Discover Digital Libraries: Theory and Practice .

Discover Digital Libraries by Xie and Matusiak was written to serve many purposes and audiences, including as a textbook for faculty and students in library and information science (LIS) programs and a research-based practical guide for developing digital libraries. The book is a valuable addition to the curriculum of faculty who teach digital libraries courses and to the practice-oriented handbooks used by practitioners and information professionals responsible for planning, designing, and implementing digital collections in various contexts such as museums, archives, and other cultural heritage organizations. Further, it is a useful resource for researchers of digital libraries in LIS and to those focused on user studies, evaluation, and human computer interaction. As a researcher of digital libraries and faculty member in an LIS program who teaches a course in digital collections, the value of a comprehensive research-based textbook to a successful learning experience cannot be emphasized enough. With Xie and Matusiak’s book there is finally a textbook that provides not only the historical development and current issues related to digital libraries but one that also connects what we have learned from research to real-world practical advice for completing digitization projects in diverse collections and formats. In the collection of textbooks or monographs about digital libraries or those focused on teaching digital libraries within LIS programs, Xie and Matusiak rise above other works due to their comprehensive coverage of the subject. Earlier textbooks, for example by Arms (2000), Lesk (2005), and Witten and Bainbridge (2003), provide a good grounding in the historical development of digital libraries and cover the majority of topics central to the planning and development of digital libraries. Where Xie and Matusiak excel is in the inclusion of topics related to the entire life cycle of digital libraries, for example, user needs and search behaviors as informing design of digital libraries, moving from relational database structures to a linked data environment, digital preservation issues and strategies, evaluation of digital libraries, and social media use in digital libraries. Each chapter includes in-depth and up-to-date coverage of the research in each topic, which not only provides an introduction into the issues and research areas, but also suggests practical application. Further, the text includes guidance about practical activities of digitization projects such as current best practices and standards being used worldwide, along with frameworks for making decisions when planning and implementing a digital library. The text itself is structured in a manner similar to the curriculum of a digital libraries course, beginning with an introduction to the topic, followed by practical areas related to collection development and copyright, digitization of textual and audiovisual collections, metadata schemas and linked data, interface design, digital library management systems, user needs and search behaviors, digital preservation, evaluation, and new developments and challenges. Helpful appendixes supplement the main text by providing links to digitization guides, standards, and best practices, and examples of metadata schemes. Each chapter begins with an in-depth introduction to the topic area, comprehensive coverage of related research, and as applicable, a detailed explanation of how the research may inform design or practice. More practicebased chapters follow the same structure but by necessity focus on practical guidance related to the digitization process and how to choose appropriate equipment for each project’s needs, best practices and standards to consider when planning and implementing a project, and detailed discussion of technical factors related to each aspect of a digitization project. The strengths of this book are many. The writing is very accessible to the projected audiences; the structure of the book follows a logical progression one might follow when either teaching a course in this topic or when planning and developing a digitization project. The subject content, as noted above, fills the gaps left by other texts on this topic and provides readers with essential discussion focused on the entire life cycle of digital libraries by including user-centered design topics such as the role that user needs and search behaviors play in designing digital libraries, considerations of user needs and search behaviors in interface design and help features, and the importance of, and metrics for, selecting among various methods of evaluating digital libraries in varying contexts. While other works on these topics are available within the research and practice literature, having comprehensive access to this information in one book will be VC 2017 ASIS&T