Collaborative Digital Library for Historical Resources: Defining the System's Artifacts using Zachman's Approach

This paper presents a preliminary work in the development and implementation of a collaborative digital library of historical resources for school projects by collaborating partners. The digital library aims to provide an electronic system to help educators as well as students obtain information on local history; collect, store and organize information in digital format; publish and share electronic resources; learn how to use IT to obtain historical information. It proposes a method to provide a structured way for the digital library enterprise to acquire the necessary knowledge about itself with respect to the Enterprise Architecture. The Zachman Framework, together with the Public Sector Reference Model, is used to help define the system’s artifacts, and which will help to investigate further the existing stake holder’s conditions and environment that would ensure the reception of a collaborative digital library for schools use. Surveys and interviews were conducted to investigate stakeholders’ readiness and reception to participate in the building of the digital library as content providers, developers and managers, as well to ascertain the basic features needed for the digital library. Preliminary findings indicated students’ need for a digital library and teachers’ willingness to participate in the development of the prototype.