The university e-libraries: The foreign experience

The experience of foreign digital libraries of the universities of Marburg (Germany), Chalmers (Sweden) and Graz (Austria) is discussed. The structure of the libraries being reviewed comprises six key elements of DELOS conceptual model, i. e. content, users, functionality, quality, policy, and architecture. The Marburg University Library cooperates with many German libraries and possesses vast collections and resources of various types, both it owns and shares with other libraries. The e-library of Chalmers University of Technology is based on the service-oriented Central Knowledge Database comprising paper and digital collections of full texts and metadata being administered with data import-export applications on the Discovery platform. The Graz Library is the bibliographic and information center; it supports scientific research and learning with literature in printed and digital formats, and preserves the cultural heritage in natural sciences and technology. Based on the review of the mentioned digital libraries, the author concludes that Russian libraries must study the foreign experience to develop the model of an inter-university digital library