Critical Technological and Architectural Choices for Access and Preservation in a Digital Library Environment.

This paper describes some basic architectural choices for the access to and preservation of digital objects at the National Library of Norway. A digital repository is a core element for the handling of both access to and preservation of the digital objects. Strategies for giving access to the complete holdings include the use of a powerful search engine and the OAI protocol to harvest metadata from conventional catalog systems to make textual or structured indexes. The following basic objectives for developing a digital library at the National Library are outlined: to offer powerful digital library services adapted to user expectations and needs; to handle access to and preservation of large amounts of digital data with a variety of properties; to collaborate with other institutions on user services as well as the handling of access to and preservation of digital objects; and to let other service providers make value added services which include resources from the digital collections at the library. (Author/AEF)