As libraries increasingly look to give their collections a strong digital presence, many of the librarians involved come from traditionally technical services oriented areas: catalogers, systems librarians, web developers, and database specialists. Collaboration between representatives of public services, collection development, and technical services is essential to develop successful digital libraries. These three groups bring a variety of perspectives to the table, including knowledge of collections and context, familiarity with users and their needs, and the technical and organizational skills to effectively apply metadata and build interfaces. This article discusses five key elements to developing strong digital libraries, and illustrates how a carefully developed user interface to a digital collection, coupled with good metadata, can approximate a number of other interfaces with which library patrons are already familiar. (Contains 7 notes.)