Paradigm on Information Professitional in Digital Library Era

Paradigm on Information Professitionals in Digital Era
P.G DAMODHARAN
Assistant Librarian,P.G Library
K.L.N COLLEGE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,Madurai
E-mail:damo_dharan31@yahoo.com,Mobile No:-09361114391
Abstract
Information and Communication Technology has revolutionized the concept of libraries. Each and every library is slowly getting digitized. A 'digital library' comprises digital collections, services and infrastructure to support lifelong learning, research, scholarly communication as well as preservation and conservation of our recorded knowledge. It is also a process of democratization of information. This article discusses the factors that will necessitate the traditional libraries to get digitized, some open source software to setup digital library are identified, the influence of digital library in this scenario, the merits and demerits of digital libraries and infrastructure for building a digital library etc. are focused.
Introduction
The term Digital Library has a variety of potential meanings, ranging from a digitized collection of material that one might find in a traditional library through to the collection of all digital information along with the services that make that information useful to all possible users. As there are many definitions of a “digital library,” terms such as “electronic library” and “virtual library” are often used synonymously. A digital library is nothing but a large database for the people who are working on hypertext environment. It is an environment, which supports the full life cycle of creation, storage, preservation, dissemination and use of data, information and knowledge.
A digital library is an organized collection of digitized material or it’s holding in the digital form, which can be accessible by a computer on the network by using TCP/IP or other protocol.
The mentioned three processes in Digital Library are
i) Knowledge resources (books, journals, i.e. resources, Internet)
ii) Teleological facilities and resources (computer, online catalogues, websites, LANs file servers etc.)
iii) Financial resources (Budget) Human resources (Skills for manpower training)
Digital Library
Digital Library is a "Collection of digital objects (text, video, audio) with methods for access and retrieval, as far as users are concerned with selection, organization, and maintenance (in the point of view of librarian). The digital library is not merely equivalent to a digitized collection with information management tools. It is also a series of activities that brings together collections, services and people in support of the full life cycle of creation, dissemination, use and presentation of data, information and knowledge.
Traditional Library to Digital Library
Traditional libraries are limited by storage space; digital libraries have the potential to store much more information, simply because digital information requires very little physical space to contain it. As such, the cost of maintaining a digital library is much lower than that of a traditional library as traditional library must spend large sums of money paying for staff, book maintenance, rent, and additional books.
Digital libraries do away with these fees. Both types of library require cataloguing input to allow users to locate and retrieve material. Digital libraries may be more willing to adopt innovations in technology providing users with improvements in electronic and audio book technology as well as presenting new forms of communication such as wikis and blogs; conventional libraries may consider that providing online access to their OPAC catalogue is sufficient.
An important advantage to digital conversion is increased accessibility to users. There is also availability to individuals who may not be traditional patrons of a library, due to geographic location or organizational affiliation. Digital libraries as a means of easily and rapidly accessing books, archives and images of various types are now widely recognized by commercial interests and public bodies alike.
• No Physical Boundary. The user of a digital library need not go to the library physically; people from all over the world can gain access to the same information, as long as an Internet connection is available.
• Round the Clock Availability. A major advantage of digital libraries is that people can gain access to the information at any time, night or day.
• Multiple Accesses. The same resources can be used simultaneously by a number of institutions and patrons
• Information Retrieval. The user is able to use any search term (word, phrase, title, name, and subject) to search the entire collection. Digital libraries can provide very user-friendly interfaces, giving clickable access to its resources.
• Preservation and Conservation. Digitization is not a long-term preservation solution for physical collections, but does succeed in providing access copies for materials that would otherwise fall to degradation from repeated use. Digitized collections and born-digital objects pose many preservation and conservation concerns that analog materials do not.
• Space. Whereas traditional libraries are limited by storage space, digital libraries have the potential to store much more information; simply because digital information requires very little physical space to contain them and media storage technologies are more affordable than ever before.
• Added value. Certain characteristics of objects, primarily the quality of images, may be improved. Digitization can enhance legibility and remove visible flaws such as stains and discoloration.
Digital Environment
Networked environment of an organization is required for modern technological development to share knowledge within the members and with the international community on a specialized field. High speed Internet connectivity will enhance the information access mechanism to the library users for the content to which the library/organization is the authenticated user.
The resources of a digital library are those, which the computer can store, organize, transmit and display without any intervening conversion process. It includes both print and electronic or digital material. The digital material may be of multimedia types or any other i.e. only digital audio, video, full text information, photograph, drawing, digitized sound, e-book, v-book, electronic tax, map, image, 3D representation etc. The collection may also include structured /unstructured text, scanned images, graphic audios, video recording etc
On line resources:
1. Local database of traditional books in machine-readable form.
2. E-book, v-book, electronic tax, map, image, sound, video, and multimedia etc.
3. E-journal LAN, MAN, WAN for web browsing, e- mail etc.
4. Well trained manpower for online help
Off line resources:
1. C.D-ROM, Jukebox etc. 2. Audio visual aid etc.
Paradigm on Information Professionals in Digital Library
The ready availability of information on the Internet, and its widespread use, really presents Librarians with an opportunity, not a threat. Technology Savvy users realize that they need help, which Librarians can provide. Librarians now face difficulties and complicity challenges due to new trends in information access.
In the present technological/Internet era the professionals have to change themselves as the information profession is being changed. Now information specialists have to work as e-information resources in which various professional groups are expected to map strategies that lead to produce, manage, maintain and service the information. Information professional has to work as:
Librarian- In addition to being library manager, they also act as collection development, technical processors and so on, taking care of information quality.
Information Manager- To meet the information needs of the user they should know how to manage and deliver appropriate information services.
Information adviser/instructor- Ensure that user/staff know how to access relevant sources of information (literacy).
System and Networking- For delivery of information to their users in an appropriate manner develop and design appropriate systems.
Role of Librarian in Digital Era
The role of library and information professional has always been to provide access to information to those who need it. The activities realizing this goal have evolved and transformed over the years. This includes - Available technology, and need of an evolving information society. Information activities have been guided by the developments in the field of storages, presentation and archiving of knowledge, collection development and organization of knowledge, information explosion and computers in information retrieval. Librarians are information professional involved in information gathering, storage, retrieval and dissemination and on the other hand the computer specialist supports the library and informational professionals in this endeavor. For successful implementation of Digital Library, it is essential that LIS professionals are well trained and possess requisite knowledge and skills in this respect.
ICT in Digital Era
 Acceptance of Technological change.
 Knowledge of user interaction with knowledge resources.
 Provide quality service.
 Be adoptive, flexible and resistant.
 Be resourceful
 Poses excellent communication skills, constantly update personal knowledge base by keeping in touch with the latest development
 Create awareness among the users, make them accept the changes
 Be an information management strategist, etc.
Infra Structure required for digital libraries
The resources provided by the digital libraries can be classified in two types they are
i) In-house Resources
ii) External Resources
a) In-house Resources
Resources that are stored in the web server locally and made accessible through the network. E-books, course notes, and application notes etc. are examples of the in-house resources.
b) External Resources
Resource materials that are not stored in the web server, which include online journals, online databases, online e-books etc. External resources are provided by different publishers - ASME, ACM, IEEE, Oxford University Press Journal (OUP) and many more are there.
The publisher provides access to their full text materials by two methods:
(i) Username and password
(ii) Internet Protocol (IP) address based Access Control Method
Influence of Digital Library
The limited buying power of libraries, complex nature of recent document, storage problem etc is some of the common factors which influence to the change to digital mode, some other factors are-
a) Information explosion
b) Searching problem in traditional libraries
c) Low cost of technology: When we consider the storage capacity of digital document and its maintenance then it can be easily realized that the cost of technologies is much more less than that of traditional libraries.
d) Environmental factor: The use of digital libraries is the cleanest technology to fulfill the slogan “Burn a CD-ROM save a tree”
e) New generation needs
Open Source Software Application
Open source software are available to set up the digital library, through internet all the information resources can be shared among users members and some available software are listed below
• Greenstone Digital Library software
Greenstone is a suite of software for building and distributing digital library collections. It provides a new way of organizing information and publishing it on the Internet or on CD-ROM. Greenstone is produced by the New Zealand Digital Library project at the University of Waikato, and distributed in cooperation with UNESCO and the Humanity Libraries Project. It is open-source software, available under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
 Avanti Circulation System
The Avanti circulation system is a simple, scalable, network able, client/server circulation system that can be deployed in small to medium scale libraries. The end product will be modular: consisting of a system core, circulation module, minimal OPAC, and network and user interfaces. The entire system is written in Java. Avanti 0.3.1 was developed using the Black down JDK v1.1.7 on a Linux system with the servlet classes being developed using the Apache Jserv served engine.

 CERN Document Server Software (CDSware)
The CERN Document Server Software (CDSware) is the software developed by, maintained by, and used at, the CERN Document Server. It allows you to run your own electronic preprint server, your own online library catalogue or a document system on the web. It complies with the Open Archives Initiative metadata harvesting protocol (OAI-PMH) and uses MARC 21 as its underlying bibliographic standard. The CDSware is free software, licensed under GNU General Public License (GPL).
 DSpace Durable Digital Depository
DSpace is a digital repository created to capture, distribute and preserve the intellectual output of MIT. As a joint project of MIT Libraries and the Hewlett-Packard Company, DSpace provides stable long-term storage needed to house the digital products of MIT faculty and researchers.
For the user: DSpace enables easy remote access and the ability to read and search DSpace items from one location: the World Wide Web.
For the contributor: DSpace offers the advantages of digital distribution and long-term preservation for a variety of formats including text, audio, video, images, datasets and more. Authors can store their digital works in collections that are maintained by MIT communities.
For the institution: DSpace offers the opportunity to provide access to all the research of the institution through one interface. The repository is organized to accommodate the varying policies and workflow issues inherent in a multi-disciplinary environment. Submission workflow and access policies can be customized to adhere closely to each community's needs.

 Koha Open Source Library System
Made in New Zealand by the Horowhenua Library Trust and Katipo Communications Ltd the Koha system is a full catalogue, opac, circulation and acquisitions system.
 OCLC Site Search Open Source Project
The OCLC Site Search Software provides a comprehensive solution for managing distributed library information resources in a World Wide Web environment. It offers tools that integrate electronic resources under one web interface, provide flexible access to resources, and build text and image databases locally.
Merit
Digital library has certain characteristics, which make them different from traditional library. It has expansive and accurate system of searching with large volumes of text, image and audio-video resources. Digital libraries do not need physical space to build collection and it can be accessed from anywhere, any time. Different people can access same source at the same time. The advantages of digital libraries are mentioned herein below:

 Preserve the valuable documents, rare and special collections of libraries, archives and museums.
 Provide faster access to the holding of libraries world wide through automated catalogues.
 Help to locate both physical and digitized versions of scholarly articles and books through single interface.
 Search optimization, simultaneous searches of the Internet make possible, preparing commercial databases and library collections.
 Offering online learning environment.
 Making short the chain from author to user.
 Save preparation/ conservation cost, space and money.
 Digital technology affords multiple, simultaneous user from a single original which are not possible for materials stored in any other forms
Demerits
New technology has brought many advantages but simultaneously it also has certain disadvantages

 Costly affair
 Technology obsolescence (Hardware & Software)
 Storage media relate
 Dominance of data creators and publishers
 Trained manpower
 User education and training
 Security against hacking & sabotage
Conclusion:
Digital libraries are not going to replace the physical existence of document completely. But to meet the present demand and to satisfy the non local user digitization digital librarian must be introduced so that at least libraries becomes of hybrid nature. The initial cost of digitization is high but experiment shows that once digitization is introduced then the cost to manage this collection will be cheaper than that of any traditional library. Day by day the cost of digitization is decreasing, the online publication is increasing, the need of user are shifting towards a different environment so it is need less to say that after one or two years my library or your library will go to be digitized so it’s the pick time to all informational and library professional that they geared themselves to take the challenge. _____________________________________________________________________________