DL.org Blog

The Birds of a Feather (BoF) session on 7 July at the Open Repositories conference in Madrid helped highlight not only the focus of DL.org in terms of addressing Digital Library and Repository Interoperability but also the value-add of several of the project’s outputs in terms of guiding developers and key decision-makers in the creation of digital repositories.

birds of a feather flock together

One attendant from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (U.S.) commented positively on the growing trend, over the last few years, for libraries to engage with computer scientists and share ideas and know-how as an effective way of ensuring developments deliver value-add for end-user communities. Projects like DL.org are seen as important contributors in the DL space in general and in terms of paving the way for interoperability in particular. Discussions highlighted how educational institutions at the early stages of repository development could well be in a fortunate position as they leverage the kind of outputs  produced by DL.org and initiatives forming part of its Working Groups:

• The Digital Library Manifesto – currently part of the Digital Library Reference Model – a condensed version of the Manifesto will be published in July 2010.

• DRIVER Guidelines

• DL.org Cookbook – a portfolio of best practices and existing solutions with the aim of  providing an organised, pragmatic, comprehensive and effective description of ways to address interoperability by evaluating interoperability scenarios, issues and solutions. The rationale behind the Cookbook is to provide a common language for people operating in the field. The Reference Model was the first step towards fostering a common understanding and approach, ensuring shared terms of reference for any discourses on Digital Library reference modelling. The interoperability scenarios serve primarily to classify the different solutions that exist rather than propose a new solution. A Ready for Comment version of the Cookbook will be published this Summer. DL professionals and practitioners will be kindly invited to send us suggestions and feedback.

Tags: DL Cookbook, DL Manifesto, DRIVER Guidelines, interoperability, mobilising communities

This entry was posted on Friday, July 9th, 2010 at 4:10 pm and is filed under DL.org on the Road. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.