delnetNewsletter

Vol.5 No. 2 December 1998

DELNET is promoted by National Informatics Centre (NIC), Planning Commission, Government of India and India International Centre, New Delhi.

NAC LIN 98M.B. Konnur *

The National Convention wasinaugurated on November 16, 1998.Dr. S. Varadarajan, President,

pill: lip

Dr. S. Varadarajan welcoming the delegates

DELNET, welcomed the delegates whohad come from different parts of India.Dr. N. Seshagiri, Director-General,National Informatics Centre,inaugurated the Convention by lightinga lamp. Mr. H.K. Kaul, Director,DELNET, gave an introduction to theconcept of organising nationalconventions.

Mr. H.K. Kaul's address is reproducedbelow:

"The roots of the National Annual

* Professor and Head, Department of Libraryand Information Science, University of Pune

Convention on Library and InformationNetworking (NACLIN 98) being organisedfrom November 16-18,1998 by DELNETgo back to the developments that havetaken place in India in general, andDELNET in particular, during the lastdecade in relation to the overall changesthat the IT revolution has brought about inthese years. The Indian scenario in thiscontext is very complex.

"India has about 60,000 public andvillage libraries and reading rooms thatare in no position at this stage, barringthe negligible few, to adopt IT applications.The condition of public libraries is sopitiable that they are even run with anannual budget of, as low as Rs. 2,500 incertain places. For instance, the StateCentral Library in Ambala had a budget ofRs. 13,500 in 1997. How can this libraryplay a role of the State Central Librarywith this budget? And, how can IT beintroduced in such circumstances? TheUGC has been making efforts since 1988through INFLIBNET to modernise someof the academic libraries from over 200university libraries and about 10,000college libraries in India. However, wehave yet to see the growth of automatedresource sharing tools of internationalstandard, and resource sharing takingplace even among some of these libraries.Special libraries and information systemshad been receiving special attention,

which they should have been. But wehave still not been seeing any valueadded resource sharing products beingproduced from these centres, thoughthey have been contributing records tointernational information systems. Ofabout 1,200 libraries in the science andtechnology sector, even therationalisation of periodicals has nottaken place so far at the national level.I feel it was with this concern in mindthat Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam organisedthe meeting of information specialistsat DESIDOC on October 14,1998. Wehope that the recommendations madeat this meeting will be implemented.

"Most of the special libraries in thesocial sciences and humanities areeither managing with the helpof existingdocumentary resources or are trying toacquire a few of them that they canafford. More than ninety per cent ofabout 2,000 libraries in this sector aredecaying under the weight of their ownunused documents and lack of financialresources for modernisation andacquisition of the most recent necessarydocuments. In most Governmentlibraries, IT applications have still totake root and those which have begunadopting IT mainly with the support ofthe National Informatics Centre havebegun to use INTERNET andaccessing databases but are stillunfamiliar with the actual IT applicationin libraries. The national libraries invarious disciplines in general and theNational Library, Calcutta, in particular,

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have yet to understand that their shipsare sinking in the growing oceans ofdigital information for want of digitisingtheir inventories and rare and importantresources.

"The IT in the first instance remainedin the domain of computerprofessionals and in order to cross thebridge over to library and informationscience professionals, its progress hasbeen slow and staggering. Applicationof IT in the knowledge industry neededthe assimilation of the principles oforganised knowledge in the softwaresthat were getting produced in India andthe specialist touches that made thisorganisation clearer and simpler. Therole of IT and library and informationscience professionals in supplementingand complementing the work of eachother did not take place as much as itshould have. The Government of Indiasupported the establishment of librarynetworks such as DELNET,CALIBNET, BONET, MALIBNET,PUNENET.and ADINET but thissupport has not uniformly transformedthese networks. We, in DELNET, werefirst supported by NISSAT and since1992 by the National InformaticsCentre. The support of the IndiaInternational Centre has existed fromthe start. NIC's support.to DELNET interms of hardware, software andtechnical expertise has been a greatasset. We have been trying to transformthis asset into a flowering and fruitladen tree. DELNET has 97 librariesas its members, covering all subjectsand all types of libraries. More andmore libraries are joining the networkfrom different parts of India and outsideIndia. We have developed thesoftwares for creating MARC recordssuch as DELDOS and DELWINDOWS.DELSEARCH, developed by DELNET,enables any library anywhere in theworld to access our databases off-line.

We have developed DELSIS, whichcontains special modules on the softwareBASIS plus which NIC so kindly gave us.All our databases are accessible throughDELSIS. The work of upgrading oursoftware is a continuous process.

"No network can do resource sharingunless it creates resource sharing toolsfrom the resources available in itsmember-libraries. DELNET is makingavailable more than 25 databases andthe types of databases being offered areboth increasing. Atthis stage, when moreand more libraries from outside Delhiwant to access our databases, we

Mr. H.K. Kaul, Director, OELNET

considered it appropriate to understandtheir needs and assess the technologyexisting in the country so that DELNETcan take appropriate steps in providingbetter services to its member-libraries.The DELNET Constitution provides forboth cooperation with regional, nationaland international networks and librariesand forconducting research in the area ofinformation science and technology. Thismakes ourdeliberations more meaningful.DELNET databases are accessible nowthrough INTERNET and any libraryanywhere in the world can access them.This has been possible with the continuedsupport of the National Informatics Centre.

We are indeed grateful to Dr. N.Seshagiri, Director-General, NIC, andhis able colleagues for providingcontinued support to DELNET. Theprogress made by DELNET hasnecessitated that we organise theNational Annual Convention on Libraryand Information Networking (NACLIN98) during November 15-18. We havealso arranged the tutorials on thefollowing topics:

1 Bibliographic Formats like MARC,CCF

2 AACR-II3 Creation and Management of

Library Web Sites4 Creating Databases in Indian

Languages

5 Library Resources on theINTERNET

"We do not want this NationalConvention to be like any otherconference. We have a commissionedpaper in each section and have alsoincluded those that were selected fromthe papers received from theprofessionals. In addition, we haveconstituted the Committee on theIssues for Discussion under theChairmanship of Prof. A.P. Srivastava.All the rapporteurs and a few expertsare its members. This Committee isgoing to take care of all major issuesthat need to be discussed at eachsession. The Rapporteur-General, Prof.M.B. Konnur, will present a detailedreport with recommendations.

"We are pleased to note thatcomputer communication and libraryinformation science experts have joinedus from different parts of India inorganising the National Convention.We indeed welcome them in makingthis meeting a useful event."

Dr. N. Seshagiri delivered theinaugural address. He began hisaddress by referring to the gloomy

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picture of public libraries as drawn byMr. H.K. Kaul. He observed that theDeputy Chairman, PlanningCommission and the Chairman of theNational Task Force on InformationTechnology and Software Developmenthad approved the constitution for aWorking Group of the Task Force onContents Creation and ContentIndustry. Dr. Seshagiri said that oftenwhen we discuss informatics andinformation policies, we lose sight ofcontent. We talk about computers andnetworks and not about contents. Hereferred to INFLIBNET and noted that

Dr. N. Seshagiri, Director-General, NIC

the project did not take off the way wehad all hoped it to develop. He felt thata project of this natu re should be headedby the library scientist with his visioncentred on modern technologies. Hefelt that this was a billion dollar industryor rather a multi million dollar industry.He added that this industry could createlucrative jobs for library and informationscience professionals. Dr. Seshagirimaintained that we were now workingon these issues in the Task Force. TheTask Force had made rapid progressand it had broken barriers. He said thatwhile strengthening networks by using

telecommunication and computertechnology, we should not have lost sightof contents. He added that the particularworking group which had been notifiedtoday would be looking into the problemsof creating content specialists in severaltens of thousands which meant that weneeded to support that particular industryin the same way as we had done toinformation technology.

Dr. Seshagiri referred to the computernetwork area, especially in the softwarefield and observed that we now have tofocus on training a million people, say atthe rate of 10,000 per annum. He wassure that if people found this a lucrativeindustry, immediately it would spiral andthen one would find that manpowershortage would emerge. He felt that thekind of investments that were going to becommitted to the content industry wouldbe quite substantial because it was aknowledge-based and labour intensiveindustry. Referring to INTERNET, henoted that the biggest advantage ofINTERNET was that most of themiddlemen were eliminated, the onewhose interaction was between thecreator and the creative informativecustomer. He was of the opinion that allthe major bibliographic and relatedenterprises in the world could gravitatearound India and that was a majorpossibility. As far as libraries wereconcerned, he affirmed that a number ofthings had happened. "Now there is aWeb library. We should makearrangements with publishers to give sitelicense to put full text versions on the Net.We are publishing a sizeable number ofjournals. Once they are put on the Weband serviced, we can have a businesswhich will be several times what they areable to do in the paper form. The momentwe give full text access along withdiagrams and things like that, then we

have to be prepared for multimediatransmission, multimedia networks andthat is the precise reason why we areincreasing the speed of our network.We are putting not only 64 kbps VSATsbut we are also putting on NICNETdownload capabilities of 256 kbps." Healso referred to a number of newtechnologies that were coming whichwould help reduce cost. He felt thatwith this kind of a download, VSATscould be bought by the cable TVoperators. The cable TV operatorscould then route it to the houses. Hestated that this was at the last mile leveland hoped that direct transmission tohomes through satellites was going tobe possible soon.

Dr. Seshagiri observed that therewas no earthly reason why a libraryshould now subscribe to every journalas they used to do in the past. Theremust be a hierarchical arrangementwhereby those journals which are veryfrequently and regularly used by thescientists in the organisation may besubscribed to in hardcover or in theCD-ROM form. "As we go along, it willbe in CD-ROM or DVD because peopleare not even bothering to produce hardcopy journals. Many journals are nowgoing over to CD-ROM. Once DVD-ROM comes up in a cost effectivemanner which will happen in the nextyear or so, then the DVD can take agood bit of information and the DVDhas a greater chance of compressing,putting information on to this mediathan the CD-ROM. Once that happens,you will find that the whole way in whichyou look at libraries will change andthat change will come very fast." Hereferred to the IU Net project or SankyaVahini project being undertaken incollaboration with the Carnegie MellonUniversity and Indian Institute of

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Science, IITChennai, IITMumbai, PuneUniversity and others. "But that is onlyfor the backbone. These institutionsare prime movers for this newtechnology because it is advisable thatsuch technologies are with theeducational and research institutionswho will bring into it a tremendousamount of intellectual component." Headded that the conventionalapproaches to the library system werecoming to a dead end. It was notpossible to cope with the increasingprice of journals. He felt that thesophistication of technology did notmean that it was to be costly technology,it was something beyond one's reach.He made it clearthat there was going tobe a paradigm shift and very soon atime would come when if the librariesdid not manage the affairs, a new set ofpeople would appear and take over thejobs. He felt that training of manpowerwas essential and said that he hadrequested Mr. Kaul to take the initiativein training library professionals so thatthey could get into this new paradigm.

Dr. R.V. Vaidyanatha Ayyar,Secretary, Department of Culture,Government of India delivered thepresidential address. He said thatDELNET was trailing new paths andtrying to induct informationtechnologists into the field of libraries.He lamented the condition of publiclibraries and felt that their conditionwas dismal and pathetic. He said thatthe tragedy was that on the one handwhen great potentials were coming in,which we were realising throughinformation technologists in ourcountry,the public library system was virtuallycollapsing. "I think compared to what itwas twenty or thirty years ago when Iwas a student, now the system is reallyin a very bad shape." He commentedupon the reasons for this state of public

libraries and added that regarding thequestion of funding, most of the librarieswere with the states. He said that a strongvoluntary library movement which existed

Dr. R.V. Vaidyanatha Ayyar, Secretary, Depart-ment of Culture

as part of the freedom struggle in manyparts of the country, including his ownstate of Andhra Pradesh in the south,had gradually receded and communitysupport was becoming increasingly agovernmental system under competingdemands for resources. He agreed thatthe public libraries were enormouslystarved of resources. Secondly, giventhe very few resources, the libraryprofessionals were also gettingdemoralised. He felt that there was adichotomy in the library professionalsystem. On the one hand, in the universitysystem the library professionals were inpar with the academic staff, while in thegovernmental system the libraryprofessionals were becoming clerks orbabus and not the true professionals thatthey should have become. He also addedthat the whole systems of procurementof books in most public libraries isdeplorable and the less said the better.He felt that it is more distributor-drivenand the sort of reader-orientation thatought to exist, does not. Thus tomodernise the public libraries was the

greatest challenge today. He observedthat there was no option but to sharethe resources and network becausemore and more libraries ought to opt forcooperative acquisition. It was notnecessary that every library shouldstock every book and every periodicalas there must be some sort of arationalisation that goes together withthe type of information technologiesthat is being discussed today. Thenmore users could use the sameresources more effectively. Thequestion of inducting the informationtechnology was not a question ofwhether to do it or not, but it was aboutwhen to do it and how to do it. Given thesort of resource constraints and thefacility constraints in the public librarysystem, it was felt that unless all thelibraries in a particular area cametogether and worked concertedly toavoid duplication, wasteful investmentcould be avoided. He said that thenetworks could provide user servicesand the public libraries could benefit.He also added that the universitylibraries were finding it extremely difficultto subscribe to all the necessaryjournals and magazines. He said that"DELNET had blazed a glorious path towhich all should iend their support. We,in the Department of Culture, will beonly too glad to cooperate with libraryprofessionals as well as DELNET." Hepointed out that many states did nothave the library legislation, which wasbadly needed. He added that theNational Library in Calcutta was facingmany problems and attempts are beingmade to solve them. He hoped that thereliable networks would take up anumber of assignments till the NationalLibrary, Calcutta, was modernised.

Mr. N.N. Vohra, Director, IndiaInternational Centre releasing thepublication on Library and Information

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Networking and NACLIN 98 Souvenirsaid that we should be adequately ableto absorb, digest and utilise the vastrevolution which was taking place inthe field of information technology. Mr.Vohra added that the resourcemanagement was a serious andcomplex problem which was not goingto be resolved merely by wishing that itwould be resolved. "We have to trainmanpower, reorient existing attitudes,acquire the hardware, develop thenecessary software and mostimportant, develop an effective andrelevant networking system whichensured optimisation of resources

today we had to relate not only to publiclibraries and educational libraries, butalso to those libraries which werespecialised in nature and which had noconstraint of resources. He added that allsuch libraries could not depend on theirown resources. Resource sharing wasbecoming essential and that in thesecircumstances the use of appropriatetechnology was essential.

The National Convention was dividedinto the following 11 sessions:

1 Resource Sharing and Networks

2 Web Technology

3 Multimedia Applications

Mr. N.N. Vohra, Director, India International Centre releasing NACLIN98 publications. Also seenin the picture are Dr. S. Varadarajan and Mr. H.K. Kaul

available to all of us in this country andfrom outside the country." He addedthat Dr. Seshagiri had explained hisvision of what lies before us and howhe planned to go ahead with it. Hestressed the need to focus on the schoollibraries, the college libraries and thelibraries in the rural areas of ourcountry.He felt that we had to be extremelyconscious of the costs of the actualservices that we delivered and addedthat storing of physical volumes was amajor problem as space in institutionsis scarce. Mr. Vohra observed that

4 Language Databases5 Communication Tools6 AACR-II and US MARC Format7 Newspapers on the INTERNET8 LCSH

9 Digitial Libraries/ ElectronicCommerce

10 Library Resources on theINTERNET

11 Software

The proceedings of the NationalConvention are published in Library andInformation Networking edited by H.K.

Kaul, New Delhi: DELNET, whichincludes complete deliberations andthe papers presented at NACLIN 98.

The valedictory session started withintroductory remarks by Mr. H.K. Kaul,Director, DELNET, and Chairman ofthe Organising Committee. He gave anoverview of the National Convention.

Valedictory Address

Prof. Moegiadi, Director, UNESCO,delivered the valedictory address. Thetext of his address is reproduced below:

"I am indeed happy to note that theNational Convention on Library andInformation Networking had beenorganised by the Delhi Library Network.The basic purpose of library andinformation networking is to share theresources that are becoming expensiveon one hand, and rarely available onthe other. We notice that it is becomingdifficult for the libraries and theindividuals to buy publications whichare very expensive or which do notcome into a country at all. It is onlythrough networking and throughINTERNET that one is able to accessthe latest information publishedanywhere in the world without anysignificant loss of time.

"I am pleased to note that there havebeen only six papers devoted toresource sharing. The emergence oflibrary networking in India is the positivestep towards contributing to a verysound world information infrastructure.The laws of resource sharing that aredefined in NACLIN 98 give us the feelingthatthe digitisation of resources is goingto be a major task and is going tohappen definitely. Resource sharing isdefinitely a global phenomenon andIndia is rising to contribute to the globalaspirations in this regard. I canappreciate that there is much to do topromote library automation andnetworking of libraries.

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"UNESCO itself had been very keento promote the development of thenetwork of public libraries. In theUNESCO manifesto it was made clearthat through the public libraries theinformation and education can beimparted to a wider section of thesociety. It is necessary that the publiclibraries be networked and there is ofcourse a need to network all othertypes of libraries.

"I am also glad to note that in DELNETthere are all types of librariesparticipating whether they be public,

iisi!:-

Professor Moegiadi, Director, UNESCO

institutional or government libraries orlibraries of public sector undertakingsand other types of libraries. It is thepurpose for which a network isestablished and that is the purpose ofa network. In order to participate in theresource sharing at the internationallevel, we have to see that resourcesharing mechanisms at the nationallevel are working perfectly well. Weshould also ensure that the old cultureof possession of documents is replacedby the capacity to access documents.This is becoming possible because ofthe digitisation taking place in differentparts of the world. It is only throughdigitisation that resources will be

available to users anywhere in the world.One of the major areas of the research isthe area of journal articles. We can seethat new concepts get published througharticles in journals and they getpropagated. It happens that many of thejournals are now available on theINTERNET and at the same time thereare reviews that are appearing onINTERNET itself. There is no hard copyof such papers, which means that a newdimension of research is taking placeand this dimension is one of makingaccessible new ideas to the usersanywhere in the world very fast. The gapbetween the creation of the ideas and theuse of ideas is getting minimised which ofcourse takes us into the issue of quality ofinformation and the validity of information.I am sure that as this new technologygets established, methodologies aregoing to come out and become part of theprocedures for getting new ideaspublished through INTERNET with propervalidation.

"We see today that in most of thedeveloping countries the manpoweravailable in the libraries is not computeror network trained. They have to be welltrained in library automation andnetworking. UNESCO did play a majorrole by providing CDS/ISIS software tolibraries in different parts of the world,especially to the libraries in the developingcountries. However, we know that as wego deep into researching, deep intomaking libraries more advanced, we needmore sophisticated softwares. Thesoftware engineers in different parts ofthe world are creating softwares. In Indiavalso, DELNET and other agencies havecreated a few softwares and thesesoftwares will become increasinglyrefined as they get used by the librariansand by the users. I therefore feel thatmanpower development in the use ofinformation technology is an importantissue which has to be handled very well

and more effectively, especially in thedeveloping countries. India has beenproducing the software experts in largenumbers and they have been gettingabsorbed in various other countries.

"Even in India itself the softwareopportunities are going to increaserapidly. It is going to become importantbecause the information is going togrow very fast, it has to be madeavailable to the users in remote areas,in neglected areas, in less developedareas and the variety of informationand the type of information that is to beneeded by those users has to beeffectively culled out and for that theinformation scientists and softwareengineers will have to createmechanisms of culling out and selectingexact information for the users so thatthey make best use of the informationtechnology in this information age.

"The organisation of the NationalAnnual Convention on Library andInformation Networking is indeedpraiseworthy. This whole exercise, Iam sure, is going to give a boost to thenew methods and technologies forproviding more and more informationeffectively. The use of INTERNET hasbeen discussed in this NationalConvention. INTERNET itself has givenrise to a virtual library. I feel that in theyears to come this virtual library willbecome more and more real as usersget used to the real aspects of thislibrary. The use of Web technology isvery important because the amount ofinformation available on the Web isincreasing. The technology has to beso user-friendly, that out of this Web ofinformation, we should be able topromote the right kind of information,promote the libraries that provideinformation and promote the networksthat pool information for the users.

"Use of multimedia applications, I am

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certain, will be increasingly used in theyears to come. The multimedia is goingto be used a great deal in the Webtechnology. It will have greatimplications, great uses as we go onaccessing the Web in the comingyears not only from the libraries orinformation centres but from our homeswhere we study. The Web technologyand the multimedia applications aregoing to provide great imputs fordistance learning. I am glad to note thatthis aspect has also been discussed atthis National Convention.

"DELNET has also begun workingon the creation of the NationalBibliographic Database. The creationof a National Bibliographic Database inall the countries is very importantbecause unless each country promotesthe creation of its catalogues at thenational level in machine readable formsthere cannot be cooperation amongthe nations on the information front.The work being done for the NationalBibliographic Database Project willtherefore be very useful and shouldcover more and more libraries.

"Our librarians should also createdatabases in their own languages.Creation of databases, full text orbibliographies in the regional or locallanguages are equally important.Research is also conducted in differentparts of the world to provide automatictranslation from one language toanother. I am sure that in the years tocome, this automatic translation facilitywill help the users in reading thepublished works from the otherlanguages. This is a great service thatthe technology is going to provide inIndia. Now the INTERNET providesnot only the government agencies butother agencies are coming in and it villincrease competition. It is going toincrease excellence in indexing ofinformation in communication skills and

this is what is needed in the modernworld.

"We are pleased to note that not onlyhave the technical issues been discussedat this National Convention. There hasbeen a session on the use of Newspaperson the INTERNET. The Hindu is of courseone of the good examples from India andI understand that there are several othernewspapers that are now on theINTERNET. This is just a beginning andI am sure that slowly more specialisedIndian journals will become available onthe INTERNET and users interested inthem from any part of the world will beable to access them. This is a very positive

Prof. M.B. Konnur, Rapporteur-General,NACLIN 98

contribution that India is making to theworld by providing access to its journalsand newspapers in digital resources andlibraries but also the electronic commerceat the international level. It will definitelyhave an impact on developments incountries. The electronic commerce ismaking its headway and we have to seethat each country is able to promote itsproducts well, first of all within its owncountry and then without. It will also helpthe countries in establishing the quality ofproducts. This is what electroniccommerce is going to make possible.

Access to information on INTERNET isgoing to become a major task. Selectionof appropriate information and itspresentation is very important. Thisprocess has to be streamlined.

"Let me hope that the efforts made inorganising this National Convention onLibrary and Information Networking byDelhi Library Network will be repeatedevery year and more new inputs interms of technology and in terms ofresources will be created within thecountry. Resources that are availableoutside the country should also becomeavailable to the users and this will helpin the development of the nations. Iwish the National Convention greatsuccess in the years to come."

Dr. Ashok Khosla, Chairman,Development Alternatives, addressedthe participants and explained how toexpand the information market andprovide employment to 250 millionpeople. He added that there were 600billion who could not read and write andtherefore that was a major opportunityfor librarians to educate them.

Mr. S. Sathyamoorthy, JointSecretary, Department of Culturepresided over the function. Hecongratulated DELNET for thecommendable initiative and said: "Likethe meteoric showers that lit the skylast night the pamphlet of thisconvention showers almost a hundredquestions, probably to light up the mindsof the librarians. I was also very happyto note that networking has been verysuccessful. I think DELNET has beenable to draw upon several sectors, thedefence, the university sector, the-government sector, the public sector,the private sector, publishers,distributors and I think that it is anexcellent beginning for resourcescaring and networking.

"Librarians will have to play a verycrucial role in fostering economiccompetitiveness, educationaleffectiveness, increased intellectual

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activity, efficient knowledge transfermethods, enhanced technological paceand increased collective capacity toresolve global issues."

Mr. Satyamoorthy said that there is aneed to convert information intointelligible modes. He felt that alreadywe were talking of STD boothsbecoming information access centres.He added: "I think, the role of thelibrarians and information technologistswould lie in the future. Knowledgeknows no boundaries is the saying.That was with reference to dimensionsand discipline. Knowledge knows noboundaries will be the saying withreference to geographicalconnotations. INTERNET and Websites will transcend national boundaries.Dissemination of knowledge at thedoorstep is not going to be adequate.The possession of knowledge at ourfingertips is no more the case. Weneed knowledge on tabletops and notat doorsteps. We need knowledge atthe touch of a button and not at our

Mr. S. Sathyamoorthy (right) at the valedictory function

Satyamoorthy observed that resourcesharing has been underscored: resourcesharing is not only journals and articles,it is also experience and expertise. Unlessyou share it with it others, it cannot growwith you. This is absolutely important. He

Ms. Sangeeta Kaul conducting a tutorial

fingertips. In order to capturemanipulation, transmission andconsumption of knowledge, it has to bedigitised. That has already been takencare of in your Convention." Mr.

affirmed that for resource sharing,networking was probably the only answer.

The government was well aware of therole it has to play. It has already takencertain tentative initial steps. He added

that the government was willing to helpbut let the professionals be strong."Looking at the deliberations and havingheard the details, I am convinced thatthe issues have been admirablyaddressed and the professionals havea glorious future and I wish all of you thebest of luck in yciur profession."

DELNET considered it important toorganise the National Convention onLibrary and Information Networking(NACLIN 98) every year. It was felt thatthe library and information centres werenot creating records using internationalstandards and there were disparitiesexisting in the collection, storage anddissemination of information in thelibraries. There was no standardsoftware that could cater to the needsof libraries and information specialists.Because of the changing scenarioworldwide, owing to INTERNET it wasconsidered necessary to monitor itsimpact in India. With this background,DELNET organised the first NationalConvention on Library and InformationNetworking (NACLIN 98) fromNovember 16-18, 1998.

DELNET considered it necessary that

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practical training should be imparted tothe library professionals and therefore,arranged tutorials on the followingtopics:

formation to the users in the remoteareas.

7 Different types of libraries should beencouraged to join resourcesharing net-works. If necessary, they should be pro-

S.No.

12

3

4

5

Name of the tutorial

Library Resources on the INTERNETCreation and Management of LibraryWeb SitesCreating Databases in Indian Languages

AACR-II

Bibliographic Formats

Name of the professional/swho conducted the tutorials

Dr. Usha Mujoo MunshiDr. T.B. Rajashekar

Ms. Sangeeta Kaul, Prof. K.S.Raghavan, Dr. T.A.V. Murthyand Mr. Jasjit Singh.Mrs. K. Sunita Murthy

Mrs. K. Sunita Murthy

The tutorials were conducted by thespecialists in each field. The responseto the tutorials was overwhelming asnearly 95 participants participated inthem.

The following were the main recom-mendations of the National Conven-tion:1. National Agenda for Resource Shar-

ing should be developed. While pre-paring this National Agenda, all agen-cies working at the local, regional andnational levels should be involved init.

2 There is a dismal picture of publiclibraries all overthecountry. Resourcesharing should be one of the primaryobjectives of networking public librar-ies.

3 Resource sharing networks shouldbe promoted and the Government ofIndia should provide assistance tothem.

4 For networking and resource sharing,Regional Centres should be estab-lished.

5 The Government may constitute com-mittees for resource sharing at na-tional, regional and local levels andprovide documents to the users. Thecommittees so formed should haveVice-Chancellors, the Principals, theChairmen of public libraries, Directorsof networks and special libraries, etc.as members.

6 Resource sharing networks shouldmake efforts to provide access to in-

vided financial support for the purpose.

8 Public libraries and libraries in ruralsectors should be modernised. At thelocal level itself, the networks shouldundertake resource sharing work. Forpublic libraries the Raja Ram MohanRoy Library Foundation should play amajor role in resource sharing and net-working.

9 Appropriate steps should be taken toimplement the recommendations of theReport of the Working Group of thePlanning Commission forthe Ninth Plan.

10 Library schools should take steps todevelop manpower required for net-working and resource sharing activity.For this purpose, each library schoolshould have at least one faculty mem-

ber specialising in IT applications inlibraries.

11 DELNET is trying to play a role as anOCLC network. DELNET is enrollingall types of libraries and including allsubjects in the network. DELNET canplay a supplementary and a comple-mentary role for establishing local,regional and national networks. TheGovernment should provide sufficientassistance to DELNET.

12 DELNET should provide cheaper andstandard software solutions to librar-ies in India.

13 The National Bibliographic Databasebeing developed by DELNET is a majormodel for the country. It should in-volve more libraries and should becreated on a continuing basis.

14 Creation of databases in Indian lan-guages should be promoted.

15 A compilation of databases that areongoing in this country should be pre-pared.

16 The networking of information on artshould be taken up along with othersubjects in the libraries.

17 Sufficient funds should be provided tonetworks for digitising important doc-uments in libraries.

18 School libraries, too, should be givenpriority in modernisation, networkingand resource sharing.

19 Use of multimedia in distance educa-tion should be encouraged.

Mrs. A. Vijaya Murthy (left) with Ms. Alice Kniskern at NACLIN 98

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feature

Information Handling: Where Are We Today?Dewang Mehta*

We are almost on the threshold ofthe twenty-first century. Obviously, weare entering a period of change, whoseimpact could be as far reaching asnever seen before. Since the industrialrevolution, people had to locatethemselves in large centres, so thatthey could work with others. However,now new technologies are renderingdistance unimportant. The skills thatare needed in tomorrow's society willbe those associated with informationand knowledge, rather than industrialskills of the nineteenth and twentiethcenturies. Changing technology willaffect almost every aspect of our lives;how we do our jobs; how we educateour children; how wecommunicate witheach other and how we develop anddeliver software. Information no doubtis the key to the future.

Just-In-Time manufacturing withJust-In-Time inventory has forged thegrowth of the manufacturing industriesin the 1960s. A similar demand is madetoday, in Information Technology toprovide Just-In-Time Information orJust-In-Time Decision Processing. Withthe realisation that information is anasset for the company, organisationstoday are keen to optimise use of thisasset by extending accessibility to theknowledge workers, at all levels of theorganisation.

IT is challenged today, with newertechnologies that must be integrated toenrich the company's asset in the formof information, convert the transactionaldata into business relevant information,manage this information repository andfinally make this asset accessible tothe knowledge workers.

* Executive Director, National Association ofSoftware and Service Companies in India.

With the emergence of technology thatenables us to manage data in all possibleforms, structured and unstructured, theCorporate, Government oran Institutionalrepository of information must managedata to support everyone's decisionprocessing as well as everyone's questfor information. This information mustinclude data processed internally, as wellas information available from externalsources. The external information maybe industry orother reports in unstructuredtext format, news bulletins in print andvideo format, conference proceedings intext and video format, electronic bulletins,E-mail broadcasts and of coursetraditional means like articles, books, etc.

The advent of information technologyhas led to new ways of informationhandling. With the result, what started inthe late 1980s as Database ManagementSystems (DBMS) then transformed itselfto Relational Database ManagementSystems (RDBMS). Companies likeOracle, Sybase, Informix, Ingres,Progress, etc. made deep inroads intonew technologies and new applications.But the quest for people who wantedinformation and then use it in a usefulmanner still continued. This has led totwo important derivatives. One is in thearea of information search and the secondis in the area of media on which suchinformation is stored, distributed orhandled.

In the first case, we are referring to thenew concepts of Data Warehousing andData Mining and of course the newparadigm of INTERNET and e-commerce. The second case is theconcept of a paperless office, whereininformation is handled and stored onmagnetic and optical media and in thenear future even on biological media.

INTERNET is undoubtedly aninformation goldmine. In the last 3-4years, people around the world haveperfected the art of collecting, collatingand searching information onINTERNET. The famous example ofAmazon.com, which overthe lastthreeyears, has become the largest sellingbookstore of the world, of course on theINTERNET. The interesting factor isthat there is no physical bookstore inthe world that can match the number ofbooks sold or revenue generated byAmazon.com.

Data Warehouse is a concept formanagement of corporate informationinterface with the company's OLTPsystems, making information availableto knowledge workers at all levels inthe organisation and ability to changein the users' requirements. DataWarehousing is a process of evolutionand continual enhancements. Theinformation must be non-volatile,temporal and remain relevant to thebusiness objectives of the organisationit serves.

With the emergence of internaltechnology, computing is increasinglybecoming network centric. This hasenabled creation of virtual corporations,thus reducing the barrier created bygeographic distances. These virtualcorporations will have virtual users.And finally, information will be managedin a distributed environment. Thismeans tomorrow's data warehousemust be a virtual data warehouse.

For a decade, many leading retailershave collected reams of item-level salesdata, numerous lists of which productscustomers bought during a singleshopping trip, information on hourlytrading peaks and troughs, and enoughnumbers to allow comparisons by anyproduct, any branch or by any time ofday.

delnet Newsletter 10 Vol 5, No. 2, December 1998

feature

Unfortunately, the numbercrunchingneeded to pull the facts into a trulyuseful report generally meant thatmanagement information was limitedto exceptions and trouble shooting.

With modern client-servers andpowerful data warehouses nowreplacing lumbering legacy systems,retailers are at last starting to make fulluse of all that accumulated data—withdramatic and highly profitable results.

Data warehousing is also helpingchains to tailortheir product assortmentto local demand more precisely. Ingeneral, large retailers have found italmost impossible to fine-tune productallocation to meet local purchasingtrends, so that fluctuation in demandleaves, over-stocks in some areas anda dearth of merchandise in others.

The need for matured ITimplementation and its use had beenincreasingly felt with the start of India'seconomic liberalisation process begunearlier in this decade, while use of IT atthe grass roots level is just starting.Almost all the large1 organisations in thecountry have implemented IT at varyingdegrees of maturity. Theseorganisations arecontinually enhancingthe scope and functionality of theirinstalled IT systems. Currently, datawarehousing is high on the agenda fora number of such early adopters oftechnology. They have either finalisedtheir data warehousing strategy or doingso.

The new concepts of informationhandling are not just restricted to ITapplications in RDBMS, DataWarehousing or INTERNET, but eventhe media which we use for informationstorage and handling.

For many years, we have been talkingabout a paperless office. However, inspite of computerisation, we have yet

to see the real emergence of a paperlessoffice. On the contrary, many believe thatcomputerperipherals like printers, plottersand scanners consume a lot of paper andat many places, use of paper hasincreased many times after theintroduction of computers. However, thereare instances where use of paper hasdecreased through use of informationtechnology, and places, where use ofpaper has not decreased, there is stillsome hope and optimism. Recentresearch reports maintain that the newtools in document management systemsmay drive this change of a paperful officeto a paperless office. Some of thesechanges include the following:

Document - Centric

* The rapid digitisation of document-centric information : Document centricinformation is described as informationstored within an organisation from notesand reports to a phone bill. Much of thisinformation is currently on paper. It ispredicted that within a span of five years,more than 60 per cent of information willbe stored and used in electronic format.

* Increasing document lifecycleautomation : Increasing digitisation,turning a document into bits of data thatcan be sent over a computer network, willmake it possible to automate more of thestages involved in document production.This will bring high benefits. Compared totoday, when nearly 25 per cent ofknowledge workers' time is spent onintegrating and downloading information,trying to find it, then transmit, organiseand output it; when these processes getautomated, productivity will grow byleaps.

* Emergence of intelligent documents:In western countries, intelligentdocuments are expected to appear bythe next year. With India leapfrogging thetechnology divide, it would soon appear

in Indian use. organisations too. Thesedocuments will be able to tell yourcomputer how they want to bedisplayed, taking into accountpreferences, such as the type size, etc.

* Increase in demand for integrateddocument management: The numberof workstations where integrateddocument management can be carriedout are expected to grow by over 10times by 2002.

Document Output Management

Organisations are establishingcomprehensive documentmanagement infrastructure calledIntegrated Document Management(IDOM) establishments.

To date, in overseas countries,integrated document management ismainlyfoundinstructuredjobssuchashandling an insurance claim, getting anew drug approved or granting a loan.However, there is a general sentimentthat its use will spread rapidly. Accordingto a corporate survey, key areas fordocument management are clientcorrespondence, financial transactionrecords, work schedules and orderprocessing. Users feel that technologyis helping administrative departmentsdeal with and record clientcorrespondence: communications onpaper, by fax, phone or E-mail aredigitised, indexed automatically andstored on a computer for immediateretrieval, creating more efficient,responsive organisations.

Document management technologyis coming into its own as telemarketingcentres evolve into call andcorrespondence processing centres. Itis being used to integrate customercorrespondence with customerinformation received over the phone.

(Contd. on page 13)

delnet Newsletter 11 VoL 5, No. 2, December 1998

feature

ABES: The French Network of LibrariesH.K. Kaul

As a guest of the French Ministry ofExternal Affairs, I had the privilege ofgetting first hand information aboutAgence Bibliographique de I1

Enseignement Superieur (ABES).ABES was established in 1994 underthe French Ministry of ScienceResearch and Technology fornetworking of libraries. It covered thefunctioning of a numberof organisationsand started providing several services.ABES now provides access to thefollowing databases:

1 CCNPS-National union catalogueof serial publications.

2 PANCATALOGUE - Catalogue ofpublications available in librariesrelating to higher education.

3 TELETHESIS - Catalogue ofFrench doctoral thesis.

4 RAMEAU - Directory ofencyclopaedic information ofeducation.

5 PEB - Interlibrary loan borrowing.

ABES also undertakes the nationalproject for the networking of universitylibraries. It plans to coordinate togetherthe various bibliographical servicesbeing provided by the libraries andoffer single access to the unioncatalogues. It maintains a relationshipwith the university and researchlibraries. ABES had a special system ofsupplying documents to the usersanywhere in the world. ABES maintainsa good relationship with the NationalInstitute of Information on Science andTechnology and provides support toprofessional associations like IFLA(International Federation of LibraryAssociation and Institutions) and EAIS(European Association of InternationalStudies).

National Union Catalogue of SerialPublications

In this national union catalogue, over2,900 organisations participate. Theycontribute records to this union catalogue.It has 291,000 locations data. It givesinformation about ISSN (InternationalStandards Serial Number). It includesinformation about the libraries that areparticipating and maintains detailedinformation about the books availablewith them.

The work on the national unioncatalogue is done at 34 regional centres.These regional centres coordinate theactivities of the libraries within their regionsand contribute necessary informationabout books received by them and about

telnet pythie.cnusc.fr

Each entry in the union catalogueprovides information about the title,ISSN, type of application, language,location codes, methods for navigation,other bibliographic information suchas notes, country, language, notes onparticipating libraries on the network,RBCCN nos., and it also givesinformation about how to access it.

PANCATALOGUE

This is a catalogue of books availablewith the libraries specialising in highereducation. This catalogue can besearched by subject words,bibliographic description, title, edition,publisher, subject key words, sourceand location. The mode of access isthrough TELNET at the followingaddress:

telnet frmop22.cnusc.fr

Recherche

Mots Matieres

Description biblioj;

Auteurs:

Titres:

Editeurs:

Mots matieres :

N° base source:

Agenda:

^raphique N° Pancatalogue : 6436617

Vidal, Auguste Theodore. 1803-.

Essai historique sur Dupuytren, par Vidal... sum des discours

prononces par MM. Orfila, Larrey.

Just Rovier et E. Le Bouvier, 1835

Dupuytren, Guillaume - 1777 -1835 / Orfila, Mathieu Joseph

Bonaventure - 1787 - 1853 / Larrey, D.J. - (Dominique Jean),

baron, 1766-1842

ocm 13790009

Paris, Just Rovier et E. Le Bouvier, 1835.-60 p. 22cm

Entrez le code choisi : t terme / k localiser / i index / w voir list / e fin / v. sauvi

A sample entry from Pancatalogue

their activities to ABES for its use. ABESalso promotes the necessary informationabout the participating libraries on itssystem. INTERNET access to ABES isavailable through the TELNET facility atthe following address:

This catalogue was started in April1992. It also gives information aboutuniversity libraries and the documentsthese libraries contain. It has morethan 320,000 titles and contains540,000 locations holdings. This

delnet Newsletter 12 VoL 5, No. 2, December 1998

statistics

OTHER DELNET SERVICESOther Online Facilities to Members and Users

DEL-LISTSERVs

Net happenings • Med-Clips • IFLA • LIBJOBS

Books: New Arrivals from INTERNET

Book Reviews • Current Contents • ILL Online • E-mail • INTERNET TCP/IP

Books-in-Print: New Titles from Publishers

DELNET is also offering

The Hindu Index ONLINE

catalogue is fed automatically fromdifferent databases coming from theregions and also has connections withthe international library networks likeBNOPALE, OCLC and SIBIL.

TELETHESIS

ABES also maintains doctoral theses.The work on this project was started in1992. Telethesis contains 335,000entries, out of which, 25 per cent are inthe field of literature and arts, 30 percent in the field of sciences and 45 percent are in the field of health sciences.There are 20,000 theses addedannually into this database and it isupdated every month. These doctoraltheses contain bibliographic and otherinformation in the form of title, date,university, name of guide, discipline,sub-discipline, nature of research,whether it is a doctoral thesis or anyother kind of thesis. It also includes keyworks.

Interlibrary Loan Facilities

Interlibrary Loan functions are one ofthe special features of ABES. In 1997there was 5,29,695 requirements, outof which, 4,52,180 requirements weresatisfied. These requirements were for

documents, identifying consultation,recovering library data, photocopies, etc.ABES Interlibrary Loan service usesPEPNET and INTERNET protocols forcommunication.

Information Handling(Contd. from page 11)

Good electronic management wouldobviously integrate the following: paperdocuments, for example, through opticalcharacter reading technology; electronicforms; search engine software; workflowsoftware; integrated document archiveand retrieval systems; industry specificapplications; in-house and externalpublishing; printers, fax machines andphotocopiers.

The above augurs well for Indian userorganisations who have an edge overtheir relatively developed counterparts.The technology gap is an opportunity fornot having to go through an expensiveand painful process of incrementalmaturity in information systemsinfrastructure.

The future of information handling willundoubtedly be determined by advancesin areas of INTERNET, data warehousingand document management.

DELNET STATISTICS(as on December 1? 1998)

Participating Libraries103

Delhi81

Outside Delhi(From 10 States)

20

Overseas2

DELNET DatabasesUnion Catalogue of Books: CCF

4,72,754 recordsUnion Catalogue of Books: MARC

16,965 recordsUnion List of Current Serials

16,146 recordsUnion Catalogue of Serials

10,203 recordsDatabase of Periodical Articles

1,15,103 recordsSpecialists' Database

2,000 recordsMultilingual Books

Sample databaseCD-ROM Database

138 recordsUnion List of Video Recordings

1,217 recordsUnion List of Sound Recordings

500 recordsUrdu Manuscripts' Database

210 recordsUnion List of Newspapers

70 recordsDatabase of Theses and

Dissertations251 records

DEVINSA Database20,000 records

Union List of Serials: Petroleumand Natural Gas Sector

871 recordsUnion List of Serials:

Management Libraries800 records

Union Catalogue of Hindi Books3,000 records

delnet Newsletter 13 VoL 5, No. 2, December 1998

software

Library Softwares: The DELNET ExperienceGauri Shankar Pardhi, Rajesh Soni and Arun Moza

1 Introduction

Networked microcomputersrepresent a logical advancement inautomation beyond that of stand-alonesystems. Overthe years, libraries havegrown to depend on computers toautomate many functions. As individualcomputers proliferate throughout thelibrary, there eventually comes a pointwhen the computers need to be linkedtogether in a network in order to get thebest out of them.

In the second half of the 20lh centuryit became difficult to manageinformation resources. It was felt mainlyin major libraries that were growingfast in their acquisition programmes.Later smaller libraries also began tofeel the impact.

So we notice that published recordsare increasing at an incredible rate andtheir prices are keeping pace. In suchcircumstances library cooperation willassume a pivotal role and resourcesharing will become the focal point ofcooperation.

The development in computer andcommunications technologies came tothe rescue of libraries and informationspecialists. The computers gave riseto their application in the libraries. Wemay therefore try to find out, what is theimportance of computers from alibrarian's point of view? According toLowell A Martin, "A library is a place forstoring knowledge under a system thatfacilitates identification and retrievalas needed, which is also a definition ofa computer." [1] As a result of this anew era began in librarianship.Computers were adopted for severalschemes such as cataloguing, literature

search, circulation system, etc. Theyimproved the quality of services.

The effect of automation on staffreduction was studied by Karen L. Hornyat Northwestern University Library. Hisresearch reveals that despite savings instaff there is a "Significant increase in thequality of work and the improvement inboth public and staff access tobibliographic information." [2]

Creation of bibliographic databasehowever, became one of the essentialand key activities of library automation.

It is now a universal fact that information,to use a simple word to cover all thecomplex quantitative data, isindispensable for the planneddevelopment of countries. An importantconsequence of the acceptance of theneed for planning within each country oramong a group of countries, is theemphasis on collecting, processing anddissemination of information. In fact, thelibrary softwares are related to accomplishall these jobs.

2 DELSIS, DELDOS, DELWINDOWS:An OVERVIEW

• DELNET staff has successfullydeveloped three Library Softwares:

• DELSIS, which comprises anetworking software module on BasisPlus, an RDBMS with several uniquefeatures.

• DELDOS software on DOS platformwhich can be used for creatingrecords in MARC format for books inEnglish as well as in other Indianlanguages.

• DELWINDOWS software onWindows platforms is also for thecreation of bibliographic records inMARC for books in English.

DELNET has gained experience inthecreation of Union Catalogues as onDELSIS the Union Catalogues aremade available online. DELNEThandles all the functions required toset up and efficiently run a UnionCatalogue,from creating thecustomised software to ensuringeffective record extraction andconversion. The software, customisedfor Library Network, features qualitycontrol, duplicate checking, copycommand, interlibrary loan functionalityand electronic distribution of records.

DELNET has extensive experiencein setting up a variety of UnionCatalogues established from differentcriteria. DELNET has completedDELSIS, asingle system software, fullyintegrated and interfaced that links theresources of public, academic andspeciallibraries throughout the state.Location codes are stored in thebibliographic record, allowing thereview or display of libraries thatmaintain a copy.,

A Union Catalogue increases theeffectiveness of research, improvesthe access that researchers have tomaterials, enhances informationawareness and resource sharing, andacts as a bibliographic and authoritydata resource. With one single sourceavailable for copy cataloguinginformation retrieval or InterlibraryLoan, the libraries using the UnionCatalogue can avoid unnecessarynetwork searching and save both theirown resources and those of thenetwork. The Union Catalogue offersservices to all libraries and users ofinformation without risking thecapacities of the local system.Information and materials for all usersthroughout the network are no longerlimited to the local libraries' connection:The Union Catalogue serves as a

delnet Newsletter 14 VoL 5, No. 2, December 1998

software

collection management guide, aninstrument for Interlibrary Loan, alocator service for reference purposes,index for implementing virtual library,and a source for copy cataloguing datasuch as bibliographic, authority andholdings data. In addition, printedbibliographies can be generated.[3]

These softwares enable each libraryto search the Union Catalogue, tagrecords corresponding to books ownedby the library and then download therecords. Each new library is able toquickly and efficiently utilise the Uniondatabase to create its own holdingsdatabases and the easy ability to switchbetween databases.

These softwares extractbibliographies and authority recordsfrom participating libraries or databasesand loads them into the UnionCatalogue. During the load process,the DELNET softwares read and checkthe records for entries, merge certainbibliographic tags of duplicate entries,and determine which records to keepbased on the Union Catalogue rules forencoding and institutional levels. Iflibraries do not process records or arecapable of extracting records in full USMARC format, DELNET software canconvert these records to US MARCformat and then loan them.

2.1 DELSIS

The DELNET system for Informationservices is an integrated modularsystem which supports DELNET'sOnline Databases.

2.1.1 Salient Features of DELSIS

1 DELSIS is a user-friendly, menu-driven package.

2 Its versatile options allow the usersto retrieve the information quickly.

3 It contains the modules for Online

Public Access Catalogue as themodules for the creation ofdatabases, e.g. addition, deletion,importing of records, etc.

2.1.2 Features of DELSIS (Module-wise)

The Online Public Access Catalogue(OPAC) component of DELSIS can meetthe needs of the users, irrespective ofwhether the user has little computerexperience or is familiar with usingcomputers to perform various librarytasks.

A. Union Catalogue of Books

• Search by Boolean, Author, Title,Subject, Call No., Series,Conferences.

• Sophisticated Boolean Enquiry usingthe Boolean operators AND, OR,NOT.

• Efficient result sets.

• Lets you see brief as well as detailedbibliographical information about arecord with holdings data.

• Search can be carried out by givinga word, several words or a phrase.Query can be performed in upper orlowercase or in both, i.e. it is not casesensitive.

• Help instructions for the users areprovided.

• A query can be made in any order.

Generates a dictionary of subject

headings while retrieving a subject.

Displays a record in user-friendly

AACR-II format.

• Printout options are also available.

B. Multilingual Books: A SampleDatabase

A sample database of languagepublications using GIST Technology hasbeen developed.

• Searches can be done by Title,Author, Subject or Publisher.

• Creation of bibliographic record inany Indian language.

• Transliteration possible in anyIndian language of your choiceincluding Roman script.

• Proper instructions are providedforformulating the queries in Indianlanguages.

• Printoutscan betaken in any Indianlanguage including English.

C. Directory of Member-Libraries

It contains the library profiles of allthe member-libraries of DELNET. Itfurnishes the information about theservices provided by the libraries, thesubject specialisation of the library,etc.

D. DELSIS: Administration Module

• Menu-drivenpackagewiththepop-up Windows.

• Importing of the records in ISOformat.

• Exporting of the records in ISOformat.

• Duplicate checking provision.

• Addition/deletion/changes in thedatabase can be made.

• Merging of the records.

2.2 DELDOS and DELWINDOWS

Delnet has created the DELDOS andDELWINDOWS software for creatingand retrieving bibliographic databasesand catalogues. These software canconvert the simple system into apowerful management informationsystem. Some of the features are:

• It is simple and easy to use. Thenovice library professionals or endusers can interact with the softwarewithout any prior training.

• It is user-friendly with adequate

delnet Newsletter 15 Vol 5, No. 2, December 1998

software

window-menus for data inputtingand search capabilities.

• It provides the option for creatingthe bibliographic records using theMARC format.

These softwares provide the followingoperational modules:

2.2.1 Database Creation andMaintenance

• This module is used to create andstore the bibliographic records, ina machine readable format usingMARC format so as to facilitate theeasier exchange of information.

• The desirable format worksheet orMARC worksheet can be chosenfor data storage purpose.

• The MARC worksheet consists oftwo levels. Fix field entry andvariable field entry. To save theuser's time and also the disk space,the required field tags along withthe indicators can be chosen.

• The online assistance is availablefor data inputting through the helpmenus.Data validation check is possible inorder to avoid the data errors.Check for mandatory field entry isalso possible.

• The personal name authoritydatabase is maintained.

• Data Import/Export into and fromMARC is made possible.

• The option for editing orthe deletionof the records is available.

• Printout facility for printing thedesired records is also available.

2.2.2 OPAC (Online Public AccessCatalogue)

• This module helps the librarians aswell as the end users to retrieve theinformation available in thedatabase in a user-friendly manner.

• Browsing facility: available forbeginners. They can search a bookby title, author, subject, etc.

• Word or phrase searching.• Boolean searching.• Search term is not case sensitive.• Brief as well as detailed

bibliographical information can beretrieved.

• Displays records in AACR-II formatand prints search result in standardAACR-II format or other formats asdesired.

2.2.3 Some new features alsoincluded in the latest version ofDELDOS software

• Tag Control: This is an excellentfeature of this software in the termsof addition of new tags. While datainputting, if you require some newtags then you can add tag, subf ields,their repeatability, etc.

• Index Control: By this control thissoftware can maintain the list ofindexes in various categories. At thetime of data search and retrieval, ifyou require some new indexes, thenyou can add the desired index tagand search by them and get theresults.

• Password Control: In the terms ofsecurity, the DELDOS version 2.0has the latest feature such as thepassword control. By this security,the invalid user can't open theworksheet and is unable to destroyany records.

• Oth ,• features include that, you cancopy the records and make someminorchanges to create new records.

• Deletion and undeletion of record isalso possible.

• DELDOS provides the multilingualfacility. It has been successfullyimplemented for Gurmukhi, Tamiland Devanagari scripts.

• Deletion and printing of selectiverecords and range of records ispossible.

• Global values can be defined duringthe worksheet entry.

3 DELNET Software: ComparativeStudy

In the field of library automation thereare various softwares available, Suchas CDS/ISIS, SANJAY, LIBSYS,TECHLIBPLUS, LIBRIS, OASIS,LIBMAN, DATASCAN,DATAGURU,GRANTHALAYA, MAITRAYEE, ect.But in thecontext of DELNET softwares,there are some special featuresaccording to the user's choice foreffective Database management.

3.1 Characteristics of LibrarySoftwares

According to A. V. Rahelamma,regardless of the manner in whichsoftware has been prepared, it shouldfulfil the following nine requirements,and of course DELDOS fulfils all therequirements.

• "Libraries have to handle massivedata, mainly bibliographical data,which in many respects is differentfrom othertextual or numerical datathat is usually handled bycomputers. Hence libraryapplication software needs to bespecially made for handling largedata files having innumerablerecords with unusuaf record size.[4]

• The data elements in abibliographical record will be ofvarying length. For example, thetitle of a document may be veryshort, while that of another may beunduly large: The software mustmeet the situation by providingvariable length fields instead of theusual fix-length fields.

• Some of the data elements are bynature repetitive. For example,there can be more than one authorfor a book, and more keywords/subject headings. The softwaremust accommodate such repetitivefields without wasting storagespace.

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software

Some of the data fields may alsohave to accommodate subfields.For example, an imprint field in abibliographical record may have toprovide for subfields like place,publisher and year.

Some of the data elements maynot be present in all cases. Forexample, series field may not bepresent in some records. Thesoftware must have a built-in abilityto accommodate such optionalfields without wasting storagespace.

Bibliographical database shouldenable speedy random access tofiles under almost all fields andsubfields. Hence the softwareshould be capable of creating fastaccess files such as Index files.

• The speed and efficiency of subjectsearch will depend upon some of thein-built mechanisms in the softwarelike use of a versatile thesaurusmanagement facility and systematicsearch language.

• Bibliographical data may have to beprinted ordisplayed in various formatsas are required for a catalogue or anindex.

• Database creation and outputgeneration should conform to theinternational/national standards inforce in thefield and thereby establishnecessary compatibility with otherinformation networks."[4]

3.2 CD/ISIS and DELDOS: AComparative Study based on the followingcharacteristics:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Feature

Compatibility

Disk space utility

Search Capabilities

Database Management

Record linking

Authority DataMaintenance

Data Export inUSMARC format

Edit facility

View facility

Worksheet Creation

CDS/ISIS

It is suitable for microcomputers and run on simpleDOS platform.It makes efficient use of diskmemory space as it does notallot fixed space for each fieldin a record.It has powerful searchcapabilities.

It is a flexible system fordatabase management.A record can be linked withanother in the same database.No provision for authority datamaintenance

It is not suitable for exportingof records in full USMARCformat.A user has to get into separatemenus to modify or removedata while searching for it - alengthy process.It has no facility for viewingdifferent records at the sametime.It allows the use of more thanone data entry worksheet toprovide a different data entry.

DELDOS

It is suitable for IBM microcomputers and run on simpleDOS platformIt makes efficient use of diskmemory space as it does notallot fixed space for each fieldin a record.It provides simple and efficientsearch method with individualand Boolean Enquiry in user-friendly manner.

It provides efficient databasemaintenance with full security.Provision for record linking.

Personal name authoritydatabase is maintained by thissoftware. When creating a newrecord, you can alsocreate the authority.It provides one step procedurefor exporting of records in fullUSMARC format..It provides Edition or Deletion ofrecords in range without gettinginto separate menus.

It provides flexible view process.You can see the record inrange with required format.It provides flexible MARCWorksheet with Tagmodification capability.

4 DELNET Software: Future Plan

Information is regarded as a vitalresource and an invaluable commodityin modern times. Information plays asignificant role in the socio-economic,scientific and technologicaldevelopment of a country. It is,however, a vast sector which includesdifferent groups of people and stages,involving generations, collection,processing, retrieval and disseminationof information. Librarians andinformation scientists, acting asintermediaries, provide general andspecial information services to theusers with the help of modern gadgetsor tools developed by differentbranches of science and technologies.All these developments are in genericterms known as informationtechnology. The application ofinformation technology in library servicehas opened up a new vista for researchand pursuit of knowledge.

So, for fulfilment of the aboverequirements and aspects DELNEThas a vision on one side for resourcesharing as a library network and on theother side for library automation as anintegrated library management systemwhich will include a variety of modules.

These softwares will become anintegrated set of software modulescovering the whole set of reader andtechnical services. The facilities soprovided enable participating librariesto operate.

DELWINDOWS will grow as aMultiuser Library Software based onClient/Server Technology with thefollowing features:

• Online Catalogue.

• Cataloguing/Maintenance withMARC processing.

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new members

• Circulation.

• Serial Control-Serials Processing,Subscription maintenance, Routingmaintenance.

• Acquisition - Order Processing,Receiving, Report Generation.

• Administrative Functions - Tagcontrol, Index control, Passwordcontrol, updation, Export intovarious MARC formats, Import fromvarious MARC formats, Global datadeclaration, Deletion.

• Electronic data distribution throughthe Web.

• Full Text Retrieval

• Image Scanning Capability.

5 Conclusion

Finally, with the information explosiontaking place all overthe world and withshrinking library budgets in real terms,libraries find it increasingly difficult toacquire a comprehensive collection inthe fields of their interest. This situationhas led to the creation of databasecovering information of interestavailable in various countries forproviding relevant information to theusers. Also emphasis has shifted fromcomprehensive acquisition ofdocuments' in libraries to providingaccess to comprehensive informationto the users of libraries. This had led tothe formation of library networks forresource sharing. Many developingcountries are also planning onimplementing such networks includingthose for online usage, for resourcesharing.

Both the database and onlinenetworks involve use of thetechnologies of information processing,computer communication, etc. Whilethese technologies are well-establishedin the developed countries, they are

still atthe development or implementationstages in the developing countries.

So, we are sure that these softwareswill become useful for libraries interestedin creating standard bibliographic recordsin MARC format with full retrieval, fullsecurity.export and import facilities.

References

1 Martin, Lowell A. "The change ahead."Library Journal93, 1968. p. 711.

2 Homey, Karen L. "Fifteen years ofautomation: Evolution of technical servicesstaffing." Library Resources & Technical

Services 31 (1) Jan-Mar 1987. pp. 69-76.

3 http://www.vtls.com, 1995

4 Rahelamma, A.V. Application software

packages for libraries. In Devarajan, G.

and Rahelamma, A.V. Library

computerisation in India. New Delhi: Ess

Ess Pub., 1990. pp. 127-8

5 Kaul, H.K. "Library Networks: An Indian

experience." New Delhi: Virgo Publications,

1992, pp. 106-08.

Subjectwise Category of DELNETMember-Libraries:

GeneralScience and TechnologySocial SciencesHumanities

Total

25412215

103

DELNET Member-Libraries: Kinds

Research/Spl. LibrariesGovt. DeptsCollegeUniversityDiplomatic MissionsPublic SectorPublic LibrariesPublishers

Total

52

16

109

8

5

2

1

103

New Member-LibrariesBhilai Institute of Technology, BhilaiBureau of Industrial Costs and PricesCEDUST, French Embassy

Central Electricity AuthorityCentre for Women's Development

StudiesDayal Singh Public LibraryDelhi School of BusinessDept. of Personnel & Training,

Ministry of Personnel PublicGrievances and Pensions

Erode Arts College, ErodeFaculty of Management Studies,

Delhi UniversityThe Hindu, ChennaiHindu College, University of DelhiIndian Council for Cultural RelationsIndian School of Mines, DhanbadInstitute of Nuclear Medicine and

Allied SciencesInstitute for Integrated Learning in

ManagementInternational Institute of Tamil

Studies, ChennaiInternational Management InstituteJaipuria Institute of Management,

LucknowJohns Hopkins University, Baltimore,

USAMinistry of Rural Areas and

EmploymentNational Research Development

Corporation

Northern Institute for IntegratedLearning in Management PrimeMinister's Office

Punjabi University, PatialaSchool of Planning and ArchitectureSteel Authority of India Ltd.University of California. Berkeley.

USA

University of Health Sciences,Vijayawada

delnet Newsletter 18 Vol. 5, No. 2, December 1998

members

\

Knowledge flows through DELNETAccess It

DELNET offers services to more than 100 Indian and foreign libraries.It treasures more than 25 best databases of Indian Library resources.

DELNET is accessible through INTERNET.

Membership Rates

Admission Fee Rs. 5,000

Institutional Membership fee Rs. 7,500 per year(for libraries with 10,000 or more book collection)

Associate Institutional Membership fee Rs. 10,000 per year(for libraries with less tlian 10,000 book collection)

Libraries wishing to avail of ILL ONLINE facility are charged as follows:

Libraries in Delhi Rs. 4,000 per yearActual photocopying charges,if any, will be extra

Libraries outside Delhi Rs. 4,000 per yearActual photocopying charges,if any, and courier charges will be extra.

Special Offer for libraries joining DELNET from February 15, 1999 to May 15, 1999. Take DELDOS or DELWINDOWS, the standard databasecreation software free with Membership. For special features of DELDOS and DELWINDOWS, refer to pages 14-18 in this Newsletter.

For Membership details contact:

Director \Delhi Library Network

40, Max Mueller Marg, Lodi EstateNew Delhi-110003

Phone: 4619325, 4619431 Ext. 312Telefax: 011-4619325

E-mail:hkkaul@delnet.ren.nic.in

fr

\ ,

The recent publication from DELNET

LIBRARY AND INFORMATION NETWORKS:The proceedings of the National Annual Convention on

Library and Information Networking (NACLIN)1998

Edited by

H.K. Kaul

376 pp 1999 Rs. 550/-

Libraries will be given 20% special discount

Send your orders to:

The SecretaryDelhi Library Network

40, Max Mueller Marg, Lodi Estate, New Delhi - 110 003. Fax: 4619325

=^\

JJdelnet Newsletter 19 VoL 5, No. 2, December 1998

R. No. 59477/94

national convention

National Convention on Library

and Information Networking

NAC LIN 99October 11-14, 1999

Organised by DELNET

Introduction:

During the last decade, efforts havebeen made to establish librarynetworks in India. Rapid advances ininformation technology, substantialincrease in the published andelectronic documents, advances intelecommunication, computer andnetworking technology, theestablishment of INTERNET and thegrowth of the World Wide Web havemade networking of resources in thelibraries and information centres anecessity. DELNET organised the firstNational Convention on Library andInformation Networking in 1998. Inorder to promote library networking,DELNET will be making this an annualfeature.

Objectives:

The main objective of this NationalConvention is to disseminate the latestknow-how on the following subjectsand arrange tutorials for library andinformation professionals who wantto gain practical knowledge:

Resource Sharing

Networking Softwares

Multimedia Applications

Communication Tools

Bibliographic Standards

Cataloguing

Union Catalogues and Databases

Language Databases

Accessing Library Resources on theINTERNET

• Web Technology

Tutorials which will be held onOctober 11 and 12, 1999, will beorganised on the following topics:

International Bibliographic Formats

Library Resources on the INTERNET

Creation and Management of Library WebSites

Creating Databases in Indian Languages

AACR 2

As seats are limited for participation intutorials, participants are advised toregister their requests in order of theirpreferences.

Submission of Papers

Participants are welcome to contributepapers for presentation at the NationalConvention on the topics given above oron related topics. They should reachDirector, DELNET on or before June 1,1999. Information about rejection/acceptance of this paper will be sentwithin one month and participants shouldconfirm that they will join the NationalConvention if the paper is accepted.Papers should contain substantial inputswhich should be based on research,survey or practical experience. Allbibliographic references should be givenaccording to the Manual of Style, TheUniversity of Chicago. They should besubmitted on A4 size paper or on 1.44MB floppies. Papers should contain thename of the author, title of the article,name of affiliating institution, mailingaddress, E-mail address (if any), filename and information about the wordprocessing software used in the floppydiskette. Standard softwares such asWORDSTAR or MSWORD may only beused. The paper submitted should nothave already been published elsewhere.

Participants

Library and information professionalscan apply for participation. Participantsnominated by institutions who haveimmediate need for modernisation oftheir libraries will be given preference.

Participation fee

National Annual Convention : Rs.2000/-

Tutorials : Rs. 1000/- per tutorial

Special rates for joining the NationalConvention and all tutorialsRs.6000/-

Participants from member-institutions of DELNET will be given50 per cent discount on the aboverates.

Accommodation

Participants have to make their ownarrangements for stay in Delhi.However, if assistance is needed,accommodation may be arrangeddepending upon the availability. Therates of hostels, guest houses andmoderate hotels in Delhi vary fromRs. 200/-to Rs. 500/- per day. Cheaperaccommodation if available, can alsobe arranged.

Registration Form : NACLIN 99

I wish to register for the National Convention:

(Please use one form per participant. Usephotocopies of this form if necessary)

Name:Designation:Organisation:Address:

Telephone(s):.Fax:E-mail:

Are you submitting a paper? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Please make arrangements for me foraccommodation. I enclose Rs. 500/- asadvance towards this facility.

I enclose a cheque/DD No. forRs. in favour ofDelhi Library Network, Delhi.

Date: Signature:

Edited and published by H.K. Kaul, Director, DELNET, for Delhi Library Network (DELNET), 40, Max Mueller Marg, New Delhi-110 003.Printed by H.K. Kaul at Kaveri Printers, Darya Ganj, Delhi-110 002. Assistant Editor: A. Vijaya Murthy. E-mail: root@delnet.ren.nic.in

delnet Newsletter 20 VoL 5, No. 2, December 1998