Patron-augmented digital Libraries.

Abstract

Digital library research is mostly focused on the generation of large collections of multimedia resources and state-of-the-art tools for their indexing and retrieval. However, digital libraries should provide more than advanced collection maintenance and retrieval services since the ultimate goal of any (academic) library is to serve the scholarly needs of its users. This paper begins by presenting a case for digital scholarship in which patrons perform all scholarly work electronically. A proposal is then made for patron-augmented digital libraries (PADLs), a class of digital libraries that supports the digital scholarship of its patrons. Finally, a prototype PADL (called Synchrony) providing access to video segments and associated textual transcripts is described.