Oh what a tangled Web we weave: Opportunities and challenges for standards development in the digital library arena

Standards development is particularly difficult within the digital library arena, primarily because the most active players have not yet formed a true community in the sense of having evolved a common vocabulary, commonality of interest, or structures for collaboration and communication. Competition, the need to allow for innovation and experimentation, and the need for speed in a rapidly changing technological environment all help to foster a culture that does not necessarily value standards. Appropriate responses can help encourage the development of standards even in this environment. Among these is the recognition that collections of practices, best practices, local and global guidelines, normative standards and implementers' agreements can all be useful under different circumstances, and to aim for the level of standarization most appropriate to the situation