Development of a medical digital library managing multiple collections

Abstract

Aims to present the authors’ efforts towards the development of a digital library environment supporting research at the Medical School of Athens University, Greece. D esign/m ethodology/approach — The digital library facilitates access to medical material produced by laboratories for both research and educational purposes. As the material produced varies (regarding its type and structure) and the search requirements imposed by potential users differ, each laboratory develops its own collection. All collections must be bilingual, supporting both Greek and English. Extended requirements were imposed regarding the services offered by the digital library environment, due to the following reasons: end-users actively participate in the cataloguing workflow; cataloguers should be able to create and manage multiple collections in a simplified manner; and different search requirements must be supported for different user groups. To formulate and then deal with these requirements, the authors introduced the term “dynamic collection management” denoting automated collection definition and unified collection management within an integrated digital library environment. Digital library components providing the desired functionality and the interaction between them are described. System performance, especially during collection search, and bilingual support are also explored. F in d in g s - Finds that Athens Medical School Digital Library facilitates access to medical material to researchers and students for both research and educational purposes. O riginality/value - The paper provides useful information on a digital library environment which supports research.