User-oriented Criteria

User-oriented Criteria

The following criteria have been selected to verify whether or not the ‘digital library’ conforms to the Digital Library Reference Model from the User domain point of view.

MANDATORY
Regardless of the type of Users a ‘digital library’ is conceived for, it must meet at least the following criteria:
» The Digital Library must serve a clearly identified set of Actors and this can not be an empty set.
Actors represent the entities that interact with any digital library ‘system’, i.e., humans and inanimate entities such as software programs or physical instruments. This guarantees that they exist, i.e., there is no ‘digital library’ without users interacting with it.
» Every Actor must have (identifiedBy) a unique Resource Identifier.
This guarantees that every Actor is distinguishable from other Actors in the context of the same ‘digital library’.
» Every Actor must be described (model) by at least one Actor Profile.
This guarantees that every Actor uses the ‘digital library’ and interacts with it as well as with other Actors in a personalised and codified way.
»    Every Actor must act (play) with at least one Role.
This guarantees that an Actor cannot interact with a Digital Library if its role is not specified.
» The set of managed Roles must include the DL Manager Role.
DL Managers are Actors that exploit DLMS facilities to define, customise, and maintain the DL service.
» The set of managed Roles must include the DL Software Developer Role.
DL Software Developers exploit Digital Library Management System facilities to create and customise the constituents of the Digital Library Systems.
» The set of managed Roles must include the End-user Role.
This guarantees that the digital library supports at least typical end-user roles, like content consumers, content creators or digital librarians.

RECOMMENDED
Additionally, a Digital Library should meet the following criteria:

• Every Actor should perform (perform) Actions that apply (apply) Functions and concern (concern) Resources.
• Every Actor that interacts with a digital library should be able to perform certain Actions that involve the application of Functions and specific Resources.

OPTIONAL
Finally, a Digital Library may meet the following criteria:

• Actors may belong to (belongTo) more than one Group.
• During the interaction of an Actor with a Digital Library, the Actor may communicate or collaborate with other Actors that belong to various Groups; thus, the specific Actor may participate in different Groups. The concept of Group in the User domain has commonalities with the concept of Collection in the Content domain, it is a mechanism to organise Actors.