Clifford A. Lynch, “Some Technical and Economic Issues in the Design of a National Library for Undergraduate Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology Education,” Developing a Digital National Library for Undergraduate Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology Education: Report of a Workshop (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1998), pp. 90-93.
Introduction
This paper briefly summarizes my view of some of the key issues that would be involved in designing a national digital library to serve undergraduate education in science, mathematics, engineering and related fields. It also tries to emphasize unique characteristics of such an undergraduate-focused library which differentiate it from many existing digital library research efforts, such as those being carded out under the auspices of the ARPA/NASA/NSF Digital Library program. The paper ranges widely over technical, economic, content, and user issues: at this early stage in the conceptualization of such an undergraduate library it is very difficult to separate the issues cleanly or to understand how choices in one area will dictate requirements and approaches in others.
This paper briefly summarizes my view of some of the key issues that would be involved in designing a national digital library to serve undergraduate education in science, mathematics, engineering and related fields. It also tries to emphasize unique characteristics of such an undergraduate-focused library which differentiate it from many existing digital library research efforts, such as those being carded out under the auspices of the ARPA/NASA/NSF Digital Library program. The paper ranges widely over technical, economic, content, and user issues: at this early stage in the conceptualization of such an undergraduate library it is very difficult to separate the issues cleanly or to understand how choices in one area will dictate requirements and approaches in others.