n-demand service deployment and process support in e-science DLs: the DILIGENT experience

Digital libraries are nowadays conceived as integrated tools promoting knowledge creation and consuming. They are moving far from the connotation of the term library to become co-operative environment supporting all the actors involved in the whole process of knowledge management. Moreover, due to the different application contexts these systems must be applied, a novel and flexible development process is needed. This paper focuses on the DI L I GE NT approach where the Digital Libraries are created on-demand by promoting resources sharing and where complex DL applications can be supported by the on-demand, application-specific combination of basic services. The presentation discusses the technical solution by presenting the system architecture providing details about its key component and reports on its ongoing exploitation to fulfil the application scenario arising in the Earth Observation application context.