INFORMATION RELIABILITY

It seems inevitable that the class of works available through digital libraries will include electronic-only publications, ephemeral and unreviewed materials and even fabricated or counterfeit matter. The ease of publishing on the Internet combined with the absence of traditional methods for evaluating reliability makes it likely that library users will be retrieving works of questionable authenticity and value. Issues concerning the Internet and digital materials include:

• Reliability. How can a user (or an automated agent) evaluate the reliability of digital materials? What information must be maintained about the source of the item and its creator to facilitate a decision?
• Version control. How can changes made to a document be tracked and the appropriate catalog entries updated?
• Archiving. What assurance can there be that the digital materials will be retained somehow in their original form for an indefinite period?
• Authenticity. How can the genuineness of materials be assured?
• Reviews. The system should allow the user to scan reviews of the retrieved work and then add his own reviews or comments to a database.
• Citations. How may a user readily learn which works have cited the retrieved work, either favorably or unfavorably?