A Conceptual Model For Digital Libraries Evolution

The evolution and preservation of digital libraries are not simply a matter of technological decisions, but they can be better understood if treated as the integration of three complementary dimensions (based on the informational, technological and social domains). These dimensions together form a conceptual framework suitable to characterize the whole digital library concept.In this paper, starting from the experience and the lessons learned in the realization of the EU-India E-Dvara project, we propose such framework, providing motivational examples and discussing opportune solutions. More in particular, we discuss the issues concerned the technical infrastructure adaptation, the coordination of different user roles, and the data evolution in order to select the dimensions along which we base our framework.