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Francis L. Miksa and Philip Doty
Graduate School of Library and Information Science, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1276, {franmiks, pdoty}@uts.cc.utexas.edu
The question is asked, "Why should a digital library be called a 'library'?" Three aspects of the traditional library as a collection of information sources in a place are examined in order to shed light on their meaning to a digital library. The idea of a collection is examined from the standpoint of both pragmatic and necessary boundaries. The idea of information sources is examined from the standpoint of a source's "work" attributes and of the incommensurateness of such works in a collection. And the idea of the library in a place is examined from the standpoint of logical space. While no final conclusions are drawn, the three concepts provide a basis for considering similar issues in the digital library.
Keywords: Digital library, library, library collections, information resources, intellectual organization, Incommensurate data, work (intellectual entity).
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