Electronic Commerce and Digital Libraries

In this chapter we discuss digital libraries from an electronic commerce perspective. The focus is on what the two have in common. The first section is an introduction which discuses some of the impacts that digital libraries and electronic commerce have had on our lives. The second section discusses common driving forces behind the two. The next section discusses common challenges, with an emphasis on the digital library perspective. The fourth section discusses several common issues, in particular, social, legal, quality, security and economic issues that both digital libraries and electronic commerce must address. The discussion in the fourth section primarily presents a digital library perspective, although the issues are important to both digital libraries and electronic commerce. Finally, the chapter closes with a conclusion.