A Framework and an Architecture for Supporting Interoperability between Digital Libraries and eLearning Applications Polyxeni Arapi 1 , Nektarios Moumoutzis 1 , Manolis Mylonakis 1 , Stavros Christodoulakis 1 1 Laboratory of Distributed Multimedia Information Systems and Applications, Technical University of Crete (TUC/MUSIC), 73100 Chania, Greece {xenia, nektar, manolis, stavros}@ced.tuc.gr Abstract. One of the most important applications of Digital Libraries (DL) is learning. In order to enable the development of eLearning applications that easily exploit DL contents it is crucial to bridge the interoperability gap between DL and eLearning applications. For this purpose, a generic interoperability framework has been developed that could also be applied to other types of applications which are built on top of DL, although this paper focuses on eLearning applications. In this context, a framework for supporting pedagogy-driven personalization in eLearning applications has been developed that performs automatic creation of personalized learning experiences using reusable (audiovisual) learning objects, taking into account the learner profiles and a set of abstract training scenarios (pedagogical templates). From a technical point of view, all the framework components have been organized into a service-oriented A rchitecture that S upports I nteroperability between D igital Libraries and E Learning Applications (ASIDE). A prototype of the ASIDE Framework has been implemented. Keywords: Digital Libraries, eLearning, Interoperability, Personalization 1 Introduction Digital Libraries (DL) are an important source for the provision of eLearning resources [9]. However, digital library metadata standards and eLearning metadata standards have been developing independently, which has as result the existence of interoperability problems between digital libraries and eLearning applications. This is a complex and multi-level problem which is often encountered between digital libraries and several types of applications that run on top of digital libraries. It can be seen as coming from the existence of a stack of conceptual layers where each one is built on top of the previous one (left part of Fig. 1): There are different data representations, objects, concepts, domains, contexts and metacontexts in the layer stack that should be efficiently managed in a standardized way. Metadata models are languages that are used to represent the knowledge in a particular application area. Each metadata model is shown as a vertical bar on this stack to cover a specific region