JCDL

Welcome to JCDL 2003! This is the third in a series of IEEE-CS/ACM joint conferences on digital library research and development. The joint conference brings together the diversity and range of two well-established digital library conferences, ACM DL and IEEE ADL, to provide a major international forum focusing on digital libraries and associated technical, practical, theoretical, and social issues. A decade of progress from the field's early days is readily apparent in the impressive cross-institutional and interdisciplinary collaborations, as well as in the growing number of digital libraries that represent real collections in everyday use. Befitting the conference's beautiful venue, Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, the opening paper session is one about music and digital libraries and runs the gamut from ethnography to algorithms. Other sessions tackle the formidable problem of creating metadata and managing digital resources and services. Humanities digital libraries <\m> collections representing cultural heritage and museum artifacts <\m> stand alongside scientific and business digital libraries. As always, education and evaluation are vital parts of the conference program. This year, there were 216 submissions from 21 countries. From 91 full papers and 77 short papers, the program committee selected 23 full papers and 32 31 short papers for presentation at the conference; these papers have been revised according to the reviewers' thoughtful comments and are included in the proceedings. The full papers were each assigned to 4 reviewers and the short papers to 3. As in past years, we will be awarding the Vannevar Bush Best Paper Award, sponsored by Knowledge Systems and its president Rob Akscyn, to the paper chosen by the program committee as this year's standout from a set of 23 already outstanding papers. Nominees will be announced at the opening session of the conference and the award will be presented at the banquet.