Copyright Relevancy at Stake in Libraries of the Digital Era

Libraries are changing in every aspect to deal with the information dissemination process mainly pertaining to the form and format of “significant information,” which is the lifeblood of libraries. With copyrights restricting the uncontrolled and unbalanced use of information in the digital format, there is a need to understand that copyrights were brought to balance the synchronization of the creator, publisher, and the users at large. The chapter is an attempt to show the changing perspective of copyright in the digital era, its relevancy in the digital era, and how libraries can get the most out of the various exceptions and provisions provided for the libraries in copyright law, while at the same time striving to balance the copyright as well as solve various problems and issues cropping up from new digital perspectives.

Information Seeking Behavior of Users and Strategies to Overcome the Challenges in the Current Era

Due to the continuous research and development activities taking place in almost all the disciplines, information overload and information explosion has occurred, which in turn poses a challenge to the user community to keep up with the knowledge in their discipline. The dynamic nature of information has forced the users to change the way of seeking information. Hence, there is an immediate need for the information professionals to update the services and facilities of the library. He/she should act as a ultimate search engine and satisfy the information needs of the users. This chapter highlights the changing approach to information by the user community in the present scenario and also provides the solutions to information professionals to tackle the information expectations of the users. This chapter has been written based on the observation of library users and the way they seek information for their business requirements and research and development activities.

Empowering LIS Professionals and Academic Library Users in a Networked and Digital Environment

The aim of this chapter is to give an overview of the modernisation of academic libraries in the ICT era, changing format of the library resources and types of computer-based services being offered by the academic libraries. In view of this, the present chapter discusses various aspects of LIS training and user education, emphasising the need to empower our LIS professionals and library users so that they benefit from the new technologies by using new ICTs for exploring the world of knowledge for their academic pursuit and excellence in higher education and research. The first part of the chapter discusses the recent development in the areas of application of ICT in academic libraries, availability, and usage of electronic resources by the library users, new services provided by the academic libraries to their end users. The second part of the chapter highlights the need for empowering LIS professionals working in academic libraries and their end users in electronic / digital era, enumerates the role of various agencies that are engaged in making library users aware of printed as well as e-resources, and explains the role of Web 2.0/Library 2.0 in making library users more interactive and well informed about the resources, products, and services of the academic libraries to their clientele. The third part of the chapter discusses the user education programme/user awareness programme being organised and offered to the students and research scholars by the Assam University Library (Rabindra Library, Silchar) as a case study. While concluding the chapter, some suggestions and recommendations are also discussed in brief.

Building Repository Banking and Finance (ReBaF)

Repository Banking and Finance (ReBaf) is one of the digital library services developed by STIE Perbanas Surabaya in an effort to extend the collection of banking and financial data organized by the Library of STIE Perbanas Surabaya. The ReBaf SISFO (information system) applies open-source software basis with PHP SQL programming language and Postgre SQL database.

Institutional Repositories Initiatives in India

The purpose of this chapter is to present the development and current situation of Institutional Repositories (IRs) in India. This chapter explores the main concepts of open access, institutional repositories, and their needs and benefits. The chapter highlights the current status of Institutional Repositories (IR) in India by its collection type, subject coverage, and present working status of the repositories available to the academic community as open sources. This chapter examines the overall growth of IRs in Asia and enumerates the Institutional Repositories in India. The chapter analyzes the accessible institutional repositories based on the selected study criteria and studies various digital library software used in the development of IRs in India.

Strategies and Issues of Institutional Repositories

In the age of ICT, the concept of institutional repository has arisen, which has become a very essential mode of accessing and sharing information. Institutional repositories are digital collections of the outputs created within a university or research institution. This chapter discusses the growth of institutional repositories in India. This chapter is a consideration of some of the important aspects related with institutional repositories. The chapter also explores the trends at the global and national levels of institutional repositories. The present chapter also discusses some important software, which is being used by institutional repositories of various organizations worldwide.

The Concept of Metadata for Digital Information Resources with Special Reference to Dublin Core (DC)

This chapter defines metadata, their types, creation, and some of the important functions. It enumerates an overview of the basic elements of the Dublin Core Metadata standard, and other metadata standards are also mentioned. The problem has been studied based on the information available in the open literature. As electronic information resources are rising and digital library initiatives are gaining wide acceptance, knowledge of metadata formats will help our library professionals in adapting their skills in cataloguing, classification, subject heading, key wording, and indexing for better inventory and exhaustive usage of electronic information. Metadata serves three general purposes. It supports resource discovery and locates the actual digital resource by inclusion of a digital identifier. As the number of electronic resources grows, metadata is used to create aggregate sites, bringing similar resources together and distinguishing dissimilar resources. The World Wide Web has created a revolution in the accessibility of digital information resources. Metadata is key to ensuring that resources will survive and continue to be accessible into the future. It can be embedded in a digital object or it can be stored separately like library catalogues. The Dublin Core (DC) is the most popular and widely accepted standard proposed to describe almost all categories of networked electronic resources.

Information Literacy

The chapter defines Information Literacy with its scope, such as Visual Literacy, Media Literacy, Computer Literacy, Network Literacy, Health Literacy, Business Literacy, and Library Literacy. It establishes the relation between Literacy and Information Literacy as a modified definition of literacy. Further, it states that the root cause of digital divide in countries like India, Nepal, and Bangladesh is information illiteracy. The data collected on various e-initiatives in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh have been discussed. Information Literacy depends on various factors, and it should start from the National level so, after taking due consideration of socio-economic, geographic, and political condition, Information Literacy Plans have been formulated for these countries. First, at a national level, then at the educational level, and then community level. Further, the curriculum for IL courses at various levels have been formulated. It is suggested that the government should set up a national level apex body such as Indian Information Literacy Forum, Nepal Information Literacy Programme, Bangladesh Information Literacy Programme, or an Autonomous Information Literacy Council under the Ministry of Information Technology and in collaboration with Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Telecommunication in India, Ministry of Information and Communication in Nepal, and Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology in Bangladesh. It also suggests various other measures to make IL programmes to transform these countries into developed nations.

Perspectives of Digital Library Evaluation

The Virtual Health Library can be visualized as a distributed base of scientific and technical health knowledge that is saved, organized, and stored in electronic format in the countries of the South America and the Caribbean Region, universally accessible on the Internet and compatible with international databases and standards. The quality management of Virtual Health Library (VHL) presents an evaluation methodology from Marketing of Services identified as “quality information system.” It questions how the method quality information system contributes to VHL management model evaluation. The use of qualitative-quantitative research allows applying the method concerned to actions and recommendations adopted by the VHL model. This chapter considers quality management concerned with two main VHL aspects: health information literacy and the VHL site’s network based on its quality control. It presents the working of the methodology of quality information system under the focus of the VHL management. It utilizes Digital Library quality dimensions to demonstrate the VHL quality program under the application of quality information system methodology. It concludes that VHL quality control must add a composite of quality to obtain the client’s point of view of its users. VHL must develop social tools as best practice to evaluate quality from customers’ points of view.

Preservation of Digital Information in Library and Information Centers

Preservation of digital resources in the 21st century has been a great challenge for library and information professionals. Digital libraries have been built all over the world. Libraries are engaged in creating and maintaining digital libraries. One of the main challenges in maintaining digital libraries is the digital preservation aspect. The aim of digital preservation is to ensure that digital records are filed and are made available through time. Digital information preservation is always the thinking of library and information society. Preservation of digital documents has now become more obvious and necessary because of the fragility of digital data and software and hardware platforms becoming obsolete. The present chapter focuses on the digital preservation, strategies, policies, functions, current activities, and guideline of digital preservation of information.