Jiri Rakosnik: Position Statement

I share the views of Ulf Rehmann and Thierry Bouche.

The DML-CZ is one of the many existing DMLs and digital archives. It has been intentionally restricted to the local production, i.e. to mathematical literature published in the Czech lands. Even though it is freely accessible online, its significance would be rather limited without interconnection with other DMLs. An important argument for launching the DML-CZ project was that it would be a small step towards the EuDML and WDML.

The core of the EuDML content can be accessed without any restriction. We believe that it has reached a critical mass to provide a sufficient “gravitational” effect to attract further content providers. This would be a good model for the WDML initiative as well. In this respect, the following issues are important:

• Interlinking – the individual DMLs should be interconnected with a seamless navigation, efficient search and other features that enhance a simple repository to a digital library.

• Validation – DML should preferably contain validated (refereed, officially published) literature, however,

• Universality – DML should be open to research papers, monographs, conference proceedings, theses, text-books, historiography, personalia, collected works etc.; generally, any kind of mathematics should be eligible, including computer science, applied mathematics (actually, how is it defined?) etc.

• No a priori “censorship” based on a vague idea what is mathematics – the decision what to include has to be left up to individual content providers, perhaps softly regulated by setting good practices.

• Clear vision of further development – it is important in order to coordinate efforts, to avoid repeating errors or even dead ends.

• Sharing technological development and providing support to new or “small” initiatives – not to reinvent the wheel.

• Open and sufficiently flexible platform should be supported that could be accepted by individual repositories and at the same time would allow further development without repeated migration to new systems.

• Services and enhancements should be offered which are attractive even for commercial publishers to provide their digital content to the DML under well defined conditions with the perspective of eventual open access.

• Sustainability – the WDML would need a strong aegis of a respected body (the IMU would the natural candidate, possibly with a support by some private subject); in any case, it should stay a non-commercial enterprise controlled by the mathematical community.