Digital Libraries and the Problem of Purpose
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Abstract of the article:
"Which way ought we to go in digital library research and development? This too depends on where we want to get to. But in this case who is we? Where are we trying to get to? And how have we come to decide that this where (whatever it is) is where we ought to be? These are the millennial, the big picture, questions I want to pose to the digital library community as the calendar turns. My hope, as the title of these remarks suggests, is to introduce and reflect on the "problem of purpose" in digital libraries. The term is due to Patrick Williams, who in The American Public Library and the Problem of Purpose [10], documents the various attempts of American public libraries over the past nearly one hundred fifty years to identify and solidify their purpose -- to figure out where they were trying to get to. I’ll start by reviewing the problem of purpose in American public libraries and American academic/research libraries before turning to digital libraries."