Digital libraries for education: Case studies

Abstract

Digital libraries may have extraordinary impact on education, especially in Asia where vast communities could benefit from improved teaching and learning. We highlight opportunities and challenges, drawing upon three case studies. Thus, we explore how CITIDEL, a discipline-specific Digital Library for Education (DLE), oriented toward computing, has evolved, and constitutes a part of the US National Science Digital Library (NSDL), which includes over 160 projects. By way of contrast, we describe the grass-roots and low-cost global movement toward electronic theses and dissertations led by NDLTD. Summarizing lessons learned from these case studies, we suggest ways forward so that DLEs in Asia may engage the diverse stakeholders whose serious involvement can ensure sustainable success.