Page 80 - Building Digital Libraries

General-Purpose

Technologies 5

Useful for Digital

Repositories

As noted in previous chapters, planning for and implementing a suc- IN THIS CHAPTER
cessful digital library platform require buy-in and support throughout the
organization. In part, this is because the digital library touches all aspects of  The Changing Face of Metadata
the organization, but more importantly, digital technologies will continue  XML in Libraries
to displace and replace many of the aspects of a traditional library. While  JSON
libraries continue to play a key role as community connectors and shared  Data Manipulation
spaces, the digital library platform is increasingly becoming the de facto  Application Development
method for cultural heritage organizations to disseminate information.  Future of Software Development
While concepts such as workflow and acquisitions planning are easier to  Sharing Your Services
understand because they directly relate to tangible information objects,
what is often overlooked or not fully considered is the role that metadata  Summary
plays in creating a successful digital library. If the value of a digital library
is measured by the content found within it, then the success of the digital
library platform will be defined by its ability to surface information to the
library’s users. Digital content is of little value to a potential user if that
information cannot be found. And for more and more users, this means
finding information outside the library by utilizing familiar tools embed-
ded in social media, search engines, and personal digital assistant services.
The availability, flexibility, and quality of one’s metadata will ultimately
determine the relevancy of one’s digital repository within this expanded
information ecosystem. This chapter focuses on some of the technologies
that make up today’s digital library platforms. Some of these technologies are
old, familiar technologies such as XML and XSLT, while others have become
more ubiquitous as the library community has sought to move away from
locally developed standards to native web standards in order to support the
greater reuse of technologies created outside of the library community. This
push has raised the profile of standards like JSON, and a reconsideration of
OAI-PMH for more web-native standards like ResourceSync, or community
efforts around rich semantic metadata using standards like Schema.org.
These next few chapters will attempt to focus on the technology, specific
metadata schemas, and the tools necessary to utilize those schemas both
inside and outside the context of the digital library platform environment.
65