The DLF definition captures the sen

The DLF definition captures the senses and sentiments implicit in descriptions of digital libraries by other library agencies. The Library of Congress' American Memory project, for example, is part of a `national digital library'. Note the singular form `digital library' in reference to an institution that provides many individual resources. American Memory is a project creating digital collections of historical photographs and related materials and providing public access via the Internet (http://memory.loc.gov). It is similar to projects undertaken by other members of the DLF (http://www.clir.org/programs/diglib/diglib.html).

The California Digital Library (CDL) is a `tenth library' for the University of California,which has nine campuses (http://www.cdlib.org). Again we find the sense of an institution that o€ers services: ``it is responsible for the design, creation and implementation of systems that support the shared collections of the University of California''.

Funding for digital library projects in the United Kingdom is built upon a framework more similar to the DLF definition than to definitions arising from the U.S. digital libraries initiatives. Primary funding in the U.K. is provided by the Electronic Libraries (eLib) Program, which is a ``program of collaborative partnerships between libraries, academic sta€, publishers and others, to promote large scale pilot and demonstrator projects focusing on the components of a future electronic library service and to provide stimulus to its creation''. (Rusbridge,1998). ELib focuses on developing services rather than on basic research or enabling technologies. Libraries are the primary institutions involved, though eLib promotes partnerships with publishers, academic sta€ (university faculty in American parlance) and others.

Similarly, the summary report of the British Library's ``Initiatives for Access Programme'',entitled Towards the Digital Library, suggests a definition similar to that of the DLF(Carpenter, Shaw & Prescott, 1998). Mahoney, in an overview chapter, says: ``We were clear from the beginning that for The British Library, and probably for most libraries, being a digital library would emphatically not mean being an exclusively digital library'' (p. 11). Later,Mahoney implies that a digital library is a service: ``the issue of how one moves... towards a more integrated form of digital library provision'' (p. 17).

The above statement from the British Library highlights another problem with using the term `digital library' to refer to an institution. Libraries collect content based on the information needs of their user communities; the medium in which the content is captured is a secondary concern. By defining an institution in terms of the format of materials (digital content), then we risk distinguishing between print libraries, digital libraries, film libraries,audio libraries and so on. Librarians are not entirely comfortable with the term `digital library' to describe some future form of the institution, but have yet to propose a suitable alternative.