DELOS: a Network of Excellence on Digital Libraries

Digital libraries represent a new infrastructure and environment that has been made possible by the integration and use of a number of IC technologies, the availability of digital content on a global scale and a strong demand from users who are now online. They are destined to become an essential part of the information infrastructure in the 21st century.On the basis of these considerations, our 10-year grand vision for digital libraries is the following: digital libraries should enable any citizen to access all human knowledge any time and anywhere, in a friendly, multi-modal, efficient and effective way, by overcoming barriers of distance, language, and culture and by using multiple Internet-connected devices. The new generation digital libraries should not just be seen as static information repositories but as growing, interactively, and collaboratively used nuclei of what will be, at some stage, a good part of human knowledge that depends as much on information as on communication.The challenges and opportunities that motivate advanced digital library initiatives are associated with this view of the digital library environment.In recent years, a large number of digital library systems have been developed. However, each system is typically built from scratch and develops its own techniques, focusing on a specific type of information or services, and addressing the needs of a specific application domain. After this first experience, it has become clear that the future of digital libraries goes beyond what these initial efforts may indicate individually.It is time for generic digital library technology to be developed and incorporated into industrial-strength Digital Library Management Systems (DLMSs), offering advanced functionality through reliable and extensible services.The main objective of the DELOS network is thus to define and conduct a joint program of activities (JPA) in order to integrate and coordinate the ongoing research activities of the major European research teams in the field of digital libraries for the purpose of developing the next generation digital library technologies. The implementation of an integrated programme of this type will make the accomplishment of our grand vision for digital libraries feasible.Another main objective of the DELOS network is to integrate research activities carried out in a number of related fields crucial for the development of the next generation of digital libraries with ongoing research activities in the digital library field itself.