Digital Libraries

In the 21st century, digital libraries will have a tremendous positive impact on education, as sharing of learning resources increases, supporting not only distance education but also on-campus and independent discovery-based learning. High-quality resources of all types will be contributed by diverse sets of authors directly into digital libraries, including through open archives, leading to a vast increase in use of rich multimedia works. Two case studies, in the discipline of computing, and across institutions interested in electronic theses and dissertations, illustrate the 5S framework (facilitating understanding through use of the abstractions of societies, scenarios, spaces, structures, and streams) and other key concepts. So too does the exciting seed project of the US National Science Foundation to lead development of a National Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Digital Library (NSDL). While extensive research aims to solve the myriad problems to be faced, and evaluation studies have not definitively demonstrated expected benefits, preliminary findings on increased access and expanded utilization of more interactive materials demonstrate great promise.