A Survey of Complex Object Technologies for Digital Libraries

Many early web-based digital libraries (DLs) had implicit assumptions reflected in their architecture that the unit of focus in the DL (frequently "reports" or "e-prints") would only be manifested in a single, or at most a few, common file formats such as PDF or PostScript. DLs have now matured to the point where their contents are commonly no longer simple files. Complex objects in DLs have emerged from in response to various requirements, including: simple aggregation of formats and supporting files, bundling additional information to aid digital preservation, creating opaque digital objects for e-commerce applications, and the incorporation of dynamic services with the traditional data files. We examine a representative (but not necessarily exhaustive) number of current and recent historical web-based complex object technologies and projects that are applicable to DLs: Aurora, Buckets, ComMentor, Cryptolopes, Digibox, Document Management Alliance, FEDORA, Kahn-Wilensky Framework Digital Objects, Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard, Multivalent Documents, Open eBooks, VERS Encapsulated Objects, and the Warwick Framework.

[1]  Paul Ginsparg,et al.  First steps towards electronic research communication , 1994 .

[2]  Eric Miller,et al.  An Introduction to the Resource Description Framework , 1998, D Lib Mag..

[3]  Thomas A. Phelps,et al.  Multivalent Documents: Anytime, Anywhere, Any Type, Every Way , 1998 .

[4]  Pierre Jouvelot,et al.  Semantic file systems , 1991, SOSP '91.

[5]  Kurt Maly,et al.  Buckets: smart objects for digital libraries , 2001, CACM.

[6]  Jeffrey B. Lotspiech,et al.  Safeguarding Digital Library Contents and Users: Storing, Sending, Showing, and Honoring Usage Terms and Conditions , 1998, D Lib Mag..

[7]  Robert Wilensky,et al.  Multivalent Annotations , 1997, ECDL.

[8]  Andreas Paepcke,et al.  Content Ratings and Other Third-Party Value-Added Information: Defining an Enabling Platform , 1995, D Lib Mag..

[9]  Thornton Staples,et al.  Virginia Dons FEDORA: A Prototype for a Digital Object Repository , 2000, D Lib Mag..

[10]  L Nelson Michael,et al.  Buckets, Clusters and Dienst , 1997 .

[11]  C. Lee Giles,et al.  Digital Libraries and Autonomous Citation Indexing , 1999, Computer.

[12]  David Bernstein,et al.  The DigiBox: A Self-Protecting Container for Information Commerce , 1995, USENIX Workshop on Electronic Commerce.

[13]  Amir Herzberg,et al.  Safeguarding Digital Library Contents: Charging for Online Content , 1998, D Lib Mag..

[14]  Carl Lagoze,et al.  Extending the Warwick Framework: From Metadata Containers to Active Digital Objects , 1997, D-Lib Magazine.

[15]  Terry Winograd,et al.  Shared Web Annotations as a Platform for Third-Party Value-Added , 1994 .

[16]  John S. Erickson.  Information Objects and Rights Management: A Mediation-based Approach to DRM Interoperability , 2001, D Lib Mag..

[17]  Andrew S. Grimshaw,et al.  ELFS: object-oriented extensible file systems , 1991, [1991] Proceedings of the First International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Information Systems.

[18]  James C. French,et al.  Extensible File Systems (ELFS): An Object-Oriented Approach to High Performance File I/O , 1994, OOPSLA.

[19]  Sandra Payette,et al.  Value-Added Surrogates for Distributed Content: Establishing a Virtual Control Zone , 2000, D Lib Mag..

[20]  Henry M. Gladney,et al.  Safeguarding Digital Library Contents and Users: Document Access Control , 1997, D Lib Mag..

[21]  Sandra Payette,et al.  A metadata architecture for digital libraries , 1998, Proceedings IEEE International Forum on Research and Technology Advances in Digital Libraries -ADL'98-.

[22]  William Y. Arms.  Key concepts in the architecture of the digital library , 1995, D Lib Mag..

[23]  Henry M. Gladney,et al.  Safeguarding Digital Library Contents and Users: Interim Retrospect and Prospects , 1998, D Lib Mag..

[24]  Christos Nikolaou,et al.  Towards a Common Infrastructure for Large-scale Distributed Applications , 1997, ECDL.

[25]  Carl Lagoze,et al.  The Warwick Framework: A Container Architecture for Diverse Sets of Metadata , 1996, D Lib Mag..

[26]  Stuart Weibel.  Metadata: the foundations of resource description , 1995, D Lib Mag..

[27]  William Y. Arms,et al.  An Architecture for Information in Digital Libraries , 1997, D Lib Mag..

[28]  Kurt Maly,et al.  Smart Objects and Open Archives , 2001, D Lib Mag..

[29]  Mic Bowman,et al.  Digital Libraries: The Next Generation in File System Technology , 1998, D Lib Mag..

[30]  Patrice A. Lyons,et al.  Representing Value as Digital Objects: A Discussion of Transferability and Anonymity , 2006, J. Telecommun. High Technol. Law.

[31]  Arjeh M. Cohen,et al.  Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) 2.0 , 1998 .

[32]  Ross Wilkinson,et al.  Preserving digital information forever , 2000, DL '00.

[33]  Clifford A. Lynch,et al.  The Battle to Define the Future of the Book in the Digital World , 2001, First Monday.

[34]  R. Mori,et al.  Superdistribution : the concept and the architecture , 1990 .

[35]  Robert Wilensky,et al.  Toward a model of self-administering data , 2001, JCDL '01.

[36]  Robert Wilensky,et al.  Multivalent documents: inducing structure and behaviors in online digital documents , 1996, Proceedings of HICSS-29: 29th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[37]  Robert Wilensky,et al.  Multivalent documents , 2000, CACM.

[38]  John S. Erickson.  A Digital Object Approach to Interoperable Rights Management: Finely-grained Policy Enforcement Enabled by a Digital Object Infrastructure , 2001, D Lib Mag..

[39]  C. Mic Bowman,et al.  A File System for Information Management , 1994 .

[40]  Dimitris Papadakis,et al.  A Framework for the Encapsulation of Value-Added Services in Digital Objects , 1998, ECDL.

[41]  Jeffrey B. Lotspiech,et al.  Safeguarding Digital Library Contents and Users: Assuring Convenient Security and Data Quality , 1997, D Lib Mag..

[42]  Mansour Zand,et al.  A survey of current object-oriented databases , 1995, DATB.

[43]  Matthew Haines,et al.  SmartFiles: an OO approach to data file interoperability , 1995, OOPSLA.

[44]  Stuart Weibel,et al.  The Warwick Metadata Workshop: A Framework for the Deployment of Resource Description , 1996, D Lib Mag..

[45]  Kurt Maly,et al.  Smart Objects, Dumb Archives: A User-Centric, Layered Digital Library Framework , 1999, D Lib Mag..

[46]  Clifford A. Lynch,et al.  The Warwick Framework: A Container Architecture for Aggregating Sets of Metadata , 1996 .

[47]  Sandra Payette,et al.  Policy-Carrying, Policy-Enforcing Digital Objects , 2000, ECDL.

[48]  Carl Lagoze,et al.  Distributed Active Relationships in the Warwick Framework , 1997, MD.

[49]  Carl Lagoze,et al.  A Design for Inter-Operable Secure Object Stores (ISOS) , 1995 .

[50]  Jack J. Dongarra,et al.  The Netlib Mathematical Software Repository , 1995, D Lib Mag..

[51]  Henry M. Gladney,et al.  Safeguarding Digital Library Contents and Users: Digital Images of Treasured Antiquities , 1997, D Lib Mag..

[52]  Carl Lagoze,et al.  NCSTRL: Design and deployment of a globally distributed digital library , 2000, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[53]  Amy Friedlander,et al.  D-Lib Magazine: Publishing as the Honest Broker , 1998 .

[54]  Sandra Payette,et al.  Flexible and Extensible Digital Object and Repository Architecture (FEDORA) , 1998, ECDL.

[55]  Carl Lagoze,et al.  Implementation Issues in an Open Architectural Framework for Digital Object Services , 1995 .

[56]  F. Yuan,et al.  SPONSORING / MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) , 1999 .

[57]  James C. French,et al.  High performance access to radio astronomy data: a case study , 1994, Seventh International Working Conference on Scientific and Statistical Database Management.

[58]  Sandra Payette,et al.  Interoperability for Digital Objects and Repositories: The Cornell/CNRI Experiments , 1999, D Lib Mag..