Essential elements for a digital library and its application in the Digital Library of Urban Agriculture

Objective. To elaborate an integrative proposal that reconciles notes and establishes foundations for the constitution of the Urban Agriculture Digital Library (UADL). Method. Using the Design Thinking methodology, this study searched for concepts and elements of digital libraries in seminal works on the subject: Arms (1995), Saracevic (2000), McCray and Gallagher (2001), Gonçalves et al. (2004), Vidotti and Sant'ana (2006) and Vicentini (2006). From the indications presented by the six papers evidenced. Results. It was identified, in all, eight elements that are essential to the concept of digital library and that, therefore, are preserved over time: data, metadata, information architecture, users, metrics, preservation, protocol and information services. These elements were applied in the planning and development of BDAU.