Information Preservation and Information Services in the Digital Age

In the digital world, library services need to be transformed utilizing the advancements possible due to that automation and machine-to-machine communication of information . In this chapter prime focus is laid upon the need of digitization and how to achieve it effectively and appropriately. The strategies for digitization have also been discussed at reasonable length. The issues debated are digital decay as against paper decay, accessibility interpretation in digital world, utility of e-journals, gray content boom, problems of access to excess, human dependence of information sharing and collaboration, disintermediation. In this chapter adequate care has been taken to visualize the importance of traditional conservation as well. The main emphasis is on the spirit of collaboration and skill to take initiative for digitization project. It has been repeatedly mentioned that institutional collaborations at national and international level have given more fruitful results in the area of digitization. This chapter shows the changed picture of librarianship in digital environment along with the change in user perspectives and service perspective.

Digital Library And E-Governance

Rural Connectivity is the lifeline of Indian economy. India is a land of diversity with different types of terrain, various agro-climatic conditions, different levels of socio-economic conditions, and varied levels of regional development. At the beginning of the new millennium, 260 million people in the country did not have incomes to access a consumption basket, which defines the poverty line. Sustainable livelihood is a multi-faceted concept. Rural India thus desires to take advantage of “knowledge-intensive” techniques for its sustainable development and sustainable consumption. Grassroots level Information access (Contents) and Grassroots level access to Information (Networking) are the two essential components for grassroots level development strategies through ICT. Community Information and Communication Centres (CICC), as a concept and model, aim to “boost efficiency and enhance market” integration through Internet/ Intranet technologies for sustainable remote/regional development at grassroots level. Libraries can play an important role and participate in community action and enhance their function as proactive catalysts of social change. Community Information & Communication Networks in India empower disadvantaged community for effective information & communication, in view of the stated pronouncement of “India to become Knowledge Society”, and also facilitate “social inclusion” of marginalised rural poor to access knowledge and information. There are about 56000 Public Libraries (which include 51000 at village level), 400000 School Libraries, 11000 University/College Libraries, 13000 R&D Libraries, 28 State Libraries, and 526 District Libraries in India. Only 8.4% of the Villages have access to Public Libraries in India. Rural Public Libraries are a part of this revolution and will serve as the backbone for “literacy mission and poverty alleviation”. There are empirical evidences to support that rural digital libraries will sustain Community Information & Communication Centres (e-Community Centres). Granthalaya, a Sanskrit word means ‘Library’. This chapter deals with “e-Granthalaya: a digital agenda of library automation and networking” facilitating “rural digital libraries” and promoting “local contents” through UNICODE and interoperability capabilities of XML. Networked Library environment play an important role in rural revitalization, as libraries have emerged as asunrise industrydue to globalization and liberalization at regional level, and decentralization trends at grassroots level.

Bridging the Digital Divide

Recent developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), while making our life easier, created a social divide that is known as the digital divide. The global information gap is likely to widen the North – South divide and this global digital divide raises many issues for discussion that will be explored and reviewed further in this research. This chapter provides a brief overview of digital divide and the effects of some critical factors on it. Unequal investment of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the potential of the Internet, the important role of education, literacy, education, e-governance, librarians, libraries and also digital libraries etc. are some discussed factors in this chapter. It concludes that paying attention to all so called critical factors can bridge and decrease this global digital divide.

Digital Divide and Economic Wealth

This chapter aims at identifying and analyzing the factors that have resulted in a digital divide in Asia-Pacific countries. There are several factors that can be used as proxy of the digital divide. In this study, Internet density has been used as a proxy of the digital divide along with other variables such as gross domestic product, computer density, telephone density, & information and communication technology expenditure. Using data from 1995 to 2007 for 10 countries, the study finds evidence of the pivotal role played by communication infrastructure in the diffusion of ICTs, and there is also a high correlation between Internet usage and telephone density. It appears that GDP has been a major factor influencing varying degrees of the diffusion of ICTs and the consequent digital divide.

Collaborative Digital Library Development in India

Digital library provides an excellent opportunity to widely disseminate our documentary heritages and greatly increases access to library collections of rare documents as well as current research literature. Indian digital library initiatives aim at producing a vast amount of digitized documents pertaining to different forms of recorded human knowledge, ranging from the rare manuscripts to current research literature. Digitized documents are made accessible in online information systems either through intranet or Internet channels. However, maintaining an Internet-based online digital library system has several problems such as availability of web server for 24X7 timeframe, robust broadband connectivity, efficient retrieval engine, ownership of digitized documents, etc. This chapter tries to address and document some of the prevailing social networking issues affecting Indian digital library initiatives, particularly the collaboration patterns among participating institutions as well as funding agencies. This chapter also tries to identify social relationships amongst the networked institutions in terms of nodes and ties. Nodes are the individual actors within the networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors. This chapter shows how social networks in the collaborative digital libraries play a critical role in determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individual projects succeed in achieving their goals. Digital Library of India (DLI) is the largest digitization initiative in India spreading across states of India and involving over ninety organizations to ensure several thousands of rare books written in Indian languages as well as non-Indian languages are accessible through Internet channel. This chapter critically appraises the formation of a formal social network in the DLI project embracing local memory institutions across the states of India as well as the funding agencies. Similarly, this chapter also critically analyses and elaborates another collaborative digital library initiative in India, namely, Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL).

Managing Change in Reference and Information Services in Digital Environment

Libraries and librarians are no longer the sole providers of reference and information services. Reference services have traditionally played a crucial role in the delivery of library services both in the public and academic spheres. However, developments in Web technologies have seen the emergence of online or digital reference services, which many initially feared sought to replace the traditional library-based personalized service. A digital library is not merely a means of access to information over the network. As long as “library” word is attached to the concept, a digital library does and should care about users and communities that are in need of information and services just like conventional libraries. “Services”, therefore, should be one of the crucial aspects of digital libraries. In the recent trend, reference services have taken a central place in library and information services. Sometimes, they are also regarded as personalized services since in most cases a personal discussion takes place between a user and a reference librarian. The librarian point to the sources that are considered to be most appropriate to meet the specific information needs of the user. Since the Web and digital libraries are meant for providing direct access to information sources and services without the intervention of human intermediaries, the pertinent question that appears is whether we need reference services in digital environment, and, if so, how best to offer such services. This chapter looks at the inevitable change taking place in the platform of reference services.

Harnessing Technology for Providing Knowledge for Development

Rural poor people particularly in developing countries do not get the knowledge and information which they need for their day to day living. Yet, there are no mechanisms for making this knowledge available. This marginalized sector includes small farmers, fishermen, micro-entrepreneurs, small businessmen, unemployed youth etc. They need information for day to day life, such as daily weather forecast, market prices of agricultural produce, how to treat a crop disease, where to get application for the policemen’s vacancies, addresses of local masonry persons, etc. Local content is what is most important. Many times, such information is available freely, but the needy person does not get it because of lack of awareness. Such information has to be collected on daily basis from the right sources such as agricultural departments, meteorology offices, bank branches, primary health centers or wholesale markets. The information has to be disseminated through the fastest media such as Internet, community radio, loudspeakers, community newspapers or interactive meetings. Libraries need to work closely with the various agencies, both in government and private sectors and the civil society in order to find out the knowledge requirements of the poor and research into how to package it and deliver efficiently. The chapter gives examples of successful knowledge initiatives for the poor in five countries: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, and Malawi.

Digital Library and Repositories

This chapter discusses digital libraries and repositories. The purpose of this research is to identify digital libraries and repositories in India available in the public domain. It highlights the state of digital libraries and repositories in India. The digital libraries and repositories were identified through a study of the literature, as well as internet searching and browsing. The resulting digital libraries and repositories were explored to study their collections. Use of open source software especially for the creation of institutional repositories is found to be common. However, major digital library initiatives such as the Digital Library of India use custom-made software.

Intellectual Property Rights

This chapter explains the concept of IPR. The author throws light on the global problem of copyright violation and software piracy and discuss the legal measures to control these at international level as well as in India. The authors also discuss the scenario of digitization of information and the digital measures to overcome copying and ensure IPR.

Web 2.0 and Social Web Approaches to Digital Libraries

The Chapter begins with a definition of digital library approaches and features, examines ways in which open source and social software applications can serve to fill digital library roles. In order to incorporate Web 2.0 functionality effectively, digital libraries must fundamentally recast users not just as content consumers, but as content creators. This chapter analyzes the integration of social annotations – uncontrolled user-generated content – into digital collection items. The chapter briefly summarizes the value of annotations and finds that there is conceptual room to include user-generated content in digital libraries, that they have been imagined as forums for social interaction since their inception, and that encouraging a collaborative approach to knowledge discovery and creation might make digital libraries serve as boundary objects that increase participation and engagement. The chapter concludes with a review of positive and negative outcomes from this approach and makes recommendations for further research.