BLIE-229: ICT IN LIBRARIES

TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT

Coverage: Course Code: BLI-229
Course: Library, Information and Society Assignment Code: AST/TMA/Jul.17-Jan.18
Blocks: 1 to 2
Units: 1 to 8 Total Marks: 70
(I) Answer all the questions in not more than 500 words each. (3 × 5=15 Marks)
1. What do you understand by integrated library system? Enumerate the procedures involved
in an automated circulation system. (5)
2. Discuss the parameters for evaluation of commercial library automation packages. (5)
3. Describe the digitisation process of video material. (5)
(II) Write short notes on the following in not more than 200 words each. (10×2=20
Marks)
1. Web 2.0 compliant ILS (2)
2. Information mashup (2)
3. Web- scale library management (2)
4. OAI- PMH compliance (2)
5. Features of Evergreen (2)
6. WEBLIS (2)
7. Open Library System (2)
8. Audio/ Video compression (2)
9. Item submission workflow in DSpace (2)
10. Librarian’s interface in GSDL (2)

Answers
1. What do you understand by integrated library system? Enumerate the procedures involved
in an automated circulation system.
Ans.: An integrated library system (ILS) is an enterprise resource planning system for a
library used to track items owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed.
An ILS is usually comprised of a relational database, software to act on that database, and
two graphical user interfaces (one for patrons, one for staff). Most ILS separate software
functions into discrete programs called modules, which are then integrated into a unified
interface. Examples of modules include: acquisitions (ordering, receiving, and invoicing
materials), cataloging (classifying and indexing materials), circulation (lending materials to
patrons and receiving them back), serials (tracking magazine and newspaper holdings), and
the OPAC (public interface for users). Each patron and item has a unique ID in the database
that allows the ILS to track its activity.

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Larger libraries use ILS to order and acquire, receive and invoice, catalog, circulate, track and
shelve materials. Smaller libraries, such as private homes or small organizations and
institutions (e.g. churches and synagogues), often forgo the expense and maintenance
required to run an ILS and instead use a simpler library computer system which has limited
functions.
Circulation systems were a step above hand-written, chronologically arranged ledgers, their
limitations still hampered the efficiency of circulation staff in completing day-to-day tasks,
and severely limited the variety of services and information that staff were able to deliver. In
the mid-1970s more and more libraries began using computers to handle various library
functions. Circulation was an obvious first choice for automation in libraries because of the
many efficiencies that could be achieved.
Early automated systems were developed in-house and used a batch processing method of
processing circulation transactions. In present day circulation systems, all processing occurs
in real time. Circulation systems that are purchased from a commercial vendor are often
called “turnkey systems” because they are ready to be installed and operated. They do not
require any debugging because they have already been tested and can function without the
assistance of a systems specialist. The disadvantage over a system designed in-house is that
the library cannot typically make any modifications to the system that may be required due to
unique policy or procedure within the library. Larger libraries or library systems that
purchase turnkey systems usually do some custom development so that the system meets
local needs. This necessitates maintaining a staff of computer programmers and systems
specialists.
Circulation systems can be designed in one of two ways:
1. the absence reporting method (also called transaction systems)
2. the full database method
The absence reporting method tracks items in circulation only. Records are added and deleted
constantly. As books are circulated, their titles and call numbers (or other identification
codes) are entered in the system, and as they are returned, their records are deleted. Not much
computer disk space is required to store circulation records. Those familiar with database
software, such as Microsoft Access, could create a simple circulation system using the
absences reporting method. The database would not be a substitute for a card catalogue but
would provide basic information on circulating items.
The full database method involves the entire collection. Typically, the full cataloguing record
for every item in the library is input into the database. Instead of adding and deleting records
continually, records are permanently retained in the database and coded as they are checked
out or in. A whole database system requires more computer space because records for the
whole collection are included.
Systems that include full cataloguing records will typically also permit users to access this
information. An online public or patron access catalogue (OPAC) enables patrons to search a
library’s holdings from a computer terminal and also gives information on the circulation

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status of an item. Circulation functions would only be one part of a larger integrated
automated system.
2. Discuss the parameters for evaluation of commercial library automation packages.
Ans.: Traditionally, Library automation is referred to the computerization of the entire library
house keeping operations like acquisition, cataloguing, circulation & serials control. But
today it is also referred to handle the large quantity of data and information more efficiently
and quickly with the help of computers and other modern information technologies.
According to Bhardwaj and Sukla (2000) library automation is generic term used to denote
the various activities with an improving quality of products and services of library and
information centers. It enhance the speed, productivity, adequacy and efficiency of the library
professional staff and save the manpower to avoid some routine, repetitive and clerical tasks
such as filing, sorting, typing, duplication checking etc.
To automate library services efficiently and effectively one needs an integrated library
automation package. There are several commercial library automation packages now
available in the market. To offer the complete satisfaction of users and perform the library
activities and functions, we must select competent and suitable software which can meet out
our requirements. Therefore, librarians and information professionals must keep in mind
some basic aspects before selection of library software.
Therefore, an evaluation of appropriate software packages is very much needed for any
academic or other libraries for user friendliness, efficiency and cost effectiveness.
Comparison provides us the basis on which to choose between alternative. So an evaluation is
basically a judgment of worth.
With the development of library automation software packages, access to information and
retrieval has become more convenient and efficient. There are hundreds of different Library
automation packages available for library system developed by several vendors. It is of
utmost importance for the library and information professionals to acquire knowledge on
feature and functionality of these packages. This is a dire necessity at present since there is a
great demand for librarians to develop library database, which is the first step in the
automation projects. Therefore, provision of better understanding of library automation
packages, will guide in the selection or development of appropriate software in the future.
Guidelines on the evaluation of library automation packages play vital role. Therefore,
studies and guidelines on the evaluation of these packages will definitely enable librarian to
make the best decision when designing, acquiring and managing integrated library
automation packages for the provision of online access to library resources to their users.
Digital libraries offer new opportunities to provide access to diverse resources beyond those
which are held in traditional library environment. Content acquisition is an important part of
any digital library. Like traditional libraries, while building digital libraries, only those
contents are acquired in any digital library which are pertinent to the individual libraries
information needs. Not all digital documents are added in any digital collection.
Digital libraries tend to serve a particular community/ communities. Each digital library has
its own collection development policy and procedures. Digital libraries carry out all tasks that

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are similar to traditional libraries and they go beyond traditional library activities as they can
provide more value added services than traditional libraries. Every digital library have
selection policies. Selection process is an intellectual judgment which includes what to
include and save in any digital library and what to exclude. In general, selection criteria
include an approval of the content -its subject and discipline – in relation to the collection
goals of the digital archives.
3. Describe the digitisation process of video material.
Ans.: Digitization is the process of converting information into a digital format . In this
format, information is organized into discrete units of data (called bit s) that can be separately
addressed (usually in multiple-bit groups called byte s). This is the binary data that computers
and many devices with computing capacity (such as digital camera s and digital hearing aid s)
can process.
Text and images can be digitized similarly: a scanner captures an image (which may be an
image of text) and converts it to an image file, such as a bitmap . An optical character
recognition (OCR ) program analyzes a text image for light and dark areas in order to identify
each alphabetic letter or numeric digit, and converts each character into an ASCII code.
Audio and video digitization uses one of many analog-to-digital conversion processes in
which a continuously variable (analog) signal is changed, without altering its essential
content, into a multi-level (digital) signal. The process of sampling measures the amplitude
(signal strength) of an analog waveform at evenly spaced time markers and represents the
samples as numerical values for input as digital data.
Digitizing information makes it easier to preserve, access, and share. For example, an original
historical document may only be accessible to people who visit its physical location, but if
the document content is digitized, it can be made available to people worldwide. There is a
growing trend towards digitization of historically and culturally significant data.
Digitization is a process that has both symbolic and material dimensions. Symbolically,
digitization converts analog signals into bits that are represented as 1s and 0s. Digitization
therefore produces information that can be expressed in many different ways, on many
different types of materials, and in many different systems. Theoretically, almost any material
with two easily differentiated states can be used to store and communicate digitized signals,
including silicone transistors, punch cards, or atoms. This has motivated many scholars to
highlight the “immaterial” quality of information generated through digitization, while
deemphasizing the material systems (transistors) on which that information is housed. That
being said, it would be a mistake to ignore that digital information is ultimately stored on and
communicated through the physical orientation of material transistors as bits. While digitized
information is not limited to a specific set of materials, it is still, in the final instance,
grounded in the configurations of materials. It is this way in which digitization mediates
between the material and the immaterial that makes digitization a unique process.
Video files are composed of different data streams encapsulated in a container or wrapper.
Video and audio signals are encoded using codecs. A codec is a piece of hardware or
software needed to encode a data stream or signal for transmission, storage or encryption and

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to decode it for playback or other purposes such as editing. Codec is a 'portemanteau' term
constructed from the words coding/decoding. The term 'codec' is commonly used to refer
directly to a coding or compression format. Video and audio essences (the bit streams) can be
encoded with different codecs, with or without compression.
Digitizing information makes it easier to preserve, access, and share. For example, an original
historical document may only be accessible to people who visit its physical location, but if
the document content is digitized, it can be made available to people worldwide. There is a
growing trend towards digitization of historically and culturally significant data.
(II) Write short notes on the following in not more than 200 words each. (10×2=20
Marks)
1. Web 2.0 compliant ILS
Ans.: The potential of Web 2.0 to profoundly change higher education has been
acknowledged. As libraries aspire to remain relevant as premier suppliers of information and
endeavour to attract and engage their users, embracing and implementing Web 2.0
technologies has become synonymous with their overall success. This study investigated the
use of Web 2.0 technologies in academic libraries in South Africa. The study noted that many
academic libraries in South Africa are not lagging behind their global counterparts in
adopting these technologies to enhance their services. Many academic libraries in South
Africa are leveraging the power of Web 2.0 technologies to provide services that meet the
needs of today’s users.
The population for this study was made up of 17 academic libraries in South Africa. Out of
the population of 347 librarians in research libraries, a total of 51 librarians were selected to
participate in the study using the random selection method, which translated into three
librarians per academic library. The selected number included library directors with whom
semi-structured telephonic interviews were held.
Library and Information Science (LIS) curriculum, to ensure Web 2.0 compliance among LIS
practitioners. Furthermore, the study proposes a model for the successful implementation of
Web 2.0 technologies in academic libraries.
2. Information mashup
Ans.: A mashup (computer industry jargon), in web development, is a web page, or web
application, that uses content from more than one source to create a single new service
displayed in a single graphical interface. For example, a user could combine the addresses
and photographs of their library branches with a Google map to create a map mashup. The
term implies easy, fast integration, frequently using open application programming interfaces
(open API) and data sources to produce enriched results that were not necessarily the original
reason for producing the raw source data. The term mashup originally comes from British -
West Indies slang meaning to be intoxicated, or as a description for something or someone
not functioning as intended. In recent English parlance it can refer to music, where people
seamlessly combine audio from one song with the vocal track from another—thereby
mashing them together to create something new.

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The main characteristics of a mashup are combination, visualization, and aggregation. It is
important to make existing data more useful, for personal and professional use. To be able to
permanently access the data of other services, mashups are generally client applications or
hosted online.
Web mashups are one technique that can make Web-based data more useful. Traditional
mashups blend information from multiple sources. Sometimes, however, they just reinterpret
existing data from a single source. Either way, mashups present the results in a compelling,
innovative fashion. Often, the information is displayed in visually powerful ways that make it
much more valuable and understandable to users.
3. Web-scale library management
Ans.: One of the main vectors of change in library automation involves the emergence of a
new slate of products that move libraries away from locally housed systems to global
platforms. These new Library Services Platforms offer libraries an opportunity to operate less
in self-contained silos of data and functionality, but rather to work in broad Web-scale
environments of highly shared data, unified workflows across the physical, digital, and
electronic materials that comprise their collections. Discovery services have led the way
toward this Web-scale approach and now library management is travelling a similar path.
Breeding will present a conceptual overview of this new model of library automation and a
practical update on the products and services within this new genre and their current status of
development or deployment.
OCLC Web-scale Management Services offer a next-generation choice for traditional, back-
office operations. Moving these functions to the Web alongside cataloging and discovery
activities allows libraries to lower the total cost of ownership for management services,
automate critical operations, reduce support costs and free resources for high-priority
services. It will also allow libraries and industry partners to develop unique and innovative
workflow solutions that can then be shared across the profession.
4. OAI-PMH compliance
Ans.: The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (referred to as the OAI-
PMH in the remainder of this document) provides an application-independent interoperability
framework based on metadata harvesting. There are two classes of participants in the OAI-
PMH framework:
 Data Providers administer systems that support the OAI-PMH as a means of exposing
metadata; and
 Service Providers use metadata harvested via the OAI-PMH as a basis for building
value-added services.
In this document the key words "must", "must not", " required", "shall", "shall not", "should",
" should not", "recommended", "may", and "optional " in bold face are to be interpreted as
described in RFC 2119 . An implementation is not conformant if it fails to satisfy one or
more of the "must" or "required" level requirements for the protocols it implements.

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This document refers in several places to "community-specific" practices to which individual
protocol implementations may conform. These practices are described in an accompanying
Implementation Guidelines document.
The OAI framework is based on a client/server architecture using two groups of services: the
data provider (for example; repositories) and the service provider (for example; a metadata
harvester such as OAIster). The data provider services are generally embedded into the
repository or open archive software and provide a mechanism to allow open access to the
metadata held within the repository. Service providers make use of the OAI-PMH interfaces
provided by the data providers to harvest the metadata to a central location. Using this
aggregated metadata, the service provider can then offer value added services such as search
and dissemination tools.
5. Features of Evergreen
Ans.: Evergreen enables you to create an organizational tree that describes the systems,
branches, or other units that comprise your organization. By default, the org unit tree that
appears to patrons in the OPAC is identical to the one that appears to users of the staff client.
Using this feature, you can condense or re-order the organizational tree into a simpler
structure for patrons using the OPAC while maintaining the complex organizational tree that
is available to users of the staff client.
As a further enhancement, you can hide a parental org unit yet still make its child org units
visible in the OPAC. In previous versions of Evergreen, child org units inherited the visibility
setting of their parents.
Evergreen is the name of the software the library, and other members of NOBLE, use to
power the online catalog and process circulation transactions.
Evergreen offers features such as:
 A catalog that allows patrons to search McQuade Library's holding and the holdings
of other NOBLE libraries.
 Options for patrons to place and cancel holds and make renewals without staff help.
 Off campus access to online databases.
6. WEBLIS
Ans.: WebLIS is a CDS/ISIS based Library Integrated System for WWW environment that is
distributed free-of-charge by UNESCO since mid of the year 2004. These are main modules
of the WebLIS system:
 the data entry module which allows to maintain a library catalogue comprising
records that describe various types of bibliographical materials – monographs (2
levels), articles (3 levels), serials as well as miscellaneous materials;
 the search module which is an OPAC (on-line public access catalogue) module that
provides three modes of searching the catalogue – simple retrieval, advanced retrieval
and thesaurus based retrieval;
 the loan module that comprises basic procedures dealing with loan system
management and that is fully integrated with the library catalogue.
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All data of the WebLIS system are stored in CDS/ISIS databases and all these modules are
accessed from an Internet browser (fourth module of WebLIS is called ISIS-Statistica and it
is a stand-alone Windows application for statistical analysis of WebLIS data). WebLIS has
been developed by the software house ICIE and it uses as a server the WWW-ISIS program
prepared by this company (this CGI program uses ISIS-DLL to process CDS/ISIS databases).
In order to avoid confusion with the WWWISIS program developed by BIREME in this
paper we will call the WWW-ISIS program ISIS3W (this is a name of executable file of the
WWW-ISIS program).
7. Open Library System
Ans.: The open library model represents a new way of working for public libraries. It is
designed to be used a complimentary and integral part of the overall service delivery. The
idea is based on a successful model pioneered and extensively used in Scandinavia. It uses
technology and processes to enable a library to open with or without staff needing to be
present. This technology enables councils to make further choices about how services are
delivered and can be used to maintain or even extend opening times to suit the needs of the
individual community they serve at a time when austerity is forcing Local Authorities to
reduce opening hours or even close libraries.
Open Libraries offers a significant departure to the service delivery, this innovation and new
way of working offers potential benefits far beyond just the extension of library opening
hours. The potential is limited to the imagination of those stakeholders engaged in optimising
the benefits of the library service and lies in the creation and maintenance of community hubs
and in supporting the national aspirations for libraries across the world.
8. Audio/Video compression
Ans.: Video compression uses modern coding techniques to reduce redundancy in video data.
Most video compression algorithms and codecs combine spatial image compression and
temporal motion compensation. Video compression is a practical implementation of source
coding in information theory. In practice, most video codecs also use audio compression
techniques in parallel to compress the separate, but combined data streams as one package.
Video data may be represented as a series of still image frames. The sequence of frames
contains spatial and temporal redundancy that video compression algorithms attempt to
eliminate or code in a smaller size. Similarities can be encoded by only storing differences
between frames, or by using perceptual features of human vision. For example, small
differences in color are more difficult to perceive than are changes in brightness.
Compression algorithms can average a color across these similar areas to reduce space, in a
manner similar to those used in JPEG image compression. Some of these methods are
inherently lossy while others may preserve all relevant information from the original,
uncompressed video.
One of the most powerful techniques for compressing video is interframe compression.
Interframe compression uses one or more earlier or later frames in a sequence to compress
the current frame, while intraframe compression uses only the current frame, effectively
being image compression.

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The most powerful used method works by comparing each frame in the video with the
previous one. If the frame contains areas where nothing has moved, the system simply issues
a short command that copies that part of the previous frame, bit-for-bit, into the next one. If
sections of the frame move in a simple manner, the compressor emits a (slightly longer)
command that tells the decompressor to shift, rotate, lighten, or darken the copy. This longer
command still remains much shorter than intraframe compression. Interframe compression
works well for programs that will simply be played back by the viewer, but can cause
problems if the video sequence needs to be edited.
9. Item submission workflow in DSpace
Ans.: A workflow is an optional process that items submitted into DSpace are put through.
The workflow allows repository administrators to have an input to the items that have been
submitted before they get formally archived within the repository.
DSpace captures, distributes and preserves digital research products. Here you can find
articles, working papers, preprints, technical reports, conference papers and data sets in
various digital formats. Content grows daily as new communities and collections are added to
DSpace.
The DSpace content is organized around Communities which can correspond to
administrative entities such as schools, departments, labs and research centers. Within each
community there can be an unlimited number subcommunities and an unlimited number of
collections. Each collection may contain an unlimited number of items.
10. Librarian’s interface in GSDL
Ans.: The basic idea behind open source is very simple: When programmers can read,
redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People
improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is
used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing
The Greenstone Digital Library Software (GSDL) offers exciting ways to build and distribute
digital document collections. It helps us to publish digital collections on the Internet or on
CD-ROM. Within a few minutes time, one can build fulltext search indexes and browsing
classifiers for any collection of digital documents. Once initiated, the collection building
process will take place mechanically, running into several hours or days for a very large
collection.
The Workspace file tree shows the sources of data available to the Librarian Interface -- the
local file system (including disk and CD-ROM drives), the contents of existing Greenstone
collections, and the cache of downloaded files if Web mirroring is enabled. You can copy and
view these files but you cannot move, delete, or edit them, with the exception of the
downloaded files, which can be deleted. Navigate this space to find the files you want to
include in the collection.