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Abstract : |
Digital Libraries (DLs) are software systems specifically designed to assist users in information seeking activities. Stemming from the intersection of library sciences and computer networking, traditional DL systems impose library philosophies of structure and management on the sprawling collections of data that are made possible through the Internet. DLs evolve to keep pace with innovation on the Internet so there is little standardization in the architecture of such systems. However, in attempting to provide users with the highest possible levels of service with the minimum possible effort, many systems work collaboratively with others, e.g., meta-search engines. This type of system interoperability is encouraged by the emergence of simple data transfer protocols such as the Open Archives Initiative?s Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). Open Digital Libraries are an extension of the work of the OAI. It is proposed in this dissertation that the philosophy and approach adopted by the OAI can easily be extended to support inter-component interaction within a componentized DL. In particular, DLs can be built by connecting small components that communicate through a family of, |
