The goal of the Alexandria Project is to develop a user-friendly digital library system providing a full range of services in relation to collections of maps, images, and spatially-referenced information that are dispersed geographically over a number of sites. To this end, we propose to design, develop and test a distributed, high-performance digital library of spatially-indexed information that is stored in digital form. The system will permit users to access library collections electronically, by means of both text and visual interfaces. Such interfaces will support operations that include accessing, browsing and retrieving specific items. Furthermore, librarians will be provided with facilities that enable them both to extend their collections of appropriately formatted materials and to add meta-information concerning new additions to their electronic catalogue.
In general, the research and development that we are proposing represents a major step towards the evolution of a digital library that supports both textual and spatially-indexed sources of information that is truly distributed in terms of both source materials and users; and that is scalable to the national level. The Alexandria project began as an initiative of the UCSB Map and Image Laboratory before the appearance of the Digital Libraries solicitation. Our proposal, therefore, represents a natural extension of efforts to convert a relatively small number of successful map and imagery libraries from operations that are essentially manual and independent, into operations that are digitized and fully-integrated.
The main output of the Alexandria Project will be a distributed test-bed system that will be a fully-operational digital library. Major components of an initial architecture for the proposed system include a user interface that supports simple access to the library services by means of a combination of textual and visual languages and by means of strong browse capabilities; a catalogue component that provides rapid and appropriate response to user queries, particularly those involving content-based search, with the use of various index structures and meta-information; a storage component that provides storage capability for, and high-speed access to, large collections of digital maps, images, and text by means of secondary and tertiary storage devices; and an ingest component that permits librarians and systems managers to incorporate new items into the library collection, by use of a variety of procedures that include digitizing, (re)formatting, and the extraction of catalogue information. Each of the major components has a network interface subcomponent providing protocols for communication over a wide area network. The testbed system will be composed of subsystems that are distributed over a number of sites and is comprised of various configurations of the four components.
The completion of a testbed system that possesses such a comprehensive architecture and that satisfies both the user requirements and the performance criteria that are described in this proposal clearly requires the completion and coordination of a relatively large number of basic research and development tasks. Tasks of central importance in the early stages of the project include a comprehensive study of user requirements concerning library access to images and spatially-referenced information collections, as well as the development of a sound system architecture that supports such access. Tasks of great importance throughout the life of the study include the design and testing of these components and their integration into a high-performance system; the incorporation into the system of several important and widely-used collections of images and spatially-indexed information; and the evaluation of the performance of the system in providing our users with services that are comprehensive and easy to use.
The research and development team that we have assembled at UCSB is uniquely qualified to complete successfully such a complex system. In particular, we are proposing a closely coordinated and collaborative effort that involves a strong and complementary set of research groups and other organizations that, together, possess the relevant expertise and experience that is required to support the design, development and evaluation of a digital library system for image and spatially-referenced information. The research and development team includes: