Digital library research and digital library practice: How do they inform each other? An unpublished study

Abstract

The study surveys two large sets of activities concentrating on digital libraries to examine the following questions: Does digital library research inform digital library practice? And vice versa? To what extent are they connected, now that nearly a decade has passed since they began? Examined were research projects supported by the first and second Digital Library Initiative (DLI), digital library projects listed by the Association for Research Libraries (ARL) and Digital Library Federation (DFL), and selected literature, focusing on the last five years. Methods concentrate only on examination of visible or â surfaceâ sources or records, i.e. information that can be gathered from web sites, open literature, and published data. Limitations of the method are acknowledged; accordingly, caveats are made about conclusions. From this data we conclude that the two activities are not as yet demonstratively connected. A set of differing interpretations and conclusions are included.