Original Research Article DOI: 10.18231/2456-9623.2018.0010 Digitization of library resources and the formation of digital libraries: Special reference in green stone digital library software Sanjay Singh Library Assistant, Central Library, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India *Corresponding Author: Email: [email protected] Abstract This paper discusses the new activities, methods and technology used in digitization and formation of digital libraries. It set out some key points involved and the detailed plans required in the process, offers pieces of advice and guidance for the practicing librarians and information scientists. Digital libraries are being created today for diverse communities and in different fields e.g. education, science culture, development, health, governance and so on. With the availability of several free digital Library software packages at the recent time, mainly green stone digital library software is the one of them to creation and sharing of information through the digital library collections has become an attractive and feasible proposition for library and information professionals around the world. Keywords: Digitization, Digital libraries, Librarians, Information scientists, Library software, Green stone digital library, Information professionals. Introduction institutions, though this is not as dominant as the Traditional methods of collecting, storing, previous definition. The following definition given by processing, and accessing information have undergone the Digital Library Federation (DLF) brings out the a massive transformation due to the growth of virtual essence of this perception. libraries, digital libraries, online databases, and library “Digital libraries are organization that provide the and information networks. Digital technology, Internet resources, including the specialized staff to select, connectivity, and physical content can now be structure, offer intellectual access to interpret, dovetailed, resulting in a digital library. Digital libraries distribute, preserve the integrity of and ensure the and the digitization of print materials can preserve persistence over time of Collections of digital works so resources in art and culture, education, science and that they are readily and economically available for use technology, literature and humanities, media and by a defined community or set of communities.” entertainment, and cultural heritage and history. In The point in this definition is on the digital library India, a substantial number of libraries and information as a dynamic, growing organism. As digital libraries centers have initiated digital library projects including evolve and become the predominant mode of access to databases and e-journals, or by digitizing their own knowledge and learning, institutionalization of digital archival-valuable collections. Hundreds of thousands of libraries appears to be on the increase. ancient books and manuscripts, scores of them still Requirement for Digital Libraries: The Internet and preserved in palm leaves, urgently need digitization to World Wide Web provide the impetus and preserve the cultural heritage of India. technological environment for the development and operation of a digital library. The Internet provides the What are Digital Libraries? TCP/IP and or its associated protocol for accessing the A digital library is a collection of digital information and web provide tools and technique for documents or objects. This definition is the dominant publishing the information over Internet. In the digital perception of many people of today. Nevertheless, environment it is reasonable to say that a central back Smith (2001) defined a digital library as an organized up or archive should be created at the national level, and focused collection of digital objects, including text, which will store information output of the region as images, video and audio, with the methods of access well as information from outside the country. Some of and retrieval and for the selection, creation, the requirements for digital libraries are: organization, maintenance and sharing of collection. 1. Audio visual: Colour T.V., V.C.R., D.V.D., Sound Though the focus of this definition is on the document box, Telephone etc. collection, it stresses the fact that the digital libraries 2. Computer: Server, P.C. with multimedia, U.PS. etc. are much more than a random assembly of digital 3. Network: LAN, MAN, WAN, Internet etc. objects. They retain the several qualities of traditional 4. Printer: Laser printer, Dot matrix, Barcode printer, libraries such as a defined community of users, focused Digital graphic printer etc. collections, long-term availability, the possibility of 5. Scanner: H.P. Scan jet, flatbed, Sheet feeder, Drum selecting, organizing, preserving and sharing resources. scanner, Slide scanner, Microfilming scanner, The digital libraries are sometimes perceived as Digital camera, Barcode scanner etc. IP Indian Journal of Library Science and Information Technology, January-June, 2018;3(1):44-48 44 Sanjay Singh Digitization of library resources and the formation of digital libraries 6. Storage devices: Optical storage device, CD-ROM, (bibliographic information) to each document being Jukebox etc. added to the collection. 7. Software: Any suitable software, which is Indexing and Storage: This component carries out the interconnected and suitable for LAN and WAN indexing and storage of documents and metadata for connection. PC efficient search and retrieval. Search and Retrieval: This is the digital library Benefits of Digital Libraries interface used by the end users to browse, search, 1. No physical boundary: The user of a digital retrieve and view the contents of the digital library. It is library need not to go to the library physically, typically presented to the users as Hyper-Text Mark-up people from all over the world could gain access to Language (HTML) page. the same information, as long as an Internet These mentioned components are the important connection is available. characteristic of digital library, which differ it from 2. Round the Clock Availability: Digital libraries others collections of online information can be accessed at any time, 24 hours a day and 365 days of the year Digitization: Witten and David (2003) defined 3. Multiple accesses: The same resources can be used Digitization as the process of taking traditional library at the same time by a number of users. materials that are in form of books and papers and 4. Structured Approach: Digital library provides converting them to the electronic form where they can access to much richer content in a more structured be stored and manipulated by a computer. manner i.e. we can easily move from the catalo to Ding, Choo Ming (2000) has elaborated the works of the particular book then to a particular chapter and Getz (1997), Line (1996) and Mckinley (1997) on the so on. advantages of digitization. They maintained that: 5. Information Retrieval: The user is able to use any 1. Digitization means no new buildings are required; search term bellowing to the word or phrase of the information sharing can be enhanced and entire collection. Digital library will provide very redundancy of collections reduced. user friendly interfaces, giving click able access to 2. Digitization leads to the development of Internet in its resources. digitalized based libraries. As Internet is now the 6. Preservation and Conservation: An exact copy preferred form of publication and dissemination. of the original can be made any number of times 3. Digital materials can be sorted, transmitted and without any degradation in quality. retrieved easily and quickly. 7. Space: Whereas traditional libraries are limited by 4. Access to electronic information is cheaper than its storage space, digital libraries have the potential to print counterpart when all the files are stored in an store much more information, simply because electronic warehouse with compatible facilities and digital information requires very little physical equipment. space to contain them. When the library had no 5. Digital texts can be linked, thus made interactive; space for extension digitization is the only solution. besides, it enhances the retrieval of more 8. Networking: A particular digital library can information. provide the link to any other resources of other In the light of the following advantages, it is digital library very easily thus a seamlessly natural today to find more information being digitized integrated resource sharing can be achieved. and uploaded into the Internet or Compact-Disc Read 9. Cost: The cost of maintaining a digital library is Only Memory (CD-ROM) in order to be made much lower than that of a traditional library. A correspondingly accessible globally. traditional library must spend large sums of money paying for staff, book maintains, rent, and Why digitization? additional books. Digital libraries do away with There are three main needs for digitization; two or all these fees. the three of them may apply to your digital library project. Functional Components of Digital Library 1. To preserve the Documents: That is to allow Most digital libraries share common functional people to read older or unique documents without components. These include: damage to the originals. Selection and Acquisition: The typical processes 2. To make the documents more accessible: This is to covered in this component include the selection of serve the existing users better; e.g. to allow the documents