The paper discusses the design, development and evaluation of a task-based digital library, the Digital Work Environment (DWE), for the academic community of higher education institutions (HEI) with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, as a test case. Three different information organisation approaches (alphabetical, subject category and task-based) were used to organise the wide range of heterogeneous information resources that were interfaced to DWE. A user evaluation study using a series of task scenarios was carried out to gauge the effectiveness and usefulness of DWE and these information organisation approaches. The time taken by respondents to identify and access the relevant information resources for individual tasks was also measured. The findings show that the task-based approach took the least time in identifying information resources. Regression analysis of information resource location time with gender, age, computer experience and digital resource experience of the participants are also reported.

Recent proliferation of research in digital libraries has given rise to a number of working digital libraries around the world. These digital libraries have been defined, designed and developed differently and therefore the experience that one might have from one particular digital library might not be the same with other digital libraries. Current status of 20 digital libraries around the world: twelve from the USA, three from the UK, two from Australia, one from New Zealand, one from Singapore and one from Canada, has been reviewed. Various features of these selected digital libraries were collected from their home pages, journal articles and the information published on the World Wide Web. The parameters used to study the chosen digital libraries include: contents, type of library, organisation, user interface, access, information retrieval, search features, output format and links to other Internet resources. While some of the chosen digital libraries cater for specific subject or document format, others play the role of digital as well as virtual libraries, giving access to the local digital collection as well as remote collections accessible through the Web. While most of these digital libraries have been developed for use in-house or by authorised users, some digital libraries are globally accessible. The chosen digital libraries differ in terms of the information search and output facilities; very few have the facility to store search histories. Only four digital libraries have books in electronic form: National Library of Canada in general area, GUTENBERG in subject-specific area and SETIS and Carnegie Mellon University in special collection areas. The review confirms that while digital libraries to date have been quite useful, there is need for further improvements in terms of user interfaces and information facilities. Additionally, this study reveals that two different types of digital libraries are likely to emerge in future. The first are subject- and document-specific digital libraries that will cater for specific subjects and types of information, like digital video, maps, photographs and paintings, theses, and so on. The second are hybrid libraries that will link the traditional libraries with its online public access catalogue (OPAC), CD-ROM and online databases to the world of digital libraries and virtual libraries or gateways. The provision of personalised information services is an emerging trend in digital libraries to provide the next higher level of functionality to support users’ specific information needs and preferred search and retrieval strategies.

Recent proliferation of research in digital libraries has given rise to a number of working digital libraries around the world. These digital libraries have been defined, designed and developed differently and therefore the experience that one might have from one particular digital library might not be the same with other digital libraries. Current status of 20 digital libraries around the world: twelve from the USA, three from the UK, two from Australia, one from New Zealand, one from Singapore and one from Canada, has been reviewed. Various features of these selected digital libraries were collected from their home pages, journal articles and the information published on the World Wide Web. The parameters used to study the chosen digital libraries include: contents, type of library, organisation, user interface, access, information retrieval, search features, output format and links to other Internet resources. While some of the chosen digital libraries cater for specific subject or document format, others play the role of digital as well as virtual libraries, giving access to the local digital collection as well as remote collections accessible through the Web. While most of these digital libraries have been developed for use in-house or by authorised users, some digital libraries are globally accessible. The chosen digital libraries differ in terms of the information search and output facilities; very few have the facility to store search histories. Only four digital libraries have books in electronic form: National Library of Canada in general area, GUTENBERG in subject-specific area and SETIS and Carnegie Mellon University in special collection areas.The review confirms that while digital libraries to date have been quite useful, there is need for further improvements in terms of user interfaces and information facilities. Additionally, this study reveals that two different types of digital libraries are likely to emerge in future. The first are subject-and document-specific digital libraries that will cater for specific subjects and types of information, like digital video, maps, photographs and paintings, theses, and so on. The second are hybrid libraries that will link the traditional libraries with its online public access catalogue (OPAC), CD-ROM and online databases to the world of digital libraries and virtual libraries or gateways. The provision of personalised information services is an emerging trend in digital libraries to provide the next higher level of functionality to support users' specific information needs and preferred search and retrieval strategies. 50 1 2

An architecture of a prototype digital work environment (DWE), designed to lead users of an academic community to the required information resources based on their tasks, is proposed. The important aspects of the DWE include the identification of information resources available in the academic environment, the various categories of users and the tasks associated with each category of users. Digital information resources include full-text articles, databases, theses and dissertations, e-journals, e-books, multimedia databases, etc. Other information resources, e.g. university course calendars, university statutes, course registration information, thesis and dissertation guidelines, style guides, etc, are also needed by users of an academic community.As these information resources are spread across different servers and in different home pages, academic users find it difficult to obtain the needed information for their work in a desired format at the right time. A prototype DWE has been designed using the School of Computer Engineering at Nanyang Technological University as an example of such an environment. The DWE provides links to various information resources according to users' needs, as well as a personal workspace to record/store the user's publications, frequently used or favourite hyperlinks and references or notes. Various stages of the prototype design and development are described and future work on DWE are highlighted. 50 1 2

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