Resumen: Partiendo de una reflexión epistemológica se dilucida conceptualmente la biblioteca digital y se proyecta un modelo de carácter nacional. Se toman en consideración, y se estudian, los proyectos más relevantes que dieron origen a las bibliotecas digitales en USA y Europa, al igual que las investigaciones y los desarrollos alcanzados por la Federación Internacional de Bibliotecas Digitales. A partir de estos estudios, se hace un examen sobre las potencialidades de Colombia para soportar el proyecto y para ello se estudian las políticas estatales e institucionales en los campos de sistemas de información, telecomunicaciones y sistemas, tanto del sector público como el privado, al igual que la población con capacidad para acceder a los servicios de una biblioteca digital de carácter nacional. Posteriormente se caracteriza el usuario de una biblioteca digital y se reflexiona la relación del usuario con los componentes tecnológicos, analizando como éste participa y actúa en estos ámbitos. Los argumentos anteriores aportan elementos para definir, qué tipo de biblioteca se debe crear, qué se pretende con ella, cuáles son sus metas y cuáles son las directrices estratégicas para su desarrollo, lo cual se complementa con la formulación de la visión, misión y alcance de la misma. Con estas definiciones, y con base en la comparación de diferentes bibliotecas digitales nacionales de América y Europa, especialmente la Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, se tienen las bases del modelo de organización de la Biblioteca Digital de Colombia, que se presenta ajustado a la legislación colombiana y a los modelos administrativos de las entidades públicas y privadas. La organización que se propone es la de una Fundación, describiendo los órganos de gobierno y los componentes operativos y se precisa la organización administrativa y técnica interna. Cumplidos todos los requisitos administrativos y jurídicos, se aboca el estudio del componente tecnológico de la biblioteca y se inicia con la arquitectura del sistema de la misma, basando la decisión en cuatro estudios: 1) conceptualización de la arquitectura del sistema, 2) definir el modelo de la arquitectura del sistema, 3) seleccionar el software aplicativo, y 4) proponer el modelo lógico y físico de la plataforma y el software asociado para la digitalización de los documentos. Conocida la plataforma tecnológica de la arquitectura del sistema, se hace un estudio de las colecciones potenciales para conformar la biblioteca, proponiendo como colección básica la de la Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, de la cual se hace un análisis y descripción detallada. Posteriormente, se presenta un estudio que permite ver las relaciones usuarios- entornos -servicios, con lo cual, y con base en sitios Web de bibliotecas digitales lideres en el mundo, se proponen un conjunto de servicios potenciales. Teniendo en cuenta que la organización técnica de las bibliotecas digitales, fundamentan su organización en procedimientos y normas de carácter internacional, se definen y describen los macroprocesos de una biblioteca digital con todos sus procedimientos y normas. Finalmente, se propone en su estructura y funcionamiento el sistema nacional participativo, que es el componente exógeno de la Biblioteca Digital de Colombia; el desarrollo que se hace del Sistema es solo a nivel de diseño general, dado que su implementación y puesta en funcionamiento esta sujeto a que se cumplan las etapas de creación, organización y operación de la Biblioteca, en especial lo concerniente a políticas de colecciones, servicios, arquitectura del sistema y adopción de procedimientos y normas. / Based on an epistemological reflection, the digital library is conceptually elucidated and a model of national character is projected. To reaffirm this initiative, the most relevant projects that gave rise to the digital libraries in the USA and Europe, as well as the research and development accomplished by the International Federation of Digital Libraries, will be taken into consideration and studied. Based on these studies, there will be a review to determine the potential that Colombia has to support the project including a study of state policies and institutional resources in the fields of information systems, public and private telecommunications systems, and the people with the ability to access the services of a digital library of national character. Subsequently the user of a digital library is characterized and the relationship between the user and the technological components is typified, analyzing how the user acts and participates in this capacity. All the above arguments contribute elements to define what sort of library should be set up, its intent, its goals, and the strategic directions for its development, which are complemented by the formulation of the vision, mission and scope of the same. Based on the comparison of different national digital libraries in America and Europe, particularly the Virtual Library Miguel de Cervantes, the foundation for the organizational model of the Digital Library of Colombia is provided, set to comply with Colombian legislation and the administrative models of public and private entities. The organizational structure proposed is that of a Foundation, describing government bodies, operational components, and the required internal administrative and technical configuration. The study of the technological component of the library will be determined after the fulfillment of all legal and administrative requirements, starting with the system's architecture and basing the decision on four studies: 1) conceptualization of the system's architecture; 2) to define the model of the system's architecture; 3) selecting the application software; and 4) proposing the logical and physical model of the platform and the associated software for scanning documents. After the technological platform of the system's architecture is known, there will be a study of what potential collections will compose the library, using the National Library of Colombia, of which there is an analysis and detailed description, as its basic collection. Subsequently, a study will be conducted to determine the relationships between user-environments-services, and based on Web sites of leading digital libraries in the world, a set of potential services will be proposed. The procedures and rules, as well as the macro processes of the digital library, will be defined and described, taking into consideration that the technical organization of digital libraries is founded on procedures and rules of international character. Finally, the participatory national system, which is the exogenous component of the Digital Library of Colombia, is proposed in the structure and operation of the library; the development of the system is currently at the preliminary design level, since its implementation and operation is subject to the fulfillment of the stages of creation, organization and operation of the library, and in particular issues relating to the services, the collections' policies, the system's architecture, and the adoption of procedures and standards.

Digital libraries have become valuable learning resources for information users. However, language barriers have greatly limited information access for many digital libraries, as users do not understand those languages. This study explored technical and operational challenges digital libraries faced in sustaining multilinguality. Using the multiple-case method, the study investigated two digital libraries that have sustained multilinguality for over a decade: the World Digital Library and the Digital Library of the Caribbean. On-site interviews were conducted at both digital libraries and the related documents were analyzed. The findings of the study showed that the two multilingual digital libraries faced many technical and operational challenges and employed various approaches to find solutions. A model of challenges and approaches in sustaining multilinguality was presented. As the first such case study, this research enriches the existing literature, and has theoretical, practical, and methodological implications for the research of multilingual digital libraries. The findings of the study provide useful guidelines and insights for the digital library community in sustaining multilingual services.

This item is not the definitive copy. Please use the following citation when referencing this material: Dillon, A. (2002) HCI and the technologies of information. In: J. Carroll (ed.) HCI and the Millennium: New York: ACM Press/Addison Wesley, 457-474. Abstract Digital libraries represent the latest and perhaps the most important stage in the transformation of our relationship to information and its supporting technologies. While the World Wide Web has raised to broad consciousness the ideas of rapid, remote access to vast collections of distributed, hyperlinked documents, users are as often confused and disoriented by such resources as they are empowered. As we enter the new millennium the possibilities for new forms of information seem boundless. Meeting the design challenges requires HCI to offer valid, reliable and timely guidance. At the same time, the creation of digital libraries provides a research forum for HCI that is rich, relevant and receptive to our inputs. The present chapter will briefly examine the initiation of the digital library concept, the early HCI involvement in this domain and present a vision of the future of HCI research and design for new information technologies.

This item is not the definitive copy. Please use the following citation when referencing this material: Dillon, A. (1996) TIMS: A framework for the design of usable electronic text. In: H. van Oostendorp and S. de Mul (eds.) Cognitive Aspects of Electronic Text Processing. Norwood NJ: Ablex, 99-120. Introduction: Despite the claims and the promises, the hype and the visions, the reality of electronic text is far less impressive than the rhetoric that surrounds it. Internet, World Wide Webs, MOSAIC, e-journals, word processors, and of course, hypertext are all pushed forward as examples of this triumph of technology, this liberation of the human reader and writer, this future of unlimited information for everyone. Yet, for all this, as has been outlined in detail elsewhere (see e.g., Dillon 1994), the typical reader of an electronic information source will likely suffer loss of orientation, lower reading speeds, and possibly greater fatigue than the typical reader of a paper document for few demonstrable benefits.

Based off Nicholson's 2000 University of North Texas dissertation, "CREATING A CRITERION-BASED INFORMATION AGENT THROUGH DATA MINING FOR AUTOMATED IDENTIFICATION OF SCHOLARLY RESEARCH ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB" located at http://scottnicholson.com/scholastic/finaldiss.doc / This research creates an intelligent agent for automated collection development in a digital library setting. It uses a predictive model based on facets of each Web page to select scholarly works. The criteria came from the academic library selection literature, and a Delphi study was used to refine the list to 41 criteria. A Perl program was designed to analyze a Web page for each criterion and applied to a large collection of scholarly and non-scholarly Web pages. Bibliomining, or data mining for libraries, was then used to create different classification models. Four techniques were used: logistic regression, non-parametric discriminant analysis, classification trees, and neural networks. Accuracy and return were used to judge the effectiveness of each model on test datasets. In addition, a set of problematic pages that were difficult to classify because of their similarity to scholarly research was gathered and classified using the models. The resulting models could be used in the selection process to automatically create a digital library of Web-based scholarly research works. In addition, the technique can be extended to create a digital library of any type of structured electronic information.

Learning object repositories, a form of digital libraries, are robust systems that provide educators new ways to search for educational resources, collaborate with peers, and provide instruction to students in unique and varied ways. This study examines a learning object repository created by a large suburban school district to increase teaching information and encourage collaboration among teachers. Despite investing nearly $2 million to develop the software and seed the repository with materials, data suggest that teacher use falls below set goals. This document explores five years of site traffic, user engagement, social interaction, asset growth, as well as the authoring of instructional materials as a means to evaluate the repository. The results of the study may inform the policy decisions of educational organizations when considering digital learning environments.

Interest in indigenous knowledge (IK) research has grown since the 1980s, and more recently the topic has drawn attention in information sciences research. At the same time, the evolution of electronic information and communication technologies (ICTs), most notably development of the Internet, has profoundly influenced information sciences research. This study explores perceptions of community members involved in the creation, development, and use of digital libraries with indigenous knowledge materials. Research methods used in data collection include a quantitative survey distributed to community members involved in the creation, development, and use of digital libraries with indigenous knowledge materials and qualitative analysis of the research process. The study proposes a framework of guidelines to conduct future research on digital libraries with indigenous knowledge that includes: acknowledging the reality of the community involved in creating, developing, and using digital libraries with indigenous knowledge materials; developing appropriate research methods for this community; and identifying specific actions for such research.

A recent survey of studies related to digital libraries concluded that students use and like electronic resources. However, the results of access studies show that actual use of online content is relatively low, with only 10-20% of students making regular use of the content. This is because navigation to the online content in these collections is not convenient, requires multiple steps in order to reach relevant content, and is not integrated into a students natural workflow. In our research, we have designed, deployed, and evaluated a method for making content available to students that targets the content to their current need and is designed as an alternative yet cooperative method of access to a well-structured set of course content. Since notes are both integral to lecture classes and generally ubiquitous, it is a natural target for connecting the student with available content. Pen technologies and mobile devices make it possible for us to capture student notes and enhance them with embedded access links to relevant content. In our initial interface, NoteNexus, instead of delivering content as the result of a student search query or browsing activity, we embedded links to the content into the students notes. NoteNexus did not produce a change in the student use of online content. C-Nexus was designed and developed from the results of the NoteNexus study. C-Nexus was successful in increasing the student use of online content.

Searching for resources that are related to time periods or events can be frustrating and even problematic since it is often bound to keyword matching or prior knowledge of the exact dates of occurrence. Additionally, the ordered and itemized list that is often returned as a result is unable to provide the required affordances and constraints that users need and desire to conduct scholarly research properly. The following thesis proposes the implementation of timelines and calendar-based interfaces to browse and search through the life events and artworks documented in the Online Picasso Project. The affordances, constraints and inherent visual nature of the proposed interfaces aid scholars and general users in answering questions regarding the relationship between life events and artworks of the famous Spanish artist. The temporal interfaces are used specifically in the context of the Online Picasso Project and provide several advantages over standard HTML interfaces.

Interest in indigenous knowledge (IK) research has grown since the 1980s, and more recently the topic has drawn attention in information sciences research. At the same time, the evolution of electronic information and communication technologies (ICTs), most notably development of the Internet, has profoundly influenced information sciences research. This study explores perceptions of community members involved in the creation, development, and use of digital libraries with indigenous knowledge materials. Research methods used in data collection include a quantitative survey distributed to community members involved in the creation, development, and use of digital libraries with indigenous knowledge materials and qualitative analysis of the research process. The study proposes a framework of guidelines to conduct future research on digital libraries with indigenous knowledge that includes: acknowledging the reality of the community involved in creating, developing, and using digital libraries with indigenous knowledge materials; developing appropriate research methods for this community; and identifying specific actions for such research.