A public digital library based on full-text retrieval: Collections and experience

The NZDL aims to impose structure on anarchic and uncataloged repositories of information, providing information consumers with effective tools to locate and peruse what they need. Our goal is to produce an easy-to-use digital library system that runs on inexpensive computers at information providers ’ own sites and offers an information service that information providers themselves maintain. New Zealand’s geographical isolation magnifies the benefits of networked digital libraries, in terms of both cost and timeliness of access to information. We are collaborating with the Medoc project in Germany to provide local indexes to German language technical-reports, and with the J Biological Chemistry in the United States to field-test novel browsing techniques. The project rests on five basic planks. First, we avoid manual processing of source material, and avoid making assumptions about the document repositories from which it is collected—e.g. we do not require bibliographic metadata. Second, access is via a full-text index of the entire contents of each document, rather than document surrogates. Third, we are concerned with user interface aspects and the real needs of library users. Fourth, our systems must operate in geographically remote locations with high Internet costs—an environment in which the benefits of networked library technology are especially striking. Finally, we aim to produce a library scheme that operates on small, inexpensive