Key Issues Regarding Digital Libraries: Evaluation and Integration is another excellent title in the Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval and Services (edited superbly by Gary Marchionini). It is part of a series on digital libraries consisting of four titles. The authors have succeeded very well in taking research on evaluation in digital libraries a few steps further along the already strong corpus of available literature. The preface concludes with the following words (which also sets out what I think this particular book, as part of the series, can achieve): “We hope the full series will help move DLs forward into a science as well as a practice. We hope too that our four book series will broadly address the needs of the next generation of digital librarians”. Key Issues Regarding Digital Libraries: Evaluation and Integration follows on the first publication in the series dealing with the theoretical foundations of digital libraries.
The book is based on the 5S of Societies, Scenarios, Spaces, Structures and Streams. Although it seems odd, the book consists of only two chapters which follow the preface setting out the argument for the book and how the 5S will be applied to digital libraries. The preface also explains how the book fits in with the other three books in the series.
Chapter 1 starts with a reflection on related work before moving on to digital objects, metadata specifications and metadata format, collection and the metadata catalogue and repository, digital library services and a case study. Chapter 2, on integration, also starts with a reflection on related work before moving on to a case study. Each of these chapters ends with a summary and a section on exercises and projects.
The extensive bibliography at the end of the book can take the interested reader further along the path of not only research, but also applications in practice, where numerous examples of digital libraries can be found.
I can highly recommend Key Issues Regarding Digital Libraries to senior undergraduate students, postgraduate students and more established researchers and academics, as well as to practitioners managing digital libraries. The style of presentation in small chunks and with good examples makes it an excellent introduction to move forward in applying the principles of the 5S, and to follow on the authors’ invitation to “share share with us and others ways you found this work to be useful and helpful”.
