Most work on digital libraries has focused on storage, retrieval, and display of digital forms of documents. A number of on-line software repositories have been developed that provide access to software and software artifacts. These document and software efforts have been mostly independent, with little attention paid to integrating the two types of libraries and to developing common principles for organization and operation.
This paper discusses the special characteristics and needs of
software repositories and describes how these needs have been
met by some existing repositories. These repositories include
Netlib [12][20],
the National HPCC Software Exchange [13],
and the GAMS Virtual Repository [8].
We also describe some systems that provide on-line access
to various types of scientific data.
Finally, we outline a proposal for integrating software and data repositories
into the world of digital document libraries, in particular
CNRI's ARPA-sponsored Digital Library project [26][28].