We commit ourselves to the betterment of the lives of creators and users of information---learners and teachers at Virginia Tech, and beyond.

Interests

Our work on digital libraries is diverse, including theory, experimentation, and human issues. Our ongoing efforts are with the MARIAN catalog tool, collection visualization, international issues, fundamental DL theory (the 5S model), data mining, applications work with the IBM-DL collection management tool, support of the NDLTD, definition of DLs and digital librarians as human activity systems, dynamic document generation and analysis, caching, flash crowds, and most recently, issues in and applications of PetaPlex terabyte storage.

Focus

Our primary and immediate concentration is to secure continued funding for the NDLTD and our other efforts. Secondly, we strive to promote the results of completed projects and prototypes, by maintaining this Web site, creating a video documentary, and compiling a bibliography of our appearances in conferences and journals.

Objective

Our objective is to persue goals related to our commitment to teaching and learning, and to maintain a symbiosis with the goals of the laboratory and our personal educational goals---the timely completion of our Master's and PhD degrees.

Potentially Relevant Statement by Robert

Computer scientists have an unfortunate tendency to see digital libraries primarily as repositories of information. People go to libraries seeking information, certainly, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. People also go to libraries seeking knowledge and wisdom and art and entertainment and enlightment ... but most generally, they go seeking help. When a library patron's need has been reduced to a well-defined body of information, that person can generally continue on their own. A primary function for the digital library must therefore be to provide partrons with help at all phases of their interaction with whatever content the library covers.

Potentially Relevant Position Paper by Gail McMillan

Put the Library in Digital Library (PDF version).

Digital Library Research Laboratory

Integrating the best of information retrieval — multimedia, hypermedia, visualization — with the best and most humanistic aspects of living libraries.