The library will also keep tabs on the images in the collection. Assuming that such search techniques can be peffected, the ultimate goal will be to weave together many different kinds of libraries containing both text and nontext items into giant, multimedia libraries. Although the search software for different kinds of items may vary, says Terry Winograd, principal investigator for a consortium based at Stanford University, the user shouldn't have to worry about that. Besides the sheer power of having access to so much information, digital libraries offer another, potentially greater capability, says Bruce Schatz of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and the University of Illinois, who is principal investigator for the Illinois project. At most, a reader might write in the margins of a library book and thus offer something to future readers, but otherwise the information was fixed.
Digital libraries offer a way for the users to play an active role.
The simplest way will be to offer annotating capabilities. Like the scribbler in a library book, users will be able to write notes to themselves and offer comments and extra information to any later user who wants to see what predecessors have added. Both the Illinois and Berkeley teams plan to offer this capability in their libraries. A user who discovers an interesting relation between items will be able to set up links between them so that later users who called up one article would be referred to the others. Ultimately, Schatz says, users should be able to add to the library themselves.