Evolving a Digital Library Environment to the Changing Needs of its Users

A digital archive, together with its users and its contents, does not exist in isolation - there is a cycle of activities which provides the context for the archive's existence. In arguing for the broadening of the traditional view of digital libraries as merely collections towards the processes of collecting and deploying we have developed an "extended" digital library environment for orthopaedic surgeons which bridges the gap between the undertaking of experimental work and the dissemination of its results through electronic publication. However, in embracing such an approach, we must also consider that the archive should be able to evolve in accordance with the changing needs of its users --- we cannot predict in advance the myriad different types of experiment that future users will want to carry out. This paper therefore discusses our recent efforts in addressing this is sue through the implementation of a user-oriented Template Generation Toolkit.