A Service for Supporting Virtual Views of Large Heterogeneous Digital Libraries

This paper presents an innovative type of digital library basic architectural service, the Collection Service, that supports the dynamic construction of customized virtual user views of the digital library. These views make transparent to the users the real DL content, services and their physical organization. By realizing the independency between the physical digital library and the digital library perceived by the user the Collection Service also creates the conditions for services optimization. The paper exemplifies this service by showing how it has been instantiated in the Scholnet and Cyclades digital library systems.