Digital Libraries

Purnima Kaushik
[email protected]
 A Brief Overview

• DL- Some Definitions

• Benefits& Limitations of DL
• Emerging Technologies& Standards
• Tools Available
• A Model DL for India
• Planning a DL Project
• Challenges in DL Environment
 Definition and Concept of Digital Library

An electronic library (referred to as a digital library) is

a library in which collections are stored in electronic
media formats (as opposed to print, microform, or
other media) and accessible via computers.
• The electronic content may be stored locally, or
accessed remotely via computer networks.
 Digital Library

• The first use of the term digital library in print may

have been in a 1988 report to the Corporation for
National Research Initiatives.
• The term digital libraries was first popularized by the
NSF/DARPA/NASA Digital Libraries Initiative in 1994.

• The term virtual library was initially used

interchangeably with digital library, but is now
primarily used for libraries that are virtual in other
senses (such as libraries which aggregate distributed
content).
 Definition and Concept of Digital
Library

• The Digital Libraries are electronic libraries

where the information is acquired, stored and
retrieved in digital form.
• Digital Libraries are the group-interlinked
workstations connected to the high-speed
networks.
• In the context of digital imaging, librarians face
greater challenges in capturing, storing,
formatting, retrieval and reproduction of non-
textual materials.
 Definition and Concept of Digital
Library (Contd--)
• In digital libraries the e-resources are mounted on
the servers located at remote places and the
member libraries using user login and password on
yearly subscription basis may access the
information.
• The digital collection resources may be e-journals,
bibliographic and full text databases, e-books, e-
prints etc called e-resources that may be shown in
the digital collection and catalogue of the member
libraries for a particular period of time.
•
• The member libraries can access the resources
simultaneously at a time or at different time.
Therefore many libraries may use the digital
collection available at one site at the same time
without any problems over the Internet through
Dial Up, DSL, Lease Line or VSAT Connectivity.
• So the digital libraries are libraries without wall and
it is also known as virtual library in broader sense.
 Advantages of Digital Library

• No physical boundary.
• Round the clock availability ;
• Multiple access;
• Information retrieval Easy;
• Preservation and conservation;
• Space.;
• Added value (Portable, Storage etc.); and
• Improved access - Searching and browsing
 Advantages of Digital Library

• DL brings the library to the user

• Improved access - Searching and browsing
• Information can be shared more easily
• Easier to keep information current
• Information is always available
 Limitations of DL

Technological obsolescence
Hardware
Software
Cost of content refreshing
Rights management
Inter-operability
Network bandwidth
Functional Components of DL
Architecture of a DL
 Digital Objects
Type of Digital Objects
• Text
• Image
• Animation
• Sound
• Video
 File Formats for DO

Image
• BMP
• JPEG
• PNG
• GIF
• TIFF
 File Formats for DO

Audio
• MIDI
• WAV
• MP3
• RAM/RA
 File Formats for DO

Video

• AVI
• Quick Time (mov/qt)
• MPEG/MPG
 Tools of Digital Library

• • There are various tools through which digital library can

be operational in a network environment. These tools are:
• – e-mail,
• – mailing lists,
• – newsgroups,
• – bulletin board,
• – web form, polling,
• – instant messaging,
• – Chat, conferencing,
• – Internet Telephony,
• – video conferencing and virtual worlds.
 Digital Library Software

• Dspace is available at http://www.dspace.org: DSpace is a

digital library system to capture, store, index, preserve, and
redistribute the intellectual output of a university’s research
faculty in digital formats developed jointly by MIT Libraries
and Hewlett-Packard (HP), DSpace is available to research
institutions world-wide as an open source system that can be
customized and extended.
• Green Stone Digital Library Software: It is Open Source
Software available from http://greenstone.org under the term
of the GNU General Public License.
• GNU E-Prints Archiving Software (Version 2.2.2): The software
is available from http://www.eprints.org
 Digital Library Services

• Content Page Services;

• CAS and SDI Services through e-mail alert or group
messaging;
• Online access to in-house databases through Campus
LAN over Intranet;
• Access to Shared or Union Catalogue available at
remote locations
• Document Delivery of Digital content on demand;
and many more services as per the requirement of the
users.
• Access of CD-ROM based information retrieval
services in a network environment;
• Access to On-line Public Access catalogue (OPAC)
within the campus or over Internet;
• Provision of on-line circulation services (like
reservation and queries);
• Online Subscription to journals
• E-mail/ Internet Access;
• Access to online databases for providing Indexing
and Abstracting Services;
 Digital Library Initiatives in India

• The concept of Digital Libraries and digitisation has started in the western
countries in the last couple of decades back. In developing countries
including India, initiatives are being taken.
• The Government of India has already taken initiatives with the help from
the United States of America.
• The National Science Foundation of the USA has initiated the “Million
Book Project” at the Carnegie Mellon University in USA with India as a
partner in this endeavor.
• The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, is the focal point of this activity
in India. The project is an International cooperative attempt to digitize a
million seminal books in fields that happen to be in the public domain or
are copyrighted but out of print, making them freely available on the web to
anyone at any time anywhere in the world. This helps bridging the barriers
in terms of time, geographical location and economic strata of the users.
 Digital Library Initiatives in India

• The project aims at digitizing a million books by

2005 in India alone. When completed, it will be
an important contribution in the field of
digitisation in India.
• As part of this project, India launched the ‘ Digital
Library of India Portal’ in September 2002.
• While inaugurating the Portal, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul
Kalam, the Hon’ble President of India in his
inaugural address said “India has taken the
initiative at the right time”.
 Digital Library Initiatives in India
• As a part of the digitization efforts, the Department of
Culture, Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Government of
India, also launched the National Mission for Manuscripts
in February 2003.
• Shri Atal Behari Vajpaee, the Hon’ble Prime Minister of
India, inaugurated the Mission.
• The main objectives of the mission are to facilitate
conservation and preservation of manuscripts through
training, awareness, and financial support; to document,
catalogue, and promote access to Indian manuscripts; to
encourage scholarship and research in the study of Indian
languages and manuscript logy; and to build a National
Manuscript Library
 Digital Library Initiatives in India

Digital Library of India

• The digital Library of India project is hosted by
the Regional Mega Scanning centre, Indian
Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad in
co-operation with IISc, CMU, NSF, ERNET and
MCIT for the Govt. of India and 21 participating
centres. It has developed substantial collection
of books, journals, newspapers and manuscript (
http://dli.iiit.ac.in/ ).
 Traditional Knowledge Digital Library
(TKDL)
• NISCAIR and the Department of Indian Systems of
Medicine and Homeopathy (ISM&H) have entered into
an agreement for establishing a Traditional Knowledge
Digital Library (TKDL) on Ayurveda.
• NISCAIR is the implementing agency for this project. Its
responsibility include providing user friendly software,
setting up of TKDL hardware and software platform
data entry, digitizing images of Slokas, making
Directory on Traditional Knowledge Resource
Classification (TKRC), popularizing the database and
hosting the database in web/ portal.
 National Science Library/ National
Digital Library
• National Science (Digital) Library is a comprehensive collection of
Science & Technology publications in the country offering services
on a national scale.
• It subscribes to almost all S & T periodicals and has over 1,80,000
bound volumes of books and periodicals. National Science Library
has also an Electronic Library Division with a rich collection of more
than 5,000 foreign journals, conference proceedings etc and a large
number of databases including CA, CAB, SCI, Current Contents,
Indian Standards and US Patents.
• It has been planned to digitize the NSL holdings and to facilitate
storing of digitised information in the emerging electronic library
environment, eventually converting NSL into National Science
Digital Library (NSDL), which would serve as a model for other
libraries throughout the country.
 ETDs Initiative in India

• •Sodhganga Project initiated by INFLIBNET;

• •Sodhgagotri Project initiated by INFLIBNET
• •Vidya Nidhi Projects
• •The Library and Information Science Department of Mysore
University has taken up the ambitious project, which aims to create
an online database of all doctoral theses and dissertations
published by Indian Universities. Having successfully completed the
pilot project sponsored by the Union Science and Technology
Ministry’s National Information System for Science and Technology
(NISSAT), the university has begun work in July 2003 on the national
task of digitizing around 30,000 theses in English and multiple
Indian languages published every year by 300 Indian Universities
and autonomous educational institutions.
Digital Library initiatives at INFLIBNET

• UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium

• N-LIST Programme for College Libraries
• Institutional Repositories at INFLIBNET
• ETDs Initiatives at INFLIBNET
• Hosting of Scholarly Journals
 Successful Consortia Initiatives for E-
Resources
• •UGC-INFONET (INFLIBNET) : 142 University Libraries
• •http://web.inflibnet.ac.in/info/ugcinfonet/ugcinfonet.jsp :
5000 + E-Journals and Databases, JCCC
• •INDEST Consortium (AICTE) : 120 (38 MHRD Institute and
82 others)(10000 e-journals, 16 Databases, JCCC)
http://paniit.iitd.ac.in/indest/
• •FORSA (Astronomy / Astrophysics Libraries : 11 Libraries (
http://www.iiap.res.in/library/forsa/html )
• •DAE : 50 Libraries (1600 E-Journals) (
http://www.tirf.res.in/~libws/ )
• •N-LIST Project of UGC-INFONET and AICTE-INDEST
 E-Resource Consortia Initiatives in
India
• •CSIR: 40 ( 3100 E-Journals)
http://www.niscair.res.in/Activitiesandservices/Majo
rProjects/majproj.htm#ejournalconsortia
• • ISRO: 12 Libraries ( 900 e-journals and JCCC
• •IMM (6 Libraries ): http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/
• •http://www.iimb.ernet.in/,
http://www.iimcal.ac.in/
• •http://www.iimidr.ac.in/
• •http://www.iimk.ac.in/
• •http://www.iiml.ac.in.in/
Emerging Technologies
&
Standards
 Uniform Resource Names

• Any form of Uniform Resource Name

(URN) has three properties:
1.Location independence -- not tied to a
particular computer
2.Persistence -- long-term validity
3.Global uniqueness
 Uniform Resource Names

• Handle System by CNRI

• DOIs by DOI Foundation
• PURL by OCLC
 Unicode

• Unicode Standard is a character coding

system designed to support the worldwide
interchange, processing, and display of the
written texts of the diverse languages
• Unicode provides a unique number for every
character
• Unicode enables a single software product or
a single website to be targeted across
multiple platforms, languages and countries
without re-engineering
 Metadata

• Metadata contains information about

objects (files, images, etc.)
• A metadata record consists of a set of
attributes or elements necessary to
describe a particular resource
• Metadata allows search engines to find and
classify resources
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI)

• International standard for describing network

digital resources, conceived in 1994
• Consists of 15 elements, each repeatable, none
mandatory
• Has reached standard status – W3C, NISO, ISO
• Widely used in several projects around the
world
• Being refined further
 Dublin Core Metadata Element Sets

Resource Type
Title
Format
Author/Creator
Resource Identifier
Subject/ Keywords
Source
Description
Language
Publisher
Relation
Other Contributor
Coverage
Date
Rights Management
 Key Features of DC
•Small and simple element set
•Non-specialists can create metadata records
•Enable effective search and retrieval
• Commonly understood semantics
•DC element set in several languages
•Extensibility
•DC record can be embedded in the resource itself (e.g. “Meta” tag of HTML)
• DC elements may be contained in a record separate from the source
 Open Archives Initiative Protocol for
Metadata Harvesting

•OAI-PMH is a lightweight harvesting protocol for sharing metadata between services

•The OAI-PMH gives a simple technical option for data providers to make their metadata
available to services, based on the open standards HTTP and XML
•world-wide consolidation of scholarly archives
•free access to the archives (at least: metadata)
•consistent interfaces for archives and service provider
•low barrier protocol / effortless implementation (e.g., because based on HTTP, XML, DC)
 OAI-PMH
Basic Functioning
Tools Available
 D Space

• Developed by MIT Libraries and HP

• Institutional Repository model
• Support for a Variety of Digital Formats and Content
Types
• Digital Preservation
• Access Control
• Open Source Software
 D Space

v UNIX-like OS-
v Java 1.3 or later
v JavaBeans Activation Framework
v Java Servlet 2.3 and JSP 1.2
v Java Servlet Container/Application Server (eg. Tomcat)
v Apache 1.3
v Ant 1.5
v PostgreSQL 7.3+
 Greenstone

• Developed by the New Zealand Digital

Library Project at the University of Waikato
• Runs on various platforms
• Highly customizable
• Collections can be exported to CD ROMs
• Requires Apache and Perl
• Open Source
 Eprints

• Developed at the University of Southampton

• Creates online archives of the research
output of an academic institution
• Supports variety of document formats
• Submitted papers go through a moderation
process (if administrators desire)
• Requires LAMP architecture
 Challenges in DL Environment

• Develop improved technology for digitizing analog

materials
• Design search and retrieval tools that compensate for
abbreviated or incomplete cataloging or descriptive
information.
• Design tools that facilitate the enhancement of cataloging
or descriptive information by incorporating the
contributions of users.
• Establish protocols and standards to facilitate the
assembly of distributed digital libraries.
• Address legal concerns associated with access, copying,
and dissemination of physical and digital materials
 Challenges in DL Environment

• Integrate access to both digital and physical materials

• Develop approaches that can present heterogeneous
resources in a coherent way
• Make the digital library useful to different
communities of users and for different purposes
• Provide more efficient and more flexible tools for
transforming digital content to suit the needs of end-
users.
• Develop economic models for the support of the
Digital Library