Digital libraries: Assumptions and concepts

This paper clarifies some terms and concepts surrounding the idea of the 'digital library'. A set of twenty underlying assumptions, often expressed implicitly rather than explicitly in the literature, is outlined, and variant forms are compared. There follows an explication of a series of terms, essential to the understanding of the concept of the digital library and its components, which are often used nebulously or with different meanings. It is suggested that the lack of a common conceptual framework for the subject presents problems for the practitioner as well as the theorist.