Concurrent with this interest has been a significant emphasis on the digital library (DL)
phenomenon in academic research. Over the past 11 years, there has been a
tremendous growth in the number of journals dedicated to discussion of digital
libraries (e.g. International Journal on Digital Libraries, D-Lib Magazine) and various
conferences aimed specifically for both professionals and academics working on digital
libraries (e.g. The International conferences on digital libraries (ICDL), the European
conferences on digital libraries (ECDL), the International conferences on Asian digital
libraries (ICADL), the Joint ACM/IEEE conferences on digital libraries).
Given the sheer volume of DL research publications built over the last 11 years, a
survey of the literature and an interpretation of this literature in the manner of a
meta-analysis are in order. The findings from such analysis would provide useful
information to guide future research into this increasingly important phenomenon