Adoption of Open Source Software in Libraries in Developing Countries

A survey on the adoption of open source software in libraries in developing countries was conducted. An online questionnaire was sent to Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) and Special Commonwealth Assistance for Africa (SCAAP) participants for the Advanced Certificate Course in Modern Library Practices and the Lib@web participants of the Management of Electronic Information and Digital Libraries programme at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. The ITEC/SCAAP programme is sponsored by Government of India while the Lib@web programme is sponsored by Flemish Interuniversity Council – Belgian Development Council (VLIR-OUS). The data was collected from 31 librarians who attended these training programmes. The findings revealed that most libraries in developing countries which sent participants to these programmes have adopted open source software. The author recommends that librarians should continue upgrading their skills so that they are conversant with how the various open source software can be used in their institutions.

Use of Institutional Repository for Information Dissemination and Knowledge Management

The paper is a case study which gives a summary of the experience in disseminating information through an institutional repository at the Automotive Research Association of India, Pune. The paper has proven to cover different aspects of Knowledge Management (KM) and discusses more about Institutional Repository in Knowledge Management perspective. In this paper, we emphasize the need for deploying and share our experience in creating a state-of-art Institutional Repository using the DSpace software. The method of developing the IR, which includes, the installation, defining the communities and collections, content development and management are illustrated. The paper also illustrates the library services and mode of information dissemination to its users by engaging with knowledge management. It also discusses the proposed initiative of incorporating the library database from LibSys and linking the e-Modules from Learning Management System (LMS) to the institutional repository for the benefit of user community at ARAI.

Copyright Issues in the Context of the Digital Library

Libraries have a strong role on promoting culture and knowledge as intermediaries between creators and readers. In the analogical world, such usages didn't have relevant effects on the normal exploitation of copyrighted works. However, digitisation had a strong effect on rightholders' interests by facilitating and democratizing access to works, considering that libraries may reproduce them and promote their online accessibility. Litigation regarding the referred actions has dramatically increased in the last years as they may stress the normal exploitation of copyrighted works and the exclusive rights of reproduction and of distributing. Based on the European Union's legislation and jurisprudence, the present chapter analyses the lawfulness of public libraries digitisation of books from their collection in order to make them available to users without the right holder's consent, confronting them with the exclusive right of reproduction and the making available right.

Digital Libraries and Copyright of Intellectual Property

This chapter examines the ethical management of digital collections in a way that enhances compliance to copyright requirements. The chapter clarifies similarities and differences between the terms digital, electronic and virtual. The author emphasises that the digital librarians have a duty to preserve their professional integrity by committing to professional ideals in carrying out various information dissemination activities in a manner that guarantees positive consequences for the users, the library and all other stakeholders such as the owner of the intellectual property, the parent organization, the professional association and the society at large.

Development and Management of Digital Libraries in the Regime of IPR Paradigm

This article reports the concept of digital library (DL) with its definitions, concept, generic architecture, ethics and librarianship related to DL. DLs are created by Library professionals, publishers, Government initiatives, societies and other higher educational institutions. There are different types of files and file formats are created and stored on DL. For uploading the files, the copyright / IPR issues are involved. As one cannot upload directly someone's file without the permission of that person. In information communication technology (ICT) environment, the Internet and web enables everyone to have access to the e-contents available from anywhere at any time. Due to this, DL creators cannot take it granted to upload them and make them available online. The IPR issues in digital environment plays a key role for identifying and taking permissions from the respective authors / publishers / content creators to upload the digital content. DL and IPR issues are discussed with the digital rights issues.

Digital Initiatives of the Indian Council of World Affairs' Library

This chapter attempts to unravel the journey of Sapru House library (Indian Council of World Library) from a passive manual traditional library to an active electronic library. This chapter provides insights into the traditional management of the resources and their service provision and examines the reasons for the digital initiatives and the how the challenges and obstructions were met and overridden. ICWA library is an academic library having a unique and matchless collection of bound newspapers (since1933), press clippings (since 1964) and rare books (between 1700-1900) constitute 70% of its total collection. Housing, storage, management, preservation, conservation, retrieval and dissemination were underlying reasons that inspired the author to transform this valued collection to a digital repository of knowledge. This chapter gives a detailed account of the conception of the digital initiations vis-à-vis the digital project, outlines, reports, discussions, presentations, approvals, sanctions, funding, execution, implementation and the outcome and realization of the dream.

Insourcing and Outsourcing of Library Technology

This article traces the movement of library technology from in-house systems created and maintained by library personnel to outsourced products bought from and largely controlled by vendors. As well as documenting these changes observations will be made concerning strategic advantages and disadvantages of this move. Focus will be limited to six areas of library technology: OPAC, Discovery Layer, MARC Records, Bindery, Acquisitions and ERM (Electronic Resources Management). Some may argue that these are all components of a central ILS that are created and available. This is true in some cases but not others. For example, Innovative Interfaces has always had an Acquisitions module whereas other ILSs have not. Many libraries still use a spreadsheet or other method to keep track of serials where others have migrated to an ERM. Individual use cases will be covered to demonstrate the benefits and shortcomings of each system.

Cost Issues in Digitalization and Preservation

For many projects, resources are always limited. Hence, there is often a need to allocate resources in a most cost-effective manner. There are some cost models developed as guidelines on how to estimate the costs of digitalization and preservation of information in a comparatively more accurate way. By knowing the factors which affecting those costs, it will be easier to find a cost-effective strategy for digital preservation. Among different migration strategies proposed by researchers, in this article the migration in the framework of Open Archival Information System (OAIS) will be studied. This is applied to the case of this small-scale music library, Melos Music Library in El Parnaso Centre in Uruguay.

Value Co-Creation in Archival Resources

The National Archives of Bangladesh (NAB) evolved to ensure official custody and physical safety to the archives of Bangladesh. NAB initiated a digitization programme to provide open access to archives. The study focused on different aspects of NAB's open access project in the light of value co-creation perspective. The study is based on review of literature, computation of secondary information and treatment of primary data collected through semi-structured interview. The study identified that all the value co-creation components are available in NAB's open access project but working framework is invisible. Hence, the study proposed a model for value co-creation through balancing resource security and user demand. Hence, the study may help software developers and other archival institutions in designing and implementing open access to their respective organizations' resources. This paper serves as an example to archival institutions that are in the beginning phases of open access research and development.

Visibility and Accessibility of Indigenous Knowledge on Open Access Institutional Repositories at Universities in Africa

Much research has been done on Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) at African universities but the results are inaccessible as they remain scattered all over in researchers' offices, yet IK plays a significant role in Africa's development. Universities are better placed to consolidate, preserve, disseminate and facilitate easy access to such knowledge. This chapter explores the role that can be played by Institutional Repositories (IRs) in fulfilling this goal. Literature was reviewed to provide a conceptual overview of the role of IRs, to establish the challenges faced by universities in enabling access to IK in institutional repositories and explore strategies that can be employed to promote their use. The findings revealed that academics have not fully embraced the IR technologies; therefore, librarians struggle to secure content for their IRs. It is recommended that rigorous awareness campaigns on open access and IRs be done by librarians to obtain stakeholder buy-in.