Overview

The advancement of human knowledge critically depends on the preservation of knowledge gained in the past. Currently, more and more of that knowledge is stored electronically, in the form of files, databases, Web pages, and programs. Unfortunately, most of the systems that store this information are not designed for preserving information over very long periods of time, as technologies and organizations evolve. Furthermore, the information is often stored in an un-coordinated and un-integrated fashion. This can lead to the loss of important components of the intellectual record.

The goal of this project is to design and implement a modern, scalable digital library repository (DLR). This repository will permanently store the digital objects that make up a library. The DLR will offer its clients a variety of services for managing intellectual property, for safeguarding information, for payment of royalties, for accounting, and for importing information from other sources. The DLR will employ a modular and distributed architecture, allowing autonomous organizations to collaborate in setting up a shared repository.

To achieve these goals, we are conducting research on several fundamental problems. These include the identification of digital objects in a distributed and changing environment; the replication of digital objects for archiving; the management of metadata; distributed indexing mechanisms; and robust and scalable awareness schemes. We plan to develop an architecture and interfaces for a DLR, and we will implement a prototype DLR for experimentation and evaluation of new ideas. The prototype will build on top of existing database and information retrieval technologies.

Acknowledgment: This research is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award 9811992.