 2001)
by Daniel Greenstein. Meeting held on 11 April 2001 to consider the potential uses of a service that registers digitized books and journals and to consider implementation .

The Academic Image Cooperative

The Academic Image Cooperative (2000)
by Daniel Greenstein. Introduces the DLF's work on this prototype service for aggregating and distributing curriculum-based digital images for courses in art history and other humanities disciplines.
Final Report of the AIC as submitted to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (August 2000)
by Daniel Greenstein. Traces the progress of the AIC from its initial conception through the deveolopment of collection, technical, and image documentation standards, service specifications, and business plan.
The AIC Draft Collection Strategy and Development Framework (April 2000)
by Daniel Greenstein. Resulting from a review of the AIC's progress during the period 1/99-2/00, the document outlines a collection strategy and development framework that may sustain the initiative in the longer term.
AIC Brochure (January 2000)
by Rebecca Graham. This brief document outlines the AIC's vision and was developed to be circulated at conferences and other professional gatherings where the prototype was demonstrated. (PDF format)
Academic Image Cooperative (June 1999)
Reports on initial meetings held January and May 1999.

Shared cataloguing tool for visual resources

Towards a Shared Cataloguing Tool for VR Collections (December 2000)
by Daniel Greenstein. Discussion paper used to launch an investigation into the functional requirements of and business case for a shared catalogue of or visual resource descriptions.
Draft report (February 2001)
Meeting to explore possibilities for developing a shared VR cataloguing service. Report on an initial meeting to consider the development of such a tool/service.
Shared Cataloguing Tool for Visual Resources (April 2001)
by Max Marmor and Sherman Clarke. Report of a focus group meeting on the functional requirements developed by the DLF for a shared cataloguing tool for visual resources convened at ARLIS/NA Annual Conference, Getty Research Institute on April 1, 2001.

Strategies for developing digital collections

Strategies for developing sustainable and scaleable digital library collections (May 2000)
by Daniel Greenstein. Document outlining a DLF initiative that aims to assemble, review, and document practices adopted by libraries in developing their digital collections. The initiative resulted in several printed publications of the DLF.

Social science data

Digital Library Federation Workshop on Social Science Data Archives (Feburary 1999)
Reports on a meeting convened by the DLF on the state of the art of digital libraries in the social sciences to explore current problems and emerging solutions in three areas: facilities for users to discover and retrieve relevant and related data sets; means for users to interpret and evaluate the comparability of data sets; and tools for methods of data extraction and analysis.

4. Standards and good practices

Developing good collections

Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections (November, 2001)
by the the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Develops a framework for considering and promoting standards and good practices as may be adopted by the library community to guide the development of good (that is persistent and interoperable) digital collections. The DLF has endorsed the framework.

Benchmarking digital reproductions of printed books and serials

Draft benchmark functions of digital masters (March, 2002)
identifies the minimum-level functionality that should be required of a digital master, for example, as would determine what metadata ought to be supplied for the digital master. The draft is being reviewed by the DLF with a view to its endorsement.
Benchmark for digital reproductions of monographs and serials. As endorsed by the DLF (January, 2002)
Draft benchmark for digital reproductions of printed books and serial publications (July 2001)
by Daniel Greenstein. Document recommending a minimum benchmark for digital reproductions of printed book and serial publications and outlining the importance, rationale, and implications of such a benchmark.
Report of a meeting of the DLF on preservation reformatting practices (July 2001)
by Daniel Greenstein. Report of a meeting at which current practices were analyzed and benchmarks recommended.

Assessing image quality

Report Imaging Practitioners Meeting on 30 March 2001 (May 2001)
by Stephen Chapman. How the quality of digital imaging systems and digital images may be fairly evaluated.

Technical, administrative, and structural metadata

The Making of America, Part 2
Introducing work, supported by the DLF to organize and develop community practices for creating and encoding the digitized versions of primary sources and enabling readers to link seamlessly to these digitized surrogates directly from the finding aid descriptions of them. The MOA2 project received substantial implementation and other support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Structural, technical, and administrative metadata standards (December 2000)
by Jerome McDonough. A discussion document used to initiative discussion that led to the development of the METS standard.
Report of the Making of America II DTD DLF Workshop (March 2000)
by Jerome McDonough. Report on a meeting convened at NYU in February 2001 to review experience with MOA2 DTD and to recommend changes. The report recommended the development of a new DTD, METS.(PDF format)
Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS)
Official web site maintained by the Library of Congress, the website supplies overview, tutorial, schema and documentation for the use of the METS standard that developed out of a DLF-supported initiative.

Licensing commercial content

Liblicense: Licensing Digital Information
A resource for librarians maintained at Yale University and including the CLIR/DLF Model License.

TEI in Libraries

TEI Text Encoding in Libraries
Draft Guidelines for Best Encoding Practices. Version 1.0 (July 30, 1999) Perry Willetts. Guidelines growing out of a workshop convened to explore the use of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) and XML in libraries. They make recommendations pertaining to the application of the TEI Guidelines and particularly "best practices" for the encoding of electronic texts developed for different purposes. The guidelines have been endorsed and are in use by leading text centers in the US and Europe.
TEI and XML in Digital Libraries
Report of a Two-Day Meeting held June 30 - July 1, 1998 at the Library of Congress (1998) by Lee Ellen Friedland and John Price-Wilkin. Report on the meeting that framed work on the guidelines indicated above.

Archival authority control

Developing a Standard for Recording Contextual Information for Archival and Manuscript Materials (December 1998)
Report of a meeting at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut to discuss the establishment of an international collaborative project to advance the definition and implementation of a methodology for recording information about the contexts in which archival records, personal papers, and similar materials have been created and used.

5. Use and users

Methods for assessing use and usability of online collections and services

Usage, Usability, and User support (April 200)
by Daniel Greenstein. Report of a discussion convened at the DLF Forum on 2 April 2000 to frame a DLF investigation into methods for assessing the use and usability of online collections and services.

Assessing changing patterns of library use

How and Why Libraries are Changing (January 2001)
by Denise Troll. A discussion paper used to focus a DLF initiative to investigate the extent and use of the scholarly information landscape at universities and liberal arts colleges, and the library's contributions to that landscape.
Dimension and Use of the Scholarly Information Environment (July 2001)
by Lynn Dagar, Daniel Greenstein, Leigh Watson Healy. Proposal outlining aims, goals, methods for the research that is indicated above. (PDF format)

6. Library roles and responsibilities

Digital library policies, organizations, and practices

Draft report (May 2001)
by D Greenstein, S Thorin, D Mckinney. Meeting held on 10 April in Washington DC to discuss preliminary results of a survey issued by the DLF to its members. Meeting discussed results of a survey that was used to help identify the institutional contexts in which digital libraries are being developed and to create a profile of the programs and initiatives at institutions that comprise the Digital Library Federation (DLF).
Digital Library Policies, Organizations, and Practices (January 2001)
by Daniel Greenstein and Suzanne Thorin. DLF survey instrument used by the DLF to help identify the institutional contexts in which digital libraries are being developed and to create a profile of the programs and initiatives at institutions that comprise the Digital Library Federation (DLF).

7. Reports about the DLF

Evaluation of the Digital Library Federation, 1995-2001. Summary report (January 2002)
In June 2001 the Digital Library Federation (DLF) Steering Committee approved the creation of a Review Panel to evaluate the progress of the DLF in achieving its goals and to consider the DLF's future. This document includes the Panel's report as endorsed by the DLF Steering Committee at its meeting on November 14, 2001. The report explains why and how the evaluation was conducted and outlines its principle recommendations. It also supplies evidence submitted to the Review Panel in the course of its work.

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