In the dLibra system, objects are stored in so-called directories. They can also be grouped in so-called group objects. Besides, independently from that grouping, each digital object can be “planned”, “normal”, or “removed”. Below, we present detailed information about storing digital objects.

Object Properties

Objects in the dLibra system have various properties, such as: name of the item, description of the item, or administrative data concerning the item. Each property can also be multilingual or language-independent, and required or optional. The “Object Properties in the dLibra System” supplement.

Multilingual Properties

If a property is language-independent, it is only specified once (because it does not depend on the language). If a property is multilingual, it means that it can be specified in any number of languages (the used languages are defined by the administrator of the library). One example of a language-independent property is the directory name. Directories are created by an editor to put the document set in hierarchical order. It is an internal order (just for the editors of the documents), which means that the directories are only seen by the editors – website readers do not have access to them. Since the directory is an internal element for the editors, there is no need to give it a multilingual name. One example of a multilingual (language-dependent) property is the collection name. Collection names are presented on the website, so it is recommended that they be specified in all the languages in which the portal is available (for example, in Polish and in English).

Object Metadata

Some objects in the dLibra library can be described with the use of a defined attribute (field) set called metadata schema. The basic metadata schema in the dLibra library is PLMET (compliant with Dublin Core 1.1). That item (field/attribute) set can be modified. The values of object attributes are taken into account when the library is being browsed and are crucial for identifying particular resources. The metadata schema defines, in practice, the descriptive elements in the system. In the case of the default schema (PLMET), they are such data as: author, title, date of publication, or publisher.

The objects with metadata are:

• planned publication,
• edition,
• group publication, and
• directory.

Other Library Resources

Apart from library content (that is, resources), the dLibra system manages such resources as system users or user groups. Those resources are discussed in detail in the subsequent chapters of this documentation.