OpenDLib: a digital library service system

OpenDLib is a software toolkit that can be used to create a digital library easily, according to the requirements of a given user community, by instantiating the software appropriately and then either loading or harvesting the content to be managed. OpenDLib consists of a federation of services that implement the digital library functionality making few assumptions about the nature of the documents to be stored and disseminated. If necessary, the system can be extended with other services to meet particular needs. The main focus of the paper is the openness and extendibility of the system. This feature has been obtained by applying a systematic approach to the design of the toolkit. A model of the system architecture has been defined in order to support this aproach. The paper presents OpenDLib through this model.