What is Digital Library?

Abstract: The term ‘Digital Library’ is currently used to refer to systems that are heterogeneous in scope and yield very different functionality. These systems range from digital object and metadata repositories, reference-linking systems, archives, and content administration systems (mainly developed by industry) to complex systems that integrate advanced digital library services (mainly developed in research environments). This ‘overloading’ of the term ‘Digital Library’ is a consequence of the fact that as yet there is no agreement on what Digital Libraries are and what functionality is associated with them. This results in a lack of interoperability and reuse of both content and technologies.