Link of Official Website of  Goutam Biswas

 http://www.goutambiswasresearch.yolasite.com/

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2. Biswas, G & Paul, D. (2008, December 10-13). NewGenLib, The First Indian Open Source Software: a Study of Its Features And Comparison With Other Software. Conference Proceeding, 23rd National Seminar of IASLIC held at Bose Institute on Library Profession in Search of a New Paradigm, Kolkata, Special Publication No.48, PP 333-340, ISSN- 09723668.

3. Biswas, G. (2009). Changing Role of Librarians in Digital Era and Need of Professional skills, Efficiency & Competency. In Library & Information Services in Changing Era, Edited by S.K Patil: Department of Library and Information Science and Jayakar Library Pune University, Pune, PP-128-136.

4. Biswas, G & Paul, D, (2009). Open Source Resource for Library and Information Centre for their Service. In Libray and Information technology: Driving Management Education. Edited by Dr. Shailedra Kumar, New Delhi: Vayu Education of India, New Delhi, PP-31-37. ISBN-978-93-80097-08-04.

5. Biswas, G & Paul, D. (2009, May 11-13). Knowledge Management in the Digital Era. Paper presented at the Convention on knowledge resource in India: special reference to Jammu and Kashmir State. Organized by Allama Iqbal Library, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India.

6. Biswas, G & Paul, D. (2009). A study on open source integrated library management software: special reference to NewGenLib. In Information Access Initiatives and Rural India, Edited by Dr. H.S. Chopra: Shree Publisher and Distributor, New Delhi, Vol-2, PP-511-524. ISBN- 9788-1832936-86.

7. Biswas, Goutam et al. (2009). A semantic web service based middleware for E- Governance. In Information Access Initiatives and Rural India, Edited by Dr. H.S. Chopra: Shree Publisher and Distributor, New Delhi, Vol-2, PP-678-689. ISBN- 9788-18-32936-86.

8. Biswas, Goutam (2009, December 18-19). Digital Library Service at Higher Education in India. Paper Presented at Two days UGC Sponsored National Level Conference, DLIS, Smt. L.R.T College of Commerce in collaboration with Vidrabha Library Association, Akola.

9. Biswas, G & Pandey, A. (2009, December 26-29). Study on the information seeking behavior of the students at University of Kalyani, West Bengal, India. Paper Presented at 24th IASLIC National Conference, KIIT University, Bubeneswar, Orissa.

10. Biswas, G & Paul, D. (2010, February 15-17). RFID Technology is the Revolution in Library Automation System: implicated at National Institute of Technology, Silchar, Assam. Paper Presented at 11th Annual National Convention of Manibnet, Siva Sivani Institute of Management, Secendarbad, Andra Pradesh.

11. Biswas, G & Paul, D. (2010, 23-26 February). An Evaluative Study on the Open Source Digital Library Softwares for automation of libraries: special reference to Dspace and Greenstone Digital Library. Paper Presented at International Conference on Digital Library (ICDL), New Delhi.

12. Biswas, G,(2011). The Study on the Open Source Digital Library Softwares for Institutional Repository in India: a Survey.Paper Presented at International Conference CALIBER,Goa University, Goa, India.

Full Length Paper

 History of Library and information centre

 Goutam Biswas

Email: goutambiswas8@gmail.com

Mobile: +91 9831092149

A library and information centre is a collection of sources, resources, and services, and the structure in which it is housed: it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In the more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books. The term can mean the collection, the building that houses such a collection, or both.

Public and institutional collections and services may be intended for use by people who choose not to — or cannot afford to — purchase an extensive collection themselves, who need material no individual can reasonably be expected to have, or who require professional assistance with their research.

However, with the sets and collection of media and of media other than books for storing information, many libraries are now also repositories and access points for maps, prints, or other documents and various storage media such as microform (microfilm/microfiche), audio tapes, CDs, cassettes, videotapes, and DVDs. Libraries may also provide public facilities to access CD-ROMs, subscription databases, and the Internet.

Thus, modern libraries are increasingly being redefined as places to get unrestricted access to information in many formats and from many sources. In addition to providing materials, they also provide the services of specialists, librarians, who are experts at finding and organizing information and at interpreting information needs.

More recently, libraries are understood as extending beyond the physical walls of a building, by including material accessible by electronic means, and by providing the assistance of librarians in navigating and analyzing tremendous amounts of knowledge with a variety of digital tools.

·     Early history

o       Antiquity

The first two libraries were composed for the most part, of published records, a particular type of library called archives. Archaeological findings from the ancient city-states of summer have revealed temple rooms full of clay tablets in cuneiform script. These archives were made up almost completely of the records of commercial transactions or inventories, with only a few documents touching theological matters, historical records or legends. Things were much the same in the government and temple records on papyrus of Ancient Egypt.

The earliest discovered private archives were kept at Ugarit; besides correspondence and inventories, texts of myths may have been standardized practice-texts for teaching new scribes. There is also evidence of libraries at Nippur about 1900 B.C. and those at Nineveh about 700 B.C. showing a library classification system.

Over 30,000 clay tablets from the Library of Ashurbanipal have been discovered at Ninevah, providing archaeologists with an amazing wealth of Mesopotamian literary, religious and administrative work. Among the findings were the Enuma Elish , also known as the Epic of Creation, which depicts a traditional Babylonian view of creation, the Epic of Gilgamesh, a large selection of “omen texts” including Enuma Anu Enlil which “contained omens dealing with the moon, its visibility, eclipses, and conjunction with planets and fixed stars, the sun, its corona, spots, and eclipses, the weather, namely lightning, thunder, and clouds, and the planets and their visibility, appearance, and stations.”, and astronomic/astrological texts, as well as standard lists used by scribes and scholars such as word lists, bilingual vocabularies, lists of signs and synonyms, and lists of medical diagnoses.

·        Libraries in Persian Empire

During the Achaemenid Persian Empire (558–330 BC) the religious and scientific books of Persia since Zoroaster, were archived in the libraries of “Ganj-i-hapigan” in Takht-i-Suleiman and “Dez-i-Napesht” in Persepolis.These books were probably in the fields of philosophy, astronomy, alchemy and medical sciences, the fields in which Magus of Persia were master in. After the invasion of Persia by Alexander the Great all these books were burned. It has been mentioned in the book Arda Viraf that:

“He came to Persia with severe cruelty and war and devastation… and destroyed the metropolis and empire, and made them desolate… all the avesta and zand, written upon prepared cow-skins and with gold ink, was deposited in the archives… he burned them up.”

·        Libraries in the Hellenic world and Rome

Private or personal libraries made up of non-fiction and fiction books (as opposed to the state or institutional records kept in archives) appeared in classical Greece in the 5th century BC. The celebrated book collectors of Hellenistic Antiquity were listed in the late second century in Deipnosophistae:

Polycrates of Samos and Pisistratus who was tyrant of Athens, and Euclides who was himself also an Athenian and Nicorrates of Samos and even the kings of Pergamos, and Euripides the poet and Aristotle the philosopher, and Nelius his librarian; from whom they say our countryman Ptolemæus, surnamed Philadelphus, bought them all, and transported them, with all those which he had collected at Athens and at Rhodes to his own beautiful Alexandria.

All these libraries were Greek; the cultivated Hellenized diners in Deipnosophistae pass over the libraries of Rome in silence. By the time of Augustus there were public libraries near the forums of Rome: there were libraries in the Porticus Octaviae near the Theatre of Marcellus, in the temple of Apollo Palatinus, and in the Biblioteca Ulpiana in the Forum of Trajan. The state archives were kept in a structure on the slope between the Roman Forum and the Capitoline Hill.

Private libraries appeared during the late republic: Seneca inveighed against libraries fitted out for show by non-reading owners who scarcely read their titles in the course of a lifetime, but displayed the scrolls in bookcases (armaria) of citrus wood inlaid with ivory that ran right to the ceiling: “by now, like bathrooms and hot water, a library is got up as standard equipment for a fine house (domus). Libraries were amenities suited to a villa, such as Cicero’s at Tusculum, Maecenas’s several villas, or Livy the Younger’s, all described in surving letters. At the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, apparently the villa of Caesar’s father-in-law, the Greek library has been partly preserved in volcanic ash; archaeologists speculate that a Latin library, kept separate from the Greek one, may await discovery at the site.

In the West, the first public libraries were established under the Roman Empire as each succeeding emperor strove to open one or many which outshone that of his predecessor. Unlike the Greek libraries, readers had direct access to the scrolls, which were kept on shelves built into the walls of a large room. Reading or copying was normally done in the room itself. The surviving records give only a few instances of lending features. As a rule Roman public libraries were bilingual: they had a Latin room and a Greek room. Most of the large Roman baths were also cultural centers, built from the start with a library, with the usual two room arrangement for Greek and Latin texts.

Libraries were filled with parchment scrolls as at Library of Pergamum and on papyrus scrolls as at Alexandria: export of prepared writing materials was a staple of commerce. There were a few institutional or royal libraries which were open to an educated public (like the Library of Alexandria, once the largest library in the ancient world), but on the whole collections were private. In those rare cases where it was possible for a scholar to consult library books there seems to have been no direct access to the stacks. In all recorded cases the books were kept in a relatively small room where the staff went to get them for the readers, who had to consult them in an adjoining hall or covered walkway.

In the sixth century, at the very close of the Classical period, the great libraries of the Mediterranean world remained those of Constantinople and Alexandria. Cassiodorus, minister to Theodoric, established a monastery at Vivarium in the heel of Italy with a library where he attempted to bring Greek learning to Latin readers and preserve texts both sacred and secular for future generations. As its unofficial librarian, Cassiodorus not only collected as many manuscripts as he could, he also wrote treatises aimed at instructing his monks in the proper uses of reading and methods for copying texts accurately. In the end, however, the library at Vivarium was dispersed and lost within a century.

Through Origen and especially the scholarly presbyter Pamphilus of Caesarea, an avid collector of books of Scripture, the theological school of Caesarea won a reputation for having the most extensive ecclesiastical library of the time, containing more than 30,000 manuscripts: Gregory Nazianzus, Basil the Great, Jerome and others came to study there.

With education firmly in Christian hands, however, many of the works of classical antiquity were no longer considered useful. Old texts were washed off the valuable parchment and papyrus, which were reused, forming palimpsests. As scrolls gave way to the new book-form, the codex, which was universally used for Christian literature, old manuscript scrolls were cut apart and used to stiffen leather bindings.

By the middle of the second century BC, Rome also boasted rich library resources. Initially comprised of some scattered private collections, holdings eventually expanded through the spoils of war. Even Aristotle’s famed collection was among the bounty.

Julius Caesar dreamed of establishing a public library in Rome, but his vision was cut short by his assassination. After Caesar’s death, Asinius Pollio acquired the requisite funds to make the dream a reality. The library was divided into two sections – one for Greek and one for Latin, serving as a model for subsequent Roman libraries. Great statues adorned the walls. Books, typically acquired through donations by authors and others, as well as through copying, were placed along the walls and readers consulted them in the middle of the room. This marked a distinct departure from the Greek model, where readers could only consult their books in an atrium away from the rest of the collection.

·        Ancient Chinese libraries

Little is known about early Chinese libraries, save what is written about the imperial library which began with the Qin Dynasty. One of the curators of the imperial library in the Han Dynasty is believed to have been the first to establish a library classification system and the first book notation system. At this time the library catalog was written on scrolls of fine silk and stored in silk bags.

·        Islamic libraries

In Persia many libraries were established by the Zoroastrian elite and the Persian Kings. Among the first ones was a royal library in Isfahan. One of the most important public libraries established around 667 AD in south-western Iran was the Library of Gundishapur. It was a part of a bigger scientific complex located at the Academy of Gundishapur. Upon the rise of Islam, libraries in newly Islamic lands knew a brief period of expansion in the Middle East, North Africa, Sicily and Spain. Like the Christian libraries, they mostly contained books which were made of paper, and took a codex or modern form instead of scrolls; they could be found in mosques, private homes, and universities. In Aleppo, for example the largest and probably the oldest mosque library, the Sufiya, located at the city’s Grand Umayyad Mosque, contained a large book collection of which 10,000 volumes were reportedly bequeathed by the city’s most famous ruler, Prince Sayf al-Dawla. Some mosques sponsored public libraries. Ibn al-Nadim’s bibliography Fihrist demonstrates the devotion of medieval Muslim scholars to books and reliable sources; it contains a description of thousands of books circulating in the Islamic world circa 1000, including an entire section for books about the doctrines of other religions. Unfortunately, modern Islamic libraries for the most part do not hold these antique books; many were lost, destroyed by Mongols, or removed to European libraries and museums during the colonial period.

By the 8th century first Iranians and then Arabs had imported the craft of papermaking from China, with a paper mill already at work in Baghdad in 794. By the 9th century completely public libraries started to appear in many Islamic cities. They were called “halls of Science” or dar al-’ilm. They were each endowed by Islamic sects with the purpose of representing their tenets as well as promoting the dissemination of secular knowledge. The 9th century Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil of Iraq, even ordered the construction of a ‘zawiyat qurra literally an enclosure for readers which was `lavishly furnished and equipped.’ In Shiraz Adhud al-Daula (d. 983) set up a library, described by the medieval historian, al-Muqaddasi, as`a complex of buildings surrounded by gardens with lakes and waterways. The buildings were topped with domes, and comprised an upper and a lower story with a total, according to the chief official, of 360 rooms…. In each department, catalogues were placed on a shelf… the rooms were furnished with carpets…’ The libraries often employed translators and copyists in large numbers, in order to render into Arabic the bulk of the available Persian, Greek, Roman and Sanskrit non-fiction and the classics of literature. This flowering of Islamic learning ceased centuries later when learning began declining in the Islamic world, after many of these libraries were destroyed by Mongol invasions. Others were victim of wars and religious strife in the Islamic world. However, a few examples of these medieval libraries, such as the libraries of Chinguetti in West Africa, remain intact and relatively unchanged even today. Another ancient library from this period which is still operational and expanding is the Central Library of Astan Quds Razavi in the Iranian city of Mashhad, which has been operating for more than six centuries.

A number of distinct features of the modern library were introduced in the Islamic world, where libraries not only served as a collection of manuscripts as was the case in ancient libraries, but also as a public library and lending library, a centre for the instruction and spread of sciences and ideas, a place for meetings and discussions, and sometimes as a lodging for scholars or boarding school for pupils. The concept of the library catalogue was also introduced in medieval Islamic libraries, where books were organized into specific genres and categories.

The contents of these Islamic libraries were copied by Christian monks in Muslim/Christian border areas, particularly Spain and Sicily. From there they eventually made their way into other parts of Christian Europe. These copies joined works that had been preserved directly by Christian monks from Greek and Roman originals, as well as copies Western Christian monks made of Byzantine works. The resulting conglomerate libraries are the basis of every modern library today.

·        Medieval Christian libraries

With the retrenchment of literacy in the Roman west during the fourth and fifth centuries, fewer private libraries were maintained, and those in unfortified villas proved to be among their most combustible contents.

In the Early Middle Ages, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and before the rise of the large Western Christian monastery libraries beginning at Montecassino, libraries were found in scattered places in the Christian Middle East.

Medieval library design reflected the fact that these manuscripts —created via the labor-intensive process of hand copying— were valuable possessions. Library architecture developed in response to the need for security. Librarians often chained books to lecterns, armaria (wooden chests), or shelves, in well-lit rooms. Despite this protectiveness, many libraries were willing to lend their books if provided with security deposits (usually money or a book of equal value). Monastic libraries lent and borrowed books from each other frequently and lending policy was often theologically grounded. For example, the Franciscan monasteries loaned books to each other without a security deposit since according to their vow of poverty only the entire order could own property. In 1212 the council of Paris condemned those monasteries that still forbade loaning books, reminding them that lending is “one of the chief works of mercy.”

Lending meant more than just having another work to read to librarians; while the work was in their possession, it could be copied, thus enriching the library’s own collecion. The book lent as a counter effort was often copied in the same way, so both libraries ended up having an additional title.

The early libraries located in monastic cloisters and associated with scriptoria were collections of lecterns with books chained to them. Shelves built above and between back-to-back lecterns were the beginning of book presses. The chain was attached at the fore-edge of a book rather than to its spine. Book presses came to be arranged in carrels (perpendicular to the walls and therefore to the windows) in order to maximize lighting, with low bookcases in front of the windows. This stall system (fixed bookcases perpendicular to exterior walls pierced by closely spaced windows) was characteristic of English institutional libraries. In Continental libraries, bookcases were arranged parallel to and against the walls. This wall system was first introduced on a large scale in Spain’s El Escorial.

·        Early modern libraries

Johannes Gutenberg’s movable type innovation in the 1400s revolutionized bookmaking. From the 15th century in central and northern Italy, the assiduously assembled libraries of humanists and their enlightened patrons provided a nucleus around which an “academy” of scholars congregated in each Italian city of consequence. Cosimo de Medici in Florence established his own collection, which formed the basis of the Laurentian Library. In Rome, the papal collections were brought together by Pope Nicholas V, in separate Greek and Latin libraries, and housed by Pope Sixtus IV, who consigned the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana to the care of his librarian, the humanist Bartolomeo Platina in February 1475. In the 16th century Sixtus V bisected Bramante’s Cortile del Belvedere with a cross-wing to house the Apostolic Library in suitable magnificence. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw other privately-endowed libraries assembled in Rome: the Vallicelliana, formed from the books of Saint Filippo Neri, with other distinguished libraries such as that of Cesare Baronio, the Biblioteca Angelica founded by the Augustinian Angelo Rocca, which was the only truly public library in Counter-Reformation Rome; the Biblioteca Alessandrina with which Pope Alexander VII endowed the University of Rome; the Biblioteca Casanatense of the Cardinal Girolamo Casanate; and finally the Biblioteca Corsiniana founded by the bibliophile Clement XII Corsini and his nephew Cardinal Neri Corsini, still housed in Palazzo Corsini in via della Lungara.

A lot of factors combined to create a “golden age of libraries” between 1600 and 1700: The quantity of books had gone up, as the cost had gone down, there was a renewal in the interest of classical literature and culture, nationalism was encouraging nations to build great libraries, universities were playing a more prominent role in education, and renaissance thinkers and writers were producing great works. Some of the more important libraries include the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the Library of the British Museum, the Mazarine Library in Paris, and the National Central Library in Italy, the Prussian State Library, the M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library of St. Petersburg, and many more.

·        Public libraries

The Public Library of Police County in Police, a town in Pomerania, Poland Main article: Public library

The earliest example in England of a library to be endowed for the benefit of users who were not members of an institution such as a cathedral or college was the Francis Trigge Chained Library in Grantham, Lincolnshire, established in 1598. The library still exists and can justifiably claim to be the forerunner of later public library systems. The beginning of the modern, free, open access libraries really got its start in the U.K. in 1847. Parliament appointed a committee, led by William Ewart, on Public Libraries to consider the necessity of establishing libraries through the nation: In 1849 their report noted the poor condition of library service, it recommended the establishment of free public libraries all over the country, and it led to the Public Libraries Act in 1850, which allowed all cities with populations exceeding 10,000 to levy taxes for the support of public libraries. Another important act was the 1870 Public School Law, which increased literacy, thereby the demand for libraries, so by 1877, more than 75 cities had established free libraries, and by 1900 the number had reached 300. This finally marks the start of the public library as we know it. And these acts led to similar laws in other countries, most notably the U.S.

1876 is a well known year in the history of librarianship in the United States. The American Library Association was formed, as well as The American Library Journal, Melvil Dewey published his decimal based system of classification, and the United States Bureau of Education published its report, “Public libraries in the United States of America; their history, condition, and management.” During the post-Civil War years, there was a rise in the establishment of public libraries, a movement led chiefly by newly formed women’s clubs. They contributed their own collections of books, conducted lengthy fundraising campaigns for buildings, and lobbied within their communities for financial support for libraries, as well as with legislatures and the Carnegie Library Endowment founded in the 20th century. They led the establishment of 75-80 percent of the libraries in communities across the country. The American Library Association continues to play a major role in libraries to this day, and Dewey’s classification system, although under heavy criticism of late, still remains the prevailing method of classifying used in the United States.

As the number of books in libraries increased, so did the need for compact storage and access with adequate lighting, giving birth to the stack system, which involved keeping a library’s collection of books in a space separate from the reading room. This arrangement arose in the 19th century. Book stacks quickly evolved into a fairly standard form in which the cast iron and steel frameworks supporting the bookshelves also supported the floors, which often were built of translucent blocks to permit the passage of light (but were not transparent, for reasons of modesty). The introduction of electrical lighting had a huge impact on how the library operated. The use of glass floors was largely discontinued, though floors were still often composed of metal grating to allow air to circulate in multi-story stacks. As more space was needed, a method of moving shelves on tracks (compact shelving) was introduced to cut down on otherwise wasted aisle space.

Library 2.0, a term coined in 2005, is the library’s response to the challenge of Google and an attempt to meet the changing needs of users by using web 2.0 technologies. Some of the aspects of Library 2.0 include, commenting, tagging, book marking, discussions, using social software, plug-ins, and widgets. Inspired by web 2.0, it is an attempt to make the library a

·        Library use

The Vietnam Center and Archive, which contains the largest collection of Vietnam War-related holdings outside the U.S. federal government, catalogs much of its material on the Internet.

Patrons may not know how to fully use the library’s resources. This can be due to some individuals’ unease in approaching a staff member. Ways in which a library’s content is displayed or accessed may have the most impact on use. An antiquated or clumsy search system, or staff unwilling or untrained to engage their patrons, will limit a library’s usefulness. In United States public libraries, beginning in the 19th century, these problems drove the emergence of the library instruction movement, which advocated library user education. One of the early leaders was John Cotton Dana. The basic form of library instruction is generally known as information literacy.

Libraries inform their users of what materials are available in their collections and how to access that information. Before the computer age, this was accomplished by the card catalog — a cabinet containing many drawers filled with index cards that identified books and other materials. In a large library, the card catalog often filled a large room. The emergence of the Internet, however, has led to the adoption of electronic catalog databases (often referred to as “webcats” or as online public access catalogs, OPACs), which allow users to search the library’s holdings from any location with Internet access. This style of catalog maintenance is compatible with new types of libraries, such as digital libraries and distributed libraries, as well as older libraries that have been retrofitted. Electronic catalog databases are criticized by some who believe that the old card catalog system was both easier to navigate and allowed retention of information, by writing directly on the cards, that is lost in the electronic systems. This argument is analogous to the debate over paper books and e-books. While libraries have been accused of precipitously throwing out valuable information in card catalogs, most modern ones have nonetheless made the move to electronic catalog databases. Large libraries may be scattered within multiple buildings across a town, each having multiple floors, with multiple rooms housing the resources across a series of shelves. Once a user has located a resource within the catalog, they must then use navigational guidance to retrieve the resource physically; a process that may be assisted through signage, maps, GPS systems or RFID tagging.

Finland has the highest number of registered book borrowers per capita in the world. Over half of Finland’s population is registered borrowers. In the U.S., public library users have borrowed roughly 15 books per user per year from 1856 to 1978. From 1978 to 2004, book circulation per user declined approximately 50%. The growth of audiovisuals circulation, estimated at 25% of total circulation in 2004, accounts for about half of this decline.

Reference:

 1.Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org

2.http://www.history-magazine.com/libraries.html

Some Useful Resources for Library and Information Professionals in India

By Goutam Biswas   

  Email: goutambiswas8@gmail.com

• International Coalition of Library Consortia – ICOLC (http://www.library.yale.edu/consortia/)
  
• Copyright related resources maintained at the Copyright Clearance Center Inc. (http://www.copyright.com/CopyrightResources/default.asp)
• Liblicense – Licensing digital information: A resource for librarians (http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/index.shtml)

I am providing here information and links to a few key resources of interest to the library and information professionals in India. Objective is to facilitate professional communication and development. If you wish to suggest any additions to this page, please let me know.

Free E-Journals Resource lists
Indian Discussion Forums, List Services Free Software
L&I Websites and Portals Licensing, IPR, Consortia

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Free E-Journals/ Newsletters:

D-Lib Magazine (http://www.dlib.org/) – D-Lib Magazine is a monthly magazine about innovation and research in digital libraries.
Journal of Digital Information (http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/) – E-journal publishing papers on the management, presentation and uses of information in digital environments

Information Research: An international electronic journal (http://informationr.net/ir/) – Information Research is a free, international, scholarly journal, dedicated to making freely accessible the results of research across a wide range of information-related disciplines.
Journal of Electronic Publishing. (http://www.press.umich.edu/jep) – The Journal of Electronic Publishing is for the thoughtful forward-thinking publisher, librarian, scholar, or author — in fact, anyone in this new business — facing those challenges.
Current Cites (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/) – monitors information technology literature in both print and digital forms, each month selecting only the best items to annotate for a free publication.
Ariadne (http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/) – The Ariadne newsletter is aimed at working librarians in academic libraries in the UK.
First Monday (http://www.firstmonday.dk/) – One of the first peer-reviewed journals on the Internet, about the Internet and the Global Information Infrastructure.
Free Online Scholarship Newsletter (http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/index.htm) – The purpose of the newsletter is to share news and discussion on the migration of print scholarship to the internet and efforts to make it available to readers free of charge.
Free Pint (http://www.freepint.com/) – Free Pint is a free email newsletter giving you tips, tricks and articles on how and where to find reliable Web sites and search more effectively.
Information Today and Tomorrow (ITT) (http://itt.nissat.tripod.com/) – Quarterly newsletter from NISSAT.
Digital libraries – a column in Library Journal by Roy Tennant, Manager, eScholarship Web & Services Design, California Digital Library
Bibliozine – the e-magazine for librarians. (http://www.bibliozine.com/index.shtml)
RLG DigiNews. Produced for RLG by the Cornell University Libraries Department of Preservation and Conservation, RLG DigiNews is a bimonthly Web-based newsletter focused on issues of vital interest to managers of digital initiatives. (http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/)
Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship (http://www.library.ucsb.edu/istl/) – A quarterly publication of the Science and Technology Section, Association of College and Research Libraries, USA.
ITPapers.com (http://www.itpapers.com/) – Yellow pages of white papers. Covers several categoires, including libraries.
Australian Academic & Research Libraries (http://www.alia.org.au/sections/ucrls/aarl/) – Quarterly journal devoted to all aspects of librarianship in university and college libraries.
THE INFORMED LIBRARIAN ONLINE (http://www.infosourcespub.com/) THE INFORMED LIBRARIAN is a monthly compilation of the most recent tables of contents from over 180 valuable domestic and foreign library and information-related journals, e-journals, magazines,e-magazines, newsletters and e-newsletters.
Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/index.html).
Information Today (http://www.infotoday.com/it/itnew.htm) Information industry news services for the information professional.
LIBRES – Library and Information Science Research Electronic Journal (http://libres.curtin.edu.au/).
Journal of Information, Law and Technology (http://elj.warwick.ac.uk/jilt/).

For other free/ partially free e-journals and newsletters in the information field, consult the list maintained by Prof. Tom Wilson at InformationR.Net

Indian discussion forums, list services

LIS-Forum – Discussion forum for library and information professionals in India
Submissions: lis-forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in
List info: http://ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/mailman/listinfo/lis-forum
IATLIS – Indian Association for Teachers in Library and Information Science discussion forum
Submissions: iatlis@yahoogroups.com
List info: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iatlis/
Corporatelibrns ? An interactive forum for corporate librarians
Submissions: corporatelibrns@yahoogroups.com
List info: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/corporatelibrns/
Digital Libraries: India
Submissions: digilib_india@yahoogroups.com
List info: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digilib_india/

NMLIS – New Millennium LIS Professionals
Submissions: nmlis@yahoogroups.com
List info: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nmlis/
INDIA-LIS – The INDIA-LIS is a Library and Information Science in India Mailing List
Submissions: india-lis@infoserv.inist.fr
List info: http://infoserv.inist.fr/wwsympa.fcgi/info/india-lis

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L&I websites and portals:

Aeroinfo (http://www.cmmacs.ernet.in/nal/icast/) – Information portal for aerospace engineering
Delnet (http://www.delnet.nic.in/) – Delhi Library Network
Inflibnet (http://www.inflibnet.ac.in/) – Information & Library Network Centre
Infolibrarian (http://www.infolibrarian.com/) – infolibrarian.com gives all possible information required by the library professionals in India and abroad
MylibNet (http://www.mylibnet.org/) – Mysore Library Network
SciGate (http://www.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/) – The IISc Science information portal
Unesco Libraries Portal (http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_bib/) – An international information gateway for librarians and library users.
Vidyanidhi (http://www.vidyanidhi.org.in/) – Digital library of Indian theses and dissertations.
[Top]
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Resource lists:

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography (http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html)
This selective bibliography presents over 1,500 articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources
that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet.

Electronic Resources for Information Research Methods (http://informationr.net/rm/)
World List of Departments and Schools of Information Studies, Information Management, Information Systems, etc.(http://informationr.net/rm/)
Digital Information Services in Enterprises: A Resource List of Case Studies, Best Practices, White Papers, Guides and Standards (http://scigate.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/raja/is214/214-2001-2002/resources.htm)

Email. goutambiswas8@gmail.com

Now the age of open source movement.Open Source software has great role of library automation because particularly country like third world faced a lot of money problem,so ti has play vital role to automated the library and information center.The phrase “do-it-yourself” brings a number of pictures and images to mind. I see a young child insisting loudly, “I can do it myself.” I also think of library patrons looking for do-it-yourself books and video materials on many subjects including landscaping, home remodeling, and automobile repair. Some choose the do-it-yourself route out of stubborn independence (the young child), while others choose it out of frugality (library patrons), but there are some who choose it because they have an innovative idea. In describing those who are driven by innovation, I would say that they are often risk-takers. In the words of an Apple ad campaign from several years ago, they “think different.” In a more eloquent statement by Robert Frost in his famous poem, “The Road Not Taken,” they take “the one less traveled by.”
For librarians working with automated systems, it can be scary to embark on a do-it-yourself project. There was an old saying in business that no one ever was fired for choosing IBM. That statement now probably would be modified to say that no one ever was fired for choosing Microsoft Windows. In the early days of library automation, vendors offered turnkey systems that bundled hardware and software, promising computer-shy librarians that these systems would practically run themselves. While current library automation systems are more complex and generally require you to design and manage your own network, it still seems safer to choose an established library automation vendor whose product runs on a Windows network.
At the Monroeville Library, we selected an established vendor for our new automation system, but we did not follow the usual conventions in setting up our network. Instead of being Windows-based, we set up a Macintosh network with Xserves, iMacs, eMacs, and Airport base stations. No network is ever perfect right from the start, and there have been some problems to solve. However, some problems, such as virus infections and the need for frequent security updates, have been fewer. There has also been some resistance from those who are uncomfortable with change. As the person responsible for managing and maintaining the network, I feel that this Mac implementation has made my job easier.
Choosing Macintosh over Windows was a much smaller risk than those taken by other librarians who wholeheartedly have been “do-it-yourselfers,” implementing open source automation projects in their libraries. Those librarians who have taken giant steps in innovation can encourage those who are only taking small steps by sharing their successes. Many pioneers in library automation have documented their projects on the Web, so librarians looking for inspiration (and maybe a little push to try something new) have only to turn to their colleagues on the Web.
What Is Open Source and Why Are We Interested?
Before turning to colleagues for information on their open source projects, it may be helpful to learn more about the topic. One place to start is the Open Source Initiative Web site. The Open Source Initiative, also known as OSI, defines itself as a “non-profit corporation dedicated to managing and promoting the Open Source Definition for the good of the community.” Site visitors can learn about the OSI certification mark and program, read about successful open source software products, access current news on open source, and subscribe to an announcements mailing list.
Armed with a basic understanding of open source, you can begin to contemplate the possibilities and to learn from librarians who have already begun open source projects. Over the last several months I have been watching WebJunction develop and grow as an online community for librarians to exchange ideas about using technology. Each month WebJunction chooses a focus topic; a recent one was open source, and the materials collected at that time are still available on the site. Librarians who have just begun to explore open source might want to begin with the group of articles prepared by WebJunction to provide technical overviews and a discussion of basic concepts. These include “What is Open Source Software?” by the Gates Foundation’s Ed Sargent, “Open Source Application Primer” by Eric Lease Morgan, and “Open Source Library Systems: Getting Started” by Dan Chudnov.
WebJunction’s focus on open source also includes Reports from the Field from locations as far away as New Zealand, the University of Windsor, and, based on my location, as close as Meadville Public Library in Meadville, Pa. In these reports, the librarians involved in the decision to use open source explain the reasons for their choices and the outcomes of their projects. Librarians interested in online discussions could follow links to WebJunction’s Access Policies and Practices forum and the Software forum. In addition to the page devoted to open source as a focus topic, WebJunction also has another page with links to additional articles and resources.
Librarians who are seriously interested in implementing open source should visit the oss4lib Web site. The site states that its mission is to “cultivate the collaborative power of open source software engineering to build better and free systems for use in libraries.” To accomplish this mission, the site maintains a listing of free software and systems designed for libraries and tracks news about project updates and related topics. The site, in keeping with the open source tradition, is a volunteer effort, and frequent visitors are encouraged to support the site by purchasing oss4lib apparel and housewares. Also in keeping with open source tradition, visitors are invited to submit news stories for inclusion on the site.
There are also links to various open source projects of interest to librarians. Those wishing to learn more about open source can visit the Readings section of the site to find links to bibliographies, articles, and an annotated list of book titles. An electronic mailing list, oss4lib, is available for new project and product announcements and general discussion. Complete information on subscribing and a link to the list archives are available on the site. The site also offers an RSS feed for its headlines.
Another resource is the bibliography prepared by Brenda Chawner as part of her Ph.D. studies at the School of Information Management, University of Wellington, New Zealand. The bibliography was created in October 2002 and was last modified in September 2003. In addition to announcements, journal articles, and Web documents on open source in libraries, it also includes articles on specific open source applications (including Koha, Greenstone, and MyLibrary) and provides links to the Web sites for these products.
Using Open Source for Digital Libraries
You can find a collection of links to Web sites that offer open source and other shareware and free items on the Library Automation Tools for You page, which is part of the Southwest Museum of Engineering, Communications, and Computation Web site. In addition to the links to the MyLibrary, Koha, and Greenstone sites, there are links to OpenBook and the e-smith Linux Server appliance. I was especially intrigued by one product name, PYTHEAS, which is an acronym for Powerful Yet Tactfully Helpful Electronic Arranger of Sources, but none of the links I found for this project appeared to be current.
Another source of links to free software for library systems is the UNESCO Free Software Portal, which has a page of annotated links to software for digital libraries. The now-familiar Greenstone and others are on this list, but additional products include CERN Document Server Software, EPrints Archive Software, and MIT’s DSpace. Some of the links on this page are no longer valid, even though the page was supposedly updated on the day I visited the site.
Librarians interested in using open source software to build a digital library system might want to learn more about the Fedora Project, which is described as an open source digital repository management system. The project, which is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, uses the Flexible Extensible Digital Object and Repository Architecture, aka Fedora. Visitors to the site can read about the history of this project that was developed jointly by the University of Virginia and Cornell University; they also can access the support resources, the usage FAQ, and the technical documentation. There are also links to publications on the project and additional development resources. Seriously interested visitors can even download Fedora release 1.2.1.
There’s No Room for Error
At the beginning of this column, I spoke of children who don’t want help and adults who are proud of being “do-it-yourselfers.” We know that both children and adults can overestimate their abilities, and many do-it-yourself projects can end in failure. A failed library automation project would not only be embarrassing, but also expensive. An open source library automation project must be carefully planned and thoroughly researched before implementation so that in the end, as Robert Frost did in his famous poem, you can say, “I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
Resources Discussed
The Road Not Taken, Frost, Robert, 1920. Mountain Interval http://www.bartleby.com/119/1.html
Open Source Initiative OSI—Welcome http://www.opensource.org/
WebJunction’s Focus on Open Source http://webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=1216
oss4lib—Open Source Systems for Libraries http://www.oss4lib.org/
Open Source Software and Libraries Bibliography http://www.vuw.ac.nz/staff/brenda_chawner/biblio.html
Library Automation Tools for You http://www.smecc.org/library_automation_tools_for_you.htm
UNESCO Free Software Portal: Software/Digital Library http://www.unesco.org/cgi-bin/webworld/portal_freesoftware/cgi/page.cgi?g=%20
Fedora: The Flexible Extensible Digital Object and Repository Architecture http://www.fedora.info/index.shtml

How Open Source Resource Help a Library for their Service.

         by Goutam Biswas , Research Fellow, Library and Information Science

         Email: goutambiswas8@gmail.com

         Phone: (033) 2582-8220/8293/8750 (Extn. 338); Fax: (91) 033-2582 8282 

Remember a time when doing research required us to have to go to the library? Your school had one, and that’s probably where you spent most of your library time at. If it wasn’t your school, then it was probably your local town or city library. Some of these libraries may have been tiny little holes in the wall with just a few thousand books while others were huge university libraries with tens of thousands of books, magazines, newspapers, cd & dvds, microfiche, etc.

The depth a library can have can range greatly; it all depends on how much money that library gets in funding. The big college libraries obviously get the most due to the fact that they are part of an actual business model that produces a significant amount of money. Public libraries on the other hand only get what the government gives them, which in smaller municipalities can be very little.

For many libraries, organizing their books and other media can be a daunting task, especially as the library grows with more material. Years ago we had crude card catalog systems (remember the Dewy Decimal System?) that kept things organized, but were difficult to maintain. With today’s computing technology, organizing our libraries has never been easier or more efficient. Gone is the card catalog and in some libraries, it’s much easier to locate a book through an internet connection and picking it up upon your arrival, rather then wasting the time scouring the aisles looking for your next read (only to find out the book was never there in the first place).

Now just because the world has been blessed with wonderful software solutions that make everything easier to do, doesn’t mean that every library in the universe is using these solutions. As noted above, many libraries do not have huge amounts of money to burn, and any that they do get usually goes to purchasing additional resources for you to have at your disposal (think about how many books get printed in a year).

Because of this need for software (and the installation and training costs associated with any), and the lack of money available to spend on it, many libraries are left to fend for themselves when it comes to staying up to date with the latest technology. Unless, of course, they embrace the open source movement and use some of the countless software solutions available to help out. “Open Source” you say? If you are unaware what open source is, then let me briefly enlighten you.

Most software that we all use everyday is known as “proprietary“, which in a nutshell means that it costs money and that the actual code of the software is restricted, in that the code of the software cannot be modified, copied, or changed from its original construction. The code is “unreadable” and pretty much is what it is.

Open source software, on the other hand, is quite the opposite. The open source mentality revolves around sharing and collaboration, and these two important elements describe open source software perfectly. First and foremost, open source software is free for anyone to have; more importantly, not only is the software free, but it is also free for anyone to copy, hack, modify, etc. This increases the possibilities of a software program’s potential because of this free-thinking model. Many large groups of programmers have customized basic open source programs into whatever they deemed necessary, and have in turn given these modifications back to the open source community for free where others can continue to build on their work.

There are many different kinds of open source software solutions out there today that could be embraced by the library. There’s basic operating systems and document processing programs. Then there’s many web-based content management solutions and database driven organization software. So why aren’t libraries using these free, open programs to make their lives easier and their libraries better? The answers you’ll find lie in an area that one would think to be ironic given the situation – the lack of information. It will be our goal here to outline some of the prominent players in the open source software game and offer solutions to not only portray their role in the modern library, but offer the means to get these programs installed and up and running.

Basic Computer Programs

Ubuntu – the most popular player in the Linux based operating system game. (Linux is the open-source answer to Microsoft’s Windows operating system; Ubuntu is a modification of Linux). Ubuntu is a perfect solution for libraries who need to upgrade their older computers using outdated Windows or for bulk computer purchases requiring a new operating system. Many libraries feature computers for users to gain access to the internet, and that being the only function those computers serve. Why pay for all the unwanted things on Windows when you just need to get online? You might be a little scared at first of a new operating system, but just like anything else, the hardest part is getting started. Plus, there’s plenty of Ubuntu installation help out there to give you a hand.

Firefox – So, you’ve installed Ubuntu and are ready to continue a Microsoft-free lifestyle. What next? One of the first things you’ll notice is that you have a new browser to surf the web with. No more clicking on that big blue Internet Explorer icon anymore. Instead, you’ll be looking for the orange looking fox. Firefox is the Mozzila organizations answer to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser, and has taken the web by storm over the past few years as the biggest competitor to IE in quite some time. Firefox offers a much more secure browsing experience compared to IE (mostly because the majority if the population uses IE and that’s who the bad guys are targeting). The biggest draw, however, is the modifications that can be made to Firefox through its many plug-ins, which can make using the net more constructive. HINT: Many of the basic programs that come with Windows can be found as a plug-in for Firefox!

Open Office – Another component you’ll find bundled with your Ubuntu operating system is a software package known as Open Office. Does “office” sound familiar? Of course is does; you’ve probably used Microsoft’s Office products many times before, including the industry standard “Word”, “Excel” and “PowerPoint” programs. Well guess what? Open Office can do the same thing, and you can use both programs to handle each others file formatting (i.e. if someone builds a presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint, then you can edit the same presentation in Open Office). In addition to these must-have programs (either to be used by the library internally or for the patron to use in various projects), Open Office also comes with a calculator, draw, and mathematics program as well. Looks like were beginning to forget about Windows already (and remember, we haven’t even spent a dime!)

Thunderbird – Firefox’s little brother program, Thunderbird, is the Mozilla foundations open-source alternative to Microsoft’s Outlook Express, and is your fourth tool in weaning yourself off of the Windows juice that you have been so accustomed to drinking for so long now. The program works exactly like Outlook, providing you with a secure and safe desktop email solution. And just like Firefox, the open source programming community has created free add-ons to make the Thunderbird email client customized to your liking. If you absolutely need a desktop email client (as opposed to a web-based email client like the recommended Gmail), then Thunderbird is the open source program you need. Windows who?

Songbird – Your fifth and final nail in the Windows coffin is yet another open-source platform built off of the Mozilla platform (which gave us Firefox). Songbird is an open source media player which you can use to play your audio and video files. And just like Firefox and Thunderbird, it can be customized with various themes, plug-ins, and add-ons to make it work differently. Songbird can play any media file format (just in case you have a bunch of WMA files stored on cd’s from your Windows days), features multilingual support, and has an integrated web browser without having to leave the player. Break out the black clothes and let’s have a moment of silence, as we begin our life without Windows.

Advanced Programs

GIMPshop – So now our library has replaced its Windows operating system, and installed some basic programs to, for the most part, get what most people come to the library to get done. However, what is the library could offer MORE than what patrons are used to using the library computer for, and offer other programs to use? One important but rather expensive software program that is sometimes needed is the ever popular Adobe Photoshop. Because we’re cheap and only choosing open-source alternatives, we’re going with Gimpshop, a Photoshop alternative. While not as feature rich as Adobe’s photo manipulation program, GIMPshop is just as easy to use and will take care of any users basic needs (many, unless seasoned Photoshop pros, will only need the program to so basic tasks anyway).

PDF Creator – The PDF file (short for “portable document format”) is an industry standard format that everybody uses everyday. The purpose of creating a PDF file is usually to provide an important document for display that cannot be modified by the reader (unless permission is given). Many programs exist that will enable you to create your own PDF files, but they require you to spend money, which is not in our budget. Instead, we’re going to use the open-source PDF creator to take our Open Office files and convert them into professional PDF documents.

Audacity – For those looking to get a little more creative in the library, you’ll want to make sure that you can record and edit audio; hopefully, they’ll be taking advantage of Audacity, a cross platform open-source program that does just that. In the digital recording industry, there are hundreds of programs with a wide range of features and capabilities, and can cost anywhere from a few bucks to a couple of thousand dollars. Now, no one expects a library to have thousand dollar recording software installed on their computers, but having a basic program sure does help. Audacity will give you the ability to cut, copy, edit, and splice sounds together in a variety of formats. Plus, as it is open-source, it’s capabilities are continuing to evolve.

Avidemux – Well we have the means to manipulate our audio recordings, then what about video? Don’t worry you budding filmmakers (or librarians looking to produce their own promotional videos, how-to-tutorials, or video book reviews), because the open source community has you covered. Next up on the free software train is Avidemux, a video editing software program for users to edit together online video. Avidemux can take care of simple cutting, filtering, and encoding tasks, and work in a variety of file formats. It’s not going to produce any elaborate visual effects for you, but it’ll take care of the simple ones and would be a great addition to a library’s catalog of resources.

So, we’ve covered some of the basic and advanced programs that traditionally, would set a library back in terms of finances. By running the above free open sources programs, a library could offer plenty of software resources to it’s patrons that if could afford to do in the past. While these programs are free, some of them (especially the photo, audio, and video programs) may be difficult for the first time or novice user to grasp. It will be up to the librarians and staff to educate themselves in order to provide their patrons with the know-how to get the most out of these programs (thus providing the greatest resource a library can offer – assistance in retrieving and properly using available tools and information).

In addition to these tools being helpful to a library’s patrons, they are obviously very important to the operations of a library as well, and it will benefit each employee to use the same open source programs for library operations as to educate the employee of the ins and outs of each software program, so that knowledge can then be shared with a patron should a question or problem ever arise. But what of the other computing needs of the library? Obviously we still have some other very important organizing and cataloging needs as we addressed earlier. In addition, a library needs to have a strong online presence and offer their knowledge and support through the internet in order to really provide a resource. Thankfully, there are open source solutions for the library to take advantage in these departments as well.

ILS (Integrated Library Systems)

Koha is a promising full featured open source ILS (integrated library system) currently being used by libraries all over the world. For those of you out there unfamiliar of what an ILS is, well, it is a system of keeping track of the operations of a library – payroll, expenses, purchases, and most importantly, keeping track of the various media being checked out by the librarians patrons. Many smaller libraries cannot afford to purchase, install, and maintain an ILS, and Koha is a perfect alternative. Koha is built using library ILS standards and uses the OPAC (open public access catalog) interface. In addition, Koha has no vendor-lock in, so libraries can receive tech support from any party they choose.

Evergreen ILS is another option when researching open source ILS options. Developed by Equinox Software, Evergreen is a robust, enterprise level ILS solution developed to be capable of supporting the workload of large libraries in a fault-tolerant system. It too is standards compliant and uses the OPAC interface, and offers many features including flexible administration, work-flow customization, adaptable programming interfaces, and because its open source, cannot be locked away and can benefit from any community contributions.

VuFind is a new open source OPAC that you can put over your ILS (in this case, replacing the basic OPAC of Koha). VuFind suggests that is is “the library OPAC meets web 2.0″; it enables users to search through all of your library’s resources (as opposed to limited resources through the traditional OPAC) through an easy to use web interface. VuFind is modular, meaning that you are free to only use the components of the program that you deem necessary. VuFind is powered by another open source program known as Solr Energy (Apache Solr, an open source search engine technology). The program is still in beta but is being used by several universities like Drexel and Villanova Universities in Pennsylvania.

LibLime is an open source library automation system and is the library communities most trusted open-source software solution. LibLime provides commercial support services including hosting, migration assistance, staff training, and software maintenance, development, and support. LibLime will help take care of installation of the aforementioned Koha and Evergreen Ils programs if your library does not have the in-house technical support to install it yourself, and because of their expertise in the library environment, are the most educated partners to have when deciding on which solutions to use in your specific library.

Web Publishing

WordPress started out as a quick, free, open-source solution blogging solution just a few years ago; today it is a perfect alternative to building a web site from scratch. In addition to being free to use (and easy to install), the WordPress community has exploded, with thousands of users and programmers creating custom themes and plug-ins to completely change the way the software looks and operates. The most important aspect of the software is it’s easy-to-use interface and content management system. With it’s visual rich editor, anyone can publish text and photos to the web site. Other options include multiple authors (with separate log-ins), built in RSS (Real Simple Syndication) technology to keep subscribers updated, and a comment system that allows readers to interact with the sites content. A fantastic way to communicate with patrons, staff, etc.

Drupal is another open source web publishing option that some libraries may want to consider using. One of the most important aspects of any library is its community, and that’s where the technology behind Drupal might come in to play a little better. Many have used the software to build rich community based web sites where many different users can control a large amount of content. Some examples include web portals, discussion sites, corporate web sites, and intranet (internal) web applications. Just like WordPress, Drupal as an ever growing community of users developing add-ons to make the software work better in addition to providing technical support online to answer any of your installation or maintenance difficulties.

MediaWiki is the original software that powered the famous Wikipedia, which basically allows users to create and edit information from a very simple to use text interface. Another open source wiki platform is TWiki, a flexible and powerful enterprise wiki that is perfect for project management. These wiki solutions can be used as alternatives to the web publishing methods used above, but can better be used as the library’s place to keep maintenance and training information available that can constantly be updated as library operations change and develop. Imagine keeping the employee and support community of your library up-to-date with the inner workings through a community wiki, where they can go to troubleshoot any problems that may have been already solved once before in the past.

Conclusion

So, it seem that there are some very powerful solutions available today that could be used to create a much more resourceful library, whether it’s a large college or state financed operation, or a local community library that before probably didn’t do much for that community in the technology department. By using open source software in the library, money that otherwise would be spent on software solutions can be used for other important resources, such as purchasing additional media resources (books, magazines, dvds), or can be used to hire educated, technical support that provides patrons with the know how to better use already existing resources. In addition, this free software is constantly being updated, changed, and customized to meet the library’s needs.

While all of this is fine and dandy, and sounds like the win-win solution for your library, there are still pitfalls and hurdles we’ll need to overcome. Hopefully this article provides some introductory information as to how to wean your library off of traditional computing products and dive into the pool of open source resources available today. Many libraries are fully integrated into Microsoft products like Outlook Exchange and have invested a lot of time and money to make these systems work efficiently. Other problems involve the installation, maintenance, and training costs associated with adapting to open source software, as it can be at times difficult to understand at first (mostly because of our dependence on Windows based products); usability is an issue that is being addressed by the open source community daily who is working hard to make these free products easier for all to use and maintain.

As with any form of technology, many usually fear what they are not used to and do not understand. Hopefully, as the word gets out and more of our peers and fellow educators use and promote the open source movement, we will all will embrace and become more comfortable using these open source solutions, and in the future be responsible for contributing and and becoming part of the open source movement.

By Goutam Biswas                         

 Email.. goutambiswas8@gmail.com

1. A TRIBUTE TO S.R RANGANATHAN
2. A TRIBUTE TO S.R RANGANATHAN:CONTRIBUTION TO INDIAN AND INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY SCIENCE
3. CC-ONLINE
4. CHAIN INDEXING – RANGANATHAN
5. CHOICE OF SCHEME CLASSIFICATION/ SRR
6. CLASSIFICATION AND COMMUNICATION- SRR
7. COLON CLASSIFICATION
8. COMMENTS & REVIEWS ABOUT DR. S. R. RANGANATHAN’S FIVE LAWS OF LIBRARY SCIENCE: THEIR RELEVANCE AND IMPERATIVES IN IT CONTEXTCORE CONCEPTS OF RANGANATHAN
9. DIGITAL LIBRARIES APPROACHES TO RESOURCE DISCOVERY IN….
10. DIGITIZED BOOKS OF RANGANATHAN
11. DOCUMENTATION GENISIS AND DEVELOPMENT- SRR
12. DR. S.R RANGANATHAN:A TRIBUTE
13. DR. SRR – CD ON HIS LIFE AND WORKS
14. EFFORTS OF DR.S.R.R FOR PUBLIC LIBRARY LEGISLATION AND SERVICE
15. E-GOVERNMENT &RANGANATHAN
16. FACETED CLASSIFICATION
17. FACETED CLASSIFICATION TO PROVIDE STRUCTURE FOR INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
18. FIVE LAWS AND AUTOMATION
19. FIVE LAWS FOR 21ST CENTURY
20. HELLO RANGANATHAN – DOWNLOAD ZIP
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26. MEMORABLIA RANGANATHAN
27. NOTES ON CLASSIFICATION AND INDEXING THEORY
28. OPEN SOURCE AND RANGANATHAN’S FIVE LAWS OF LIBRARY SCIENCE
29. PERSONAL COLLECTION OF DR. SRR
30. PHILOSOPHY OF LIBRARY CLASSIFICATION
31. PROLEGOMENA TO CLASSIFICATION- SRR
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33. RANGANATHAN : AHEAD OF HIS CENTURY
34. RANGANATHAN AND COMICS
35. RANGANATHAN AND FACET ANALYSIS
36. RANGANATHAN AND HIS DISCIPLES
37. RANGANATHAN CONTRIBUTIONS
38. RANGANATHAN LIVE AND REAL
39. RANGANATHAN ON MELVILDEWEY- AUDIO
40. RANGANATHAN ONLINE:DO THE DIGITAL LIBRARIES VIOLATE THE 3RD LAW
41. RANGANATHAN REVISITED: FACETS FOR THE FUTURE
42. RANGANATHAN:A UNIVERSAL LIBRARIAN
43. RANGANATHANS CC IN 1500 WORDS OR LESS
44. RANGANATHANS CC:HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES
45. RANGANATHANS COLON CLASSIFICATION:A SELECTED AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
46. RANGANATHANS LAWS TO THE WEB
47. RANGANATHAN’S MONOLOGUE ON MELVIL DEWEY
48. RANGANATHANS RELEVANT RULES
49. RANGANATHANS THEORY OF FACET ANALYSIS
50. REDISCOVERING RANGANATHAN
51. REFLECTIONS ON RANGANATHANS FIVE LAWS /RICHARD. A.L
52. RESEARCH IN LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE AND CONTRIBUTION OF RANGANATHAN
53. S.R RANGANATHAN IS CORRECT – ADD 100 POINTS TO YOUR SCORE
54. S.R RANGANATHANSPOSTULATES AND NORMATIVE PRINCIPLES
55. S.R. RANGANATHAN
56. S.R.R BIOGRAPHY
57. S.R.R CONTRIBUTIONS
58. S.R.R HONOURS
59. S.R.R POSITIONS HELD
60. S.R.R PUBLICATIONS
61. S.R.RANGANATHANHTTP://W3.UNIROMA1.IT/VRD/MATHEMATICS/I-RANGANATHAN.HTML/
62. SARADA RANGANATHAN ENDOWMENT
63. SRR- UNIVERSITY OF TENESSEE
64. SRR-PHOTO AT IFLA
65. SUBJECT HEADING AND FACET ANALYSIS
66. THE FIVE LAWS IN INFORMATION SOCEITY AND VIRTUAL LIBRARY
67. THE FIVE LAWS OF LIBRARY SCIENCE
68. THE PIONEERS: S.R RANGANATHAN
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