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Abstract:
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This paper illustrates the possibility of using an Enterprise Architecture as an
instrument for requirements analysis and evaluation in digital library development. The
collaborative digital library has been conceived to support secondary school students
information needs in conducting school-based projects. The researchers examine the
needs of digital library stakeholders and how a collaborative digital library might be
designed to meet these needs. Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture was
used as the approach to investigate the user requirements and define the digital library
organisation, resources, processes, technology and information flows. In applying
Zachman Framework and to holistically control the study, the case study approach and
multiple data collection techniques were adopted. Information obtained from these data
gathering techniques helps to populate the requirements of the top three layers (18 cells)
in Zachman Framework to ascertain the design details of the digital library’s scope,
business and system model. The framework abstracts the characteristics and features of
the digital library based on six dimensons, Motivation, Data, People, Process, Place and
Time, and explains their structures and processes from the perspectives of the planner,
owner and designer of the digital library. This paper provides the detailed mapping
between the first three layers of the Zachman cells and the dimensions utilized in
formulating the requirements and design of the collaborative digital library. It consists of
the various elements that a digital library should provide for as delineated in several
frameworks being conceptualized and described in digital library research since 1995 for
the design, development, and evaluation of digital libraries. Instead of listing the
elements as requirements, the researchers embed the requirement process and
development in an architectural framework, thus presenting it more systematically taking
into account the six digital library dimensions mentioned earlier |