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The purpose of this paper is to provide a tutorial and survey on recent advances in multimedia networking from an integrated perspective of both video networking and building digital video libraries. The nature of video networking, coupled with various recent developments in standards, proposals and applications, poses great challenges to the research and industrial communities working in this area.

This paper presents an insightful analysis for recent and emerging multimedia applications in digital video libraries and on video coding standards and their applications in digital libraries. Emphasis is given on those standards and mechanisms that enable multimedia content adaptation fully interoperable according to the vision of Universal Multimedia Access vision.

The tutorial helps elucidate the similarities and differences among the considered standards and networking applications. A number of research trends and challenges are identified, and selected promising solutions are discussed. This practice would needle further thoughts on the development of this area and open-up more research and application opportunities.

The paper does not provide methodical studies of networking application scenarios for all the discussed video coding standards and Quality of Service (QoS) management mechanisms.

The paper provides an overview of which technologies/mechanisms are being used broadly in networking scenarios of digital video libraries. The discussed networking scenarios bring together video coding standards and various emerging wireless networking paradigms toward innovative application scenarios.

QoS mechanisms and video coding standards that support multimedia applications for digital video libraries need to become well-known by library managers and professional associations in the fields of libraries and archives. The comprehensive overview and critiques on existing standards and application approaches offer a valuable reference for researchers and system developers in related research and industrial communities.

The purpose of this paper is to present a framework applicable to interactive video retrieval. The objective of the framework is so that it can be applied conceptually for understanding users and use of video digital libraries, and also practically for designing retrieval components like user interfaces.

The framework was developed through a user-centered and analytical approach, and serves as an initial attempt at generalizing how users interact when searching and browsing digital video, throughout different situations, along with the general designs that can be supportive.

The framework is two-fold, yet, together, comprises one set of conceptual findings. The first component of the framework depicts generalized user interactions throughout varying contexts of an interactive video retrieval process, followed by a second component, an illustration of the resulting supportive interface designs or sets of features. Cautions from previous studies not to over generalize the interactive process were heeded.

The implications for such research are based on the understanding that video retrieval will benefit from the advancement of user-centered foundations, which can guide and support design decisions for resources like digital libraries.

The need for this study is rather straightforward: there is currently not enough conceptual research of interactive video retrieval from a user-centered perspective, which contrasts with other areas of information retrieval research where the interaction process has been thoroughly examined for a variety of domains and contexts with implications for different retrieval tools like OPACs, search engines, and article databases.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a user-centred analysis of video digital libraries and to present users’ criteria based on concepts emerging directly from the responses of study participants. As a time-based and multi-channeled format, video warrants considerations for information delivery through interactive tools such as digital libraries.

A survey method was used to collect open-ended responses from participants. Content analysis was performed on the responses, and categories then emerged to form the coding scheme where simple and weighted frequencies were calculated to obtain a ranked set of users’ criteria. Cohen’s κ was 0.87, indicative of high-level of inter-coder reliability. In the end, 81 participants contributed a total of 385 open-ended responses, which were all then analysed and coded.

The emergent coding method and continuous refinements to the coding scheme ultimately produced 28 criteria (subcategories) under four primary categories. Criteria corresponding to “retrieval functionality” of video digital libraries emerged as the highest, or most frequently referenced, primary category, while the “user interface”, “collection qualities”, and “user support” followed, respectively.

The primary research contribution is a baseline for video digital libraries that can be applicable throughout design and evaluation. Future studies can utilise findings presented here as guidance for the initial design stages and/or for assessing systems via targeted evaluations.

While users’ criteria of digital libraries have been analysed from non-visual contexts, they have not been directly assessed as they pertain to users’ experiences and perceptions with video, which is needed as the nature and structure of video can influence users and use.

The purpose of this study is to synthesize prior user-centered research to develop and present a generalized framework for evaluating visual, i.e. both image and video digital libraries. The primary objectives include comprehensively examining the current state of visual digital library research to: develop a generalized framework applicable for designing user-centered evaluations of visual digital libraries; identify influential experimental factors warranting assessment evaluation as part of specific contexts; and provide examples of applied methods that have been used in research, demonstrating notable findings.

The framework presented in the present study depicts a set of user-centered methodological considerations and examples, synthesized from a review of prior research that provides significant understanding of users and uses of visual information.

Primary components for digital library evaluation, pertaining to user, interaction, system and domain and topic, and their implications for interactive research are presented. Methods, examples and discussion are presented for each primary evaluation component of the framework.

Previously applied evaluations and their significance are described and presented as part of the developed framework, providing the importance of each component for practical application in future research and development of interactive visual digital libraries.

Visual digital libraries warrant individual assessment, apart from other types of digital collections, as they offer users more ways to retrieve and interact with collection items. The present study complements prior digital library evaluation research by demonstrating the need for a separate framework due to variations influenced by visual information and reporting on evaluations from different perspectives.

Purpose – This paper aims to provide an initial understanding of the constraints that historical video collections pose to video retrieval technology and the potential that online access offers to both archive and users. Design/methodology/approach – A small and unique collection of videos on customs and folklore was used as a case study. Multiple methods were employed to investigate the effectiveness of technology and the modality of user access. Automatic keyframe extraction was tested on the visual content while the audio stream was used for automatic classification of speech and music clips. The user access (search vs browse) was assessed in a controlled user evaluation. A focus group and a survey provided insight on the actual use of the analogue archive. The results of these multiple studies were then compared and integrated (triangulation). Findings – The amateur material challenged automatic techniques for video and audio indexing, thus suggesting that the technology must be tested against the material before deciding on a digitisation strategy. Two user interaction modalities, browsing vs searching, were tested in a user evaluation. Results show users preferred searching, but browsing becomes essential when the search engine fails in matching query and indexed words. Browsing was also valued for serendipitous discovery; however the organisation of the archive was judged cryptic and therefore of limited use. This indicates that the categorisation of an online archive should be thought of in terms of users who might not understand the current classification. The focus group and the survey showed clearly the advantage of online access even when the quality of the video surrogate is poor. The evidence gathered suggests that the creation of a digital version of a video archive requires a rethinking of the collection in terms of the new medium: a new archive should be specially designed to exploit the potential that the digital medium offers. Similarly, users' needs have to be considered before designing the digital library interface, as needs are likely to be different from those imagined. Originality/value – This paper is the first attempt to understand the advantages offered and limitations held by video retrieval technology for small video archives like those often found in special collections.

We are witnessing an explosion of digital information, some of it in unstructured repositories, some in still primitive digital libraries. This trend is certain to accelerate as the National Information Infrastructure (NII) and Global Information Infrastructure (GII) become a reality. Several digital library projects in the USA and abroad are in progress, with the goal of developing the enabling technologies for creating a single, integrated and “universal” library, composed of the large numbers of individual heterogeneous repositories. These include materials in personal information collections, collections in conventional libraries, and large data collections shared by scientists, engineers and other researchers. Six US institutions received funding for Digital Library Initiatives in the fall of 1994. In addition, the Library of Congress (LC) has a National Digital Library Project under way that is funded, in part, by private corporations and foundations to make some of its large text and image collections accessible via computer networks. Focuses on projects at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Illinois and the Library of Congress, including how these initiatives will affect the way image and text archives are organized as we enter the next century, and their implications for the international community. Addresses the following issues: how can we encourage global intellectual access and p articipation by our citizenry? How does one locate (“navigate”) information of interest in a very large, distributed and possibly disconnected collection of libraries and archives around the world? And how can we protect the intellectual property of authors and publishers and detect violations in this new information environment?

Profiles, in the first of a series, more recently established Open Archives Initiative (OAI) data providers whose content is not only “harvestable” by OAI service providers, and which offer open access to institutional and discipline information resources in a wide variety of publication and media formats. Looks at the Digital Library of the Commons; E‐LIS: E‐prints in Library and Information Science; INFOMINE; and the Open Video Project.

This article aims to examine how the interactions and perceptions of users from a defined domain, i.e. science education, vary across different groups of teachers while retrieving video. Given the prevalence of digital resources in use in education today, it is critical to assess users’ perspectives and experiences for retrieving information across different contexts and individual user groups.

Interactive search experiments with 28 users were performed. A pre-experiment questionnaire collected the demographic information used to form groups for comparison in the present study. Users attempted six experimenter-developed topics using a prototype video retrieval system; experimental measures were recorded, including all actions, completion rates, errors and durations. Users rated their experiences and levels of satisfaction with different aspect of the system after each search topic. Data analyses included mean comparisons across the different groups.

A variety of influences emerged from the results, including significant variations among teachers’ interactions, levels of satisfaction and expectations across different groups of users.

Understanding the interactions and perceptions when retrieving digital video provides insights for information professionals on how to better support the needs of different users. If systems are not taking into account users and context, there can be a mismatch between the needs of users and interactive systems, which can lead to low perceptions and further underuse of digital resources.

Although similar influences on digital libraries have been analysed in other contexts, they have not been directly assessed, as they specifically pertain to experiences with and perceptions of video.

The purpose of this paper is to examine perceived self-efficacy of users within an interactive video retrieval context. The motivation for this research includes that understanding self-efficacy will provide insight on how potential users target resources and in turn promote and sustain use of retrieval tools and systems.

A survey method was employed. In total, 270 participants rated levels of perceived self-efficacy for successfully fulfilling different video needs if using a particular system. Perceived self-efficacy was explored quantitatively, both overall and across different potentially influential factors, such as topic type, topic familiarity, system experience, and system context. In addition, open-ended responses on the survey were categorized through content-analysis and subsequently analyzed using weighted frequencies.

Findings demonstrated significant associations between participants’ perceived self-efficacy and different topical factors, including familiarity and topic type, and also system factors, such as exposure (or experience) and system context.

User confidence is one belief or attitude about technology acceptance, with self-efficacy intersecting multiple factors related to initial and sustained use of technologies. Findings give researchers a look at users’ preconceptions of interactive video retrieval situations, which, in turn, suggest positive implications for future research and design.

Video retrieval comprises considerations that are unique from other contexts due to the structure and physical makeup of video. However, until now, self-efficacy has not been directly examined in relation to video or according to several of the specific retrieval factors as explored in the current study, which is thus warranted.