This preprint of chapter 2 of Exploring Digital Libraries identifies and discusses a set of significant outcomes from the first decade of digital library research and practice (1991 to 2001). It describes accomplishments that set the dominant themes and continue to shape the field of digital libraries today. The chapter’s overall purpose is to offer a framework for understanding the productive work of thousands of people during that period, one that reveals the interplay of people (producers and providers of digital libraries); enabling technologies; and the collections, services and communities they support.

This preprint's final and definitive form was co-published in Exploring Digital Libraries: Foundations, Practice, Prospects by Facet Publishing (2014) and ALA Neal-Schuman (2014).