The 2008 ECDL Doctoral Consortium was held on Sunday, 14 September 2008 in Åarhus, Denmark. An international collection of 7 PhD students had an opportunity to present their proposed theses to a group of 5 senior faculty/researchers. The students were invited to join the Doctoral Consortium following their submission of extended abstracts that were reviewed by the mentoring faculty and researchers. The day was lively, with students discussing innovative and promising research that will build a foundation for their future research well beyond the completion of their doctoral degrees. Mentors provided feedback and probed the theses that were presented, helping students to think more deeply about their work and how to scope their task in a way that would allow them to make a significant contribution to the field of digital libraries while still being able to finish their degrees in a reasonable time.

Following the student presentations and discussions, Brewster Kahle, Director and co-Founder of the Internet Archive, joined us to lead the group in a lively brainstorming session of future digital library projects. By the end of the afternoon, there was a simultaneous invigoration and mental exhaustion! The day was nothing short of magical and provided increased motivation for the students to complete their research and get their degrees.

It has been a year since these papers were first presented and some of the students have, indeed, completed their dissertations and successfully defended them to earn their PhD. It was exciting to meet up with them at ECDL 2009 in Corfu, Greece and hear their paper presentations as active members of the digital library community. They have uniformly expressed their appreciation for the guidance they received during the 2008 doctoral consortium and have noted that it made a difference in their being able to shape their research so it was more meaningful (and could be completed in a reasonable time!).

We hope you’ll enjoy the papers of those who chose to submit final versions to TCDL for publication. The participants in the consortium were:

Students:
José Barateiro, Kai Eckert, Claudia Huff, Veronica Johansson, Leonidas Konstantelos, Paul Landwich, and Alia Amin Faculty/Researcher

Mentors:
Ingeborg Sølvberg (co-chair), Geneva Henry (co-chair), George Buchanan, Joyce Ray, and Rudi Schmiede, and

Guest Speaker:
Brewster Kahle