670 ICAL 2009 – POSTER PAPERS

Electronic Publishing: Impact of ICT on Academic Libraries

Archana Saxena Assistant Librarian Sahara Arts & Management Academy Lucknow, India

Abstract information contained in the objective publications with In the age of information explosion, Information and simple, powerful search and retrieval capabilities. Communication technology (ICT) is progressively Thus, e-publishing can be used effectively in the replacing the old methods of information collection, context of Dr. S.R. Ranganathan’s fourth law “Save storage and retrieval. Academic Library System is a the time of user” for many purposes. The U.G.C Infonet major beneficiary group of ICT. Over Internet, a teacher E-Jounrnal Consortium is a unique ICT programme can share his knowledge with peers in the subject, a for facilitating free electronic access to scholarly researcher can collect information on his area of study academic databases and journals to 100 universities from anywhere in the world and a student can clarify his is the largest academic network in the world. doubts which may not be possible in the classroom. Further Internet has widened the concept of distance education by making the information available from far Electronic Publishing away places to PCs installed at homes. Educational It is basically a form of publishing in which books, institutions in under-developed countries can access the journals and magazines are being produced and latest information available in developed countries stored electronically rather than in print. These through Internet without any time delay. This technology publications have all qualities of the normal publishing has also transformed the process of publishing and like the use of colours, graphics and images and they distribution of information. Electronic publishing has become a foundation for the new information society to are much convenient also. It is the process for get the right information to the right person at the right production of typeset quality documents containing time. These changes in the publishing industry have a text, graphics, pictures, tables, equations etc. it is direct impact on the Academic Library Systems. The used to define the production of any that is digitized paper attempts to discuss the impact of electronic form. publishing on Academic Library System and radical changes in the publishing industry especially with impact Electronic Publishing = Electronic Technology + of electronic media and Internet. Computer Technology + Communication Technology + Publishing Keywords: Electronic Publishing, Information and Communication Technology. Definition Kist (1989) defined electronic publishing as “the Introduction application by publishers of a computer aided process, The information technology has changed the way that by which they find, capture, shape, store and update information is stored and disseminated and has information content in order to disseminate it to a threatened the traditional approaches to the library chosen audience” and its services. The digital revolution has taken on the world of publishing also. Now paperless publishing From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, electronic or electronic publishing is gaining more prominence. publishing includes the digital publication of e-books In the changing scenario, libraries and librarians will and electronic articles, and the development of digital have to play a crucial role in handling conventional libraries and catalogues. and electronic resources. Thus the era of electronic A popular electronic encyclopedia,Grolier Electronic publishing has begun affecting library and information Publishing, 1995 defines electronic publishing as: professionals. The ultimate goal of electronic publishing is to provide fast and easy access to the l The term E-publishing refers more precisely to ARCHANA SHARMA 671

the storage and retrieval of information through database consisting of books, periodicals, reports and electronic communications media. It can employ theses can be converted to electronic form that allows a variety of formats and technologies, some access for public use through digital networks. The already in widespread use by businesses and online electronic library card catalog (OPAC) shows general consumers and others still being how information could be published and that enable developed. user to search the document with various access points like author, title, subjects. E-publishing technology can be classified into two general categories: Various electronic databases publishers today account for publishing information both bibliographic and full l one in which information is stored in a centralized text on CD-ROMs as well as making them available computer source and delivered to the users by a for online retrieval. The prominent online publishers telecommunications systems, including online include DIALOG, BRS, and EBSCO host etc. An database services and videotext represents the excellent example of electronically published most active area in E publishing today, and, databases, the ERIC (Educational Resource l another in which the data is digitally stored on a Information Centre) database is the largest educational disk or other physically deliverable medium. database in the world that contains more than 800,000 records per year. ERIC is available in CD-ROM format Types of E Publishing Models as well as on the net free of charge. a) Electronic Books (E-Books) d) Electronic Publishing on CD-ROM The book is quiet popular document to meet the CD-ROM has provided new dimension for information academic needs of user community. Publishing a book storage and retrieval. Publishing information mainly electronically is to achieve quick publishing and abstracting sources are quiet common in CD-ROM. dissemination of information. A book may not have Although much of the work on e-journals has contemporary value that a journal has but it certainly concentrated on distribution via the Internet, there has has an archival and reference value. A number of been some work on CD-ROM as well. encyclopedias do come out on CD-ROM. It is felt that The advantages of CD-Rom are: the Internet is not a satisfactory platform for publishing full text of documents but CD-ROM is appropriate l More material can be included, both in terms of medium for publishing books. Book length e-text is quantity (650+megabytes) and type (multi-media also available on Floppy disc and CD-ROM, although resources). distribution by floppy disc is decreasing due to the l Full text searching is relatively easy to include. convenience and growing popularity of CD-Rom. Most e-Texts published on CD-ROM are public domain e) Print-on-Demand (POD) works including encyclopedias. Using the E-publishing Print-on-Demand is a new method for printing books. language on Internet like SGML presented and It is a mix of electronic and print publishing. The book published attractively with multimedia effect especially is held by the publisher in electronic form and is printed for documents like Yearbooks, Encyclopedias. out in the hard copy form only on order. This method helps free publishers from the process of doing a b) Electronic Periodicals traditional print run of several thousand books at a Electronic Periodicals are accessible to all users time. The technology involves complex laser printing regardless of geographic location. Anyone in the world systems and electronically formatted text that the with services and the proper computer software and printers can read. The technology is currently very browser services can access online journals. This expensive and the New York Times recently reported accessibility leads to a more diverse audience that Lightning Source, Inc., a leading provider of e throughout the world as well as a readership that may book fulfillment, charges publishers over $4.00 per include not only academics, but students and lay book, which is a higher cost per unit than that of small people. This new media is a vehicle of scientific print run. Prices should come down as more communication and purely a product of scientific publishers and retailers purchase the technology. POD research. This category includes electronic journals, is very hot right now; in a sense, it is a good newsletters, magazines, and discussion lists. Perhaps intermediary step between the regular method of no other area in E-publishing has received more study printing paper books and electronic books. However, than the area of E-journals. As they apply to scholarly because POD is still a method that uses paper and research, are very useful source of information for can not be delivered as cheaply and quickly as Academic Library System. electronic books, in the long run, POD could decline c) Electronic Database in popularity when consumers become comfortable With the emergence of computers and communication with electronic reading software and e book reading technologies the strength of academic information devices. system in the development of modern database has f) Digital Content taken new shape. The holding of the academic library Digital content generally refers to the electronic 672 ICAL 2009 – POSTER PAPERS delivery of fiction that is shorter than book-length, most media companies provide a large amount of web- nonfiction, and other written works of shorter length. based content. Publishers of digital content deliver shorter sized works to the consumer via download to handheld and other Advantages of E-publishing wireless devices. Technology used for delivering digital Electronic publishing is increasingly popular in works content includes Adobe PDF, XML, HDML, WAP of fiction as well as with scientific articles. Electronic (Wireless Application Protocol) and other publishers are able to provide quick gratification for technologies. The security of the data being delivered late-night readers, books that customers might not is the major concern of publishers who want to ensure be able to find in standard book retailers (erotica is they can deliver digital content without the risk of especially popular in e-Book format), and books by someone copying the work and selling or giving away new authors that would be unlikely to be profitable for the works. traditional publishers.The biggest advantages of e- g) Electronic Ink publishing are the cost saving in printing and paper Electronic Ink is a developing technology that could as well as better data storage and maintenance. It is have a huge impact on the media and publishing most ideally suited for publications like journals, industries. Electronic Ink could be used to create a research reports and newsletters. It is also suited for newspaper or book that updates itself. In addition, all information that is dynamic or constantly changing. this content could be programmed to change at any E-publishing finds great use and acceptance in time. For example, you could have a billboard that academics, in the online publishing of educational rotates different ads, or you could receive a coupon in books or tutorials. With an increase in distance the mail that is frequently updated with the latest offer. learning programs, the need for quality educational For media companies, the possibilities are almost material is on the rise. These e-books and study endless. Someday your electronic newspaper will material need to recreate an active learning atmosphere simply update itself every day. E- Ink Corporation, a as can be found in a class full of students and a new company with major investors, and Xerox are two teacher. companies currently developing this technology. Conclusion h) Email Publishing With documents getting published electronically and Email publishing is designed specifically for delivering the Internet resources growing at the rate of 20 per regular content-based email messages. Email cent of a month, the selection of documents is going publishing, or newsletter publishing, is a popular to be a difficult job. The 21st Century librarian will choice among readers who enjoy the ease of receiving basically become a resource sharing librarian, whose news items, articles and short newsletters in their resources will have no boundaries, local, national or email box. The ease of delivery and production of email international. The services, the librarian can offer to newsletters has led to the development of a massive the users, will compel them to create new methods of number of available email newsletters, mailing lists classifying and cataloguing internal resources, and discussion lists on a large variety of topics. developing such type of search engine, which Newsletters are also widely used by media companies specialize in certain subject areas only and interlink to complement their web and print offerings. Many each bit of information which has relevance to anything authors and writers publish their own newsletters in else in the universe of knowledge. In this changing order to attract new readers and to inform their fans scenario, the librarian is going to be a highly skilled about new books and book signings. professional whose total commitment would be as a i) Web Publishing navigators to global intellectual resources as Web publishing is not a novel practice any longer, but facilitators, instructors, gatekeepers of knowledge it continues to change and develop with the interpreters, evaluators, consultants, researchers, introduction of new programming languages. HTML is information managers, promoters and has improved still the most widely used web programming language, the image of the librarians by playing all the roles but XML is also making headway. XML is valuable successfully. So, with the help of the all above because it allows publishers to create content and discussion we can say that the technology based data that is portable to other devices. Nearly every instruction in the field of education gives rise to playing company in the world has some type of website, and a special role by the academic libraries.