Designing an Integrated Digital Library Framework to Support Multiple Heterogeneous Collections

Athens University recently initiated a digital collection development project to provide enhanced educational capabilities. Collections vary in terms of the material included and the requirements imposed by potential users. In order to simplify collection management and promote collection interoperability, a common Digital Library platform should be employed to support all collections. In order to deal with the extended requirements imposed, Athens University has decided to support an integrated Digital Library framework for multiple heterogeneous digital collections development. The most important requirements imposed by the University's collections are discussed in this paper, along with the characteristics of the Folklore Collection, one of the most complex and diverse ones. In order to evaluate available Digital Library systems, the Folklore Collection has been chosen as a guide for the development of two prototype implementations using Fedora and DSpace. Conclusions drawn from their comparison and the proposed integrated Digital Library architecture based on Fedora are also presented.