Proposta metodologica e architetturale per la gestione distribuita e condivisa di collezioni di documenti digitali

The authors address the foundations of Digital Libraries in order to envisage an innovative system architecture able to manage physically distributed archives in a conceptually integrated environment. In order to propose such a conceptual system architecture, the role of metadata for sharing information in a distributed environment is faced together with an analysis of Digital Libraries, Digital Library Systems, and Digital Library Management Systems for the management of integrated collections of digital documents that are originated in libraries, archives, and other types of production institutions. Different aspects related to the design of an archival description system in a distributed environment are considered. A matter of peculiar interest is that of metadata, so different types of metadata, their uses and sharing are presented together with the analysis of the “Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH)”, which is a relevant international initiative that gives directions for the management and sharing of different types of metadata in a distributed environment.