Digital libraries in the atmospheric sciences: a practical academic perspective

The term "digital library" is frequently used today, but often without a clear idea of what the term really means as there is no one universally accepted definition. A "digital library" might be anything from a stack of floppy disks to a comprehensive global information management environment. Regardless of the definition, it is clear that it is becoming increasingly urgent to deal with issues involving the storage, management and access to the vast volumes of observational, derived and simulation data that we are producing in exponentially growing quantities. This article will attempt to provide an overview of some of these issues from the perspective of the academic atmospheric sciences community and in terms of what is practical to accomplish in the next few years.