Human Resource Development Division
Human Resource Development Division
Greenstone is a suite of software tools for building and distributing digital library
collections on the Internet or CD-ROM. It is open-source, multilingual software,
issued under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Greenstone is
produced by the New Zealand Digital Library Project at the University of Waikato,
and has been developed and distributed in cooperation with UNESCO and the
Human Info NGO in Belgium.
Greenstone is a suite of software which has the ability to serve digital library
collections and build new collections. It provides a versatile way of organizing
information and publishing it on the web or on removable media such as DVD or
USB thumb drive.
Greenstone is produced by the New Zealand Digital Library Project at the
University of Waikato, and distributed in cooperation with UNESCO and the
Human Info NGO. It is open-source software.
The developers of Greenstone received the International Federation for
Information Processing's 2004 Namur Award for "contributions to the awareness
of social implications of information technology, and the need for an holistic
approach in the use of information technology that takes account of social
implications.
Greenstone may be used to create large, searchable collections of digital
documents. In addition to command line tools for digital collection building,
Greenstone has a graphical Greenstone Librarians Interface (GLI) used to build
collections and assign metadata.
Through user selected plugins, Greenstone can import digital documents in formats
including text, html, jpg, tiff, MP3, PDF, video, and Word, among others. The text,
PDF, HTML and similar documents are converted into Greenstone Archive Format
(GAF) which is an XML equivalent format.
A project on SourceForge was created in October 2005 for version 3 of Greenstone
In 2010, Greenstone version 2.83 was included, along with the Koha Integrated
Library System, in an Ubuntu Live-Cd .
The aim of the software is to empower users, particularly in universities, libraries,
and other public service institutions, to build their own digital libraries. Digital
libraries are radically reforming how information is disseminated and acquired in
UNESCO's partner communities and institutions in the fields of education, science
and culture around the world, and particularly in developing countries. We hope
that this software will encourage the effective deployment of digital libraries to
share information and place it in the public domain.
This software is developed and distributed as an international cooperative effort
established in August 2000 among three parties.
New Zealand Digital Library Project at the University of Waikato
Greenstone software grew out of this project, and this initiative has been endorsed
by the Communication Sub-Commission of the New Zealand National
Commission for UNESCO as part of New Zealand's contribution to UNESCO's
programme.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
The dissemination of educational, scientific and cultural information throughout
the world, and particularly its availability in developing countries, is central to
UNESCO's goals as pursued within its intergovernmental Information for All
Programme, and appropriate, accessible information and communication
technology is seen as an important tool in this context.
The Human Info NGO, based in Antwerp, Belgium
This project works with UN agencies and other NGOs, and has established a
worldwide reputation for digitizing documentation of interest to human
development and making it widely available, free of charge to developing nations
and on a cost-recovery basis to others.
Abstract
The Greenstone digital library software is an open-source system for the
construction and presentation of information collections. It builds collections with
effective full-text searching and metadata-based browsing facilities that are
attractive and easy to use. Moreover, they are easily maintained and can be
augmented and rebuilt entirely automatically. The system is extensible: software
"plugins" accommodate different document and metadata types.
Greenstone incorporates an interface that makes it easy for people to create their
own library collections. Collections may be built and served locally from the user's
own web server, or (given appropriate permissions) remotely on a shared digital
library host. End users can easily build new collections styled after existing ones
from material on the Web or from their local files (or both), and collections can be
updated and new ones brought on-line at any time
The Greenstone Digital Library Software from the New Zealand Digital Library
project provides a new way of organizing information and making it available
over the Internet. Collections of information comprise large numbers of documents
(typically several thousand to several million), and a uniform interface is provided
to them. Libraries include many collections, individually organized -- though
bearing a strong family resemblance. The structure of a collection is determined by
a configuration file. Existing collections range from newspaper articles to technical
documents, from educational journals to oral history, from visual art to videos,
from MIDI pop music collections to ethnic folk songs.
Making information available using Greenstone is far more than just "putting it on
the Web." The information becomes searchable, browsable, and maintainable.
Each collection, prior to presentation, undergoes a "building" process that, once
established, is fully automatic. This creates all the structures used for access at run-
time. Searching utilizes various indexes of text and or metadata, while browsing
utilizes metadata such as title and author. When new material appears, it is
incorporated into the collection by rebuilding.
To address the broad demands of digital libraries, the system is public and
extensible. Issued under the Gnu public license, users are invited to contribute
modifications and enhancements. Widely used internationally, Greenstone supports
collections in many different languages. Greenstone CD-ROMs have been
published by the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies for distribution
in developing countries.
Information collections built by Greenstone combine full-text search with
browsing indexes based on different metadata types. There are several ways for
users to find information, although they differ between collections depending on
the metadata available and the collection design.
CONCLUSION:
The project internship has been a valuable and enriching experience,
providing me with extensive insights and practical knowledge in Joomla
website development.
Throughout the duration of the internship, I have acquired a comprehensive
understanding of Joomla's capabilities, its modular architecture, and its
significance as an open-source content management system. Working on
Joomla has equipped me with hands-on experience in crafting intuitive and
dynamic websites tailored to specific organizational needs.
The project's emphasis on user-centric design, information accessibility,
integration of functionality, responsive design, security, and scalability has
broadened my skill set and deepened my appreciation for building robust
online platforms.
This internship has allowed me to explore and implement various features
of Joomla, including template customization, extension integration, and
content management.
The process of creating a responsive and user-friendly interface has
honed my abilities in website design, ensuring optimal user experiences
across different devices.