Fourth workshop on very large digital libraries

This article introduces the reasons why VLDLs cannot be simply regarded as very large databases storing Digital Library (DL) content, as one may be tempted to assess. In fact, as the Reference Model for Digital Libraries well justifies, DL systems cannot be approached from the perspective of content management only; the dimensions of user, functionality, policy, quality, and architecture management are equally important. Accordingly, DLs become Very Large DLs (VLDLs) when any one of these aspects reaches a magnitude that requires specialized technologies or approaches.