Digital Library Architecture

Major problems of digital library design are caused by differences within the computer systems, file structure, formats, information organization, and different information retrieval requirements of collections (such as e-journals, e-books, reference sources, online courseware, GIS, etc.) accessible through the digital library. While the web has emerged as the preferred media of information delivery and access, the use of standards and protocols makes it possible to make digital collections interoperable and accessible seamlessly. Some of the important features that should be considered while designing a digital library architecture are as follows

 Open Architecture: Architecture Open refers to computer architecture or software architecture that permits adding, upgrading, and swapping components or software modules. As against open architecture, software and hardware with closed architecture have pre-defined modules or components that are not generally upgradable.

 Open architecture allows potential users to ascertain inside all or parts of the architecture without any proprietary constraints. . Digital library design
should use open architecture and a set of well-defined standards and protocols so as to facilitate scalability and interoperability.

Scalability, Extensibility, and Sustainability: Scalability, extensibility, and sustainability are the three most important design features of a digital library that addresses the issue of the ability of a digital library to handle the increased volume of digital objects and its ability to sustain it for an extended period of your time. The digital library design should ensure that the program should be able to handle a large quantity of data, and hardware and network should be scalable to handle a large quantity of digital objects and their transmission over the network. Moreover, digital library design and planning should provide for human and financial resources required for sustaining the digital library on a long-term basis.

Digital Library Architecture

 Seamless Access: It should provide transparent, seamless, and platform-independent access to a distributed array of information resources to users.

 Interoperability: Interoperability addresses the issue of the ability of digital libraries and its components to work together effectively in order to exchange information in a useful and meaningful manner. The use of open architecture and a set of well-defined standards and protocols ensure interoperability amongst heterogeneous digital libraries in a distributed environment.

 Federation: Federation refers to the distribution of responsibilities for content creation, administration, and management of many functions and services of digital libraries. It agreed needs to be ensured that the participants follow the standards, technologies, and tools.

 Digital Preservation:  Digital library architecture must ensure persistent and long-term access to its collection.

 Modularity: it’s a design approach that adheres to four fundamental tenets of high binding, self-containment, encapsulation, and cohesiveness to design a system the component as an independently operable unit.

 Platform Independence: The architecture digital library should be platform-independent both at the hardware and software level.

 The multiplicity of Files & Formats: Digital library should be able to handle multiple files and formats such as unstructured/structured text, audio, video, images, graphics, animation, etc.

 Location-independent Identifiers: Digital objects in the digital library should support location-independent identifiers like handles, PURLs, DOI, and OpenURL.

Key Components: Design and  Digital Library Architecture  Different digital libraries have their own underlying architecture and design. For the five key components as shown in the figure, Most of the digital library architectures are provided.

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