This paper discusses an Australian perspective of digital library economics.
Introduction: definition and scope
In 1998 the Digital Library Federation offered the following definition of digital libraries : Digital libraries are organizations that provide the resources, including the specialized staff, to select, structure, offer intellectual access to, interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of, and ensure the persistence over time of collections of digital works so that they are readily and economically available for use by a defined community or set of communities .(Council on Library and Information Resources,1998)
This definition emphasises that a digital library, like any library, is more than a mere aggregation of information resources: it is a service which is based on principles of selection, acquisition, access, management and preservation, related to a specific client community (Cathro, 1999). Thus any analysis of the economic aspects of digital libraries wil