Evolution / History / Development of
Digital Libraries
RupeshKumarA
a.rupeshkumar@gmail.com

Evolution
• Theideaof digital library is not new.
• It has been conceived by many people in differentways.

As WeMayThink
• In July 1945, Vannevar BushthethenDirector of the US
Office of ScientificResearch and Developmentpublished an
article.
• It was titled“As WeMay Think”.
• Publishedin the journalTheAtlanticMonthly
• The article proposed the potentialthattechnology offers the
scientiststo gather, store, find and retrieve information.
• He called this systemMemex

The Library ofthe Future
• In 1960s, J.C.R.Licklider studieddigital computingat
MassachusettsInstituteof Technology (MIT).
• In his book TheLibraryoftheFuture,he described the
research and development needed to builda truly digital
library.

ARPANET
• In late 1960s, the Departmentof DefenceAdvancedResearch
Project Agency (DARPA) initiateda computer network for
sharing confidentialdefenceinformation.
• This network was called theARPANET.
• Similar projects were being initiatedin the United Kingdom
and France.

TCP/IP
• In 1981, access to the ARPANET was expanded whenthe
NationalScience Foundation(NSF) fundedtheComputer
Science Network (CSNET).
• In 1982, theInternetprotocol suite(TCP/IP)was introduced
as the standard networking protocol on theARPANET.
• In late 1980s, Commercial Internetservice providers (ISPs)
began toemerge.

WWW
• In the1980s, research at CERN in Switzerland by British
computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee resulted in theWorld
Wide Web (WWW).
• In themid-1990s, communicationservices such as electronic
mail,instantmessaging,voice over InternetProtocol (VoIP)
telephone calls,two-way interactivevideo calls started.

NSF Grants for DLResearch
• In 1994, USgovernmentannouncedfunding of$24.4millionto
six universities forresearch in “digitallibraries”.
• The funding wasa joint initiativeof NationalScience Foundation
(NSF), DepartmentofDefenseAdvancedResearchProjects
Agency (DARPA),andNationalAeronauticsandSpace
Administration(NASA)
• This was called“DigitalLibrary Initiative-1”(DLIPhase 1)

NSF-funded universities forDL research
• Carnegie Mellon University
• University of California-Berkeley
• University of Michigan
• University of Illinois
• University of California-SantaBarbara
• Stanford University

DLI-2
• In March 1997, NSF sponsored a workshop
• PlanningWorkshop on Distributed Knowledgework
environments.
• It was held at SantaFe.
• This workshop provided directions for DigitalLibrary
InitiativePhase2.

DLI-2
• NSF announced DLI-2in February 1998.
• $8-10millionfor4-5years
• Sponsoring Institutionswere:
– LibraryofCongress
– DARPA
– NationalLibraryofMedicine(NLM)
– NASA
– NationalEndowmentfortheHumanities
– NationalArchives
– SmithsonianInstituteforMuseumandLibraryServices

DLI-2 Program Goals
• NewDL research
• Technologiesand applications to advance the use of
distributed, networkedinformationof all types around the
nationand theworld.

GSDL
• Greenstone DigitalLibrary Software
• Released in 1999
• Developed by University of Waikato as part of New Zealand
DigitalLibrary Project
• Presentstable versions:
– Greenstone2: 2.86
– Greenstone 3: 3.07

EPrints
• Created in 2000 as a result of 1999 SantaFe meeting.
• Developed by University of Southampton
• First OAI-PMH compliant software
• Latest stable release 3.3.15 (December 2015)

DSpace
• First public version released in Nov. 2002
• Joint effort of MIT and HPLabs
• Consistentdevelopment
• Latest Stable version 5.5 (March 2016)

Fedora Commons
• FEDORA (Flexible ExtensibleDigital Object Repository
Architecture) was launched in 2003
• Developed by Cornell University.
• Latest stable release 4.1.0 (February 2015)

Invenio
• CERN DocumentServer Software
• Prior to 2006, it was calledCDSware
• Later renamed CDSInvenio
• Now, simply called “Invenio”