19th March 1997

Building the Digital Research Library: Preservation and Access at the Heart of Scholarship

Peter S. Graham, Associate University Librarian, Rutgers University Libraries, New Jersey

The distinctive role of research libraries is the long-term provision of information. Building the digital research library requires managing several challenges that add to those we already have. The PostModernist intellectual culture is not as favourable to scholarship and the fixity of texts as have been past intellectual environments, those that George Steiner calls the 'bookish' cultures inaugurated by scholastic approaches of the 13th century.

But the preservation role continues for the digital library, and because of the technology must be managed from the earliest point possible in digital library object selection. The technological requirements to preserve information, now that it is separable from the artefact, require separate treatment of the medium, the technology and the content itself. The challenge of intellectual preservation is to guarantee integrity of malleable electronic information over periods of time longer than human lives; some techniques are available.

The nature of shareable, reusable electronic information continues the requirement for consortial activity; there are significant developments in this area, but not yet effective enough. Research libraries must both initiate practical development and help their parent institutions change to assure the continuity of scholarly capability.

[Biographical Note] : [Full Paper]