Personal Digital Libraries

Abstract

This chapter presents the services and functionality that a personal digital library (PDL) system should provide. The chapter includes a reference architecture for supporting the characteristics and functionality of the personal digital library. In particular, a currently available project called PDLib is used as an example of this type of system. The authors address some of the particular problems that personal libraries impose with respect to the overall administration of personal collections of digital documents and how personal libraries may become a commodity and a way of social interaction. The chapter objective is to increase the research interests on personalized digital libraries and their usability in our daily live.