READIT - 2009 - Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research

National Conference on 

Recent Advances in Information Science 

and Technology 

“Knowledge Representation through Semantic Library” 

December 29 - 30, 2009 

READIT - 2009 

Sarabhai Auditorium, IGCAR 

Kalpakkam -603 102 

Organised by 

Kalpakkam Chapter of Madras Library Association 

Scientific Information Resource Division 

Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research

Proceedings of 

7 th National Conference on 

Recent Advances in 

Information Science & Technology 

(READIT-2009) 

Conference Theme: 

“Knowledge Representation through Semantic Library” 

Organised by 

Scientific Information Resource Division, 

Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research 

Kalpakkam 603102, Tamil Nadu 

& 

Madras Library Association 

(Kalpakkam Chapter) 

December 29-30, 2009 

IGCAR, Kalpakkam

Foreword 

The 7th biennial national conference on Recent Advances in Information Science and 

Technology (READIT) being organized with the main theme of Knowledge 

Representation through Semantic Library has the main objective of providing a forum 

wherein Knowledge transfer amongst the professionals in the fields of Library and 

Information Technology can take place. 

The Semantic Web vision is not a utopia. Intensive research is undertaken worldwide in 

Research Centers and several achievements have been accomplished towards the 

ultimate objective: The expression and the exploitation of Humanity’s collective 

knowledge. Libraries always played a critical role to the dissemination of knowledge. 

Knowledge is recognized as the ultimate resource of our days. From this perspective 

Digital Libraries provide extraordinary information and knowledge highways for all and 

their role towards a prosperous society based on Knowledge and Learning is critical. In 

this era of transition Semantic Web and Knowledge Management technologies expand 

the frontiers of knowledge representation and sharing. 

READIT 2009 would have invited talks from very eminent professionals in the fields 

related to the theme of the conference. We hope the proceeding brought out to do 

justice to the theme and have addressed some of the relevant topics in the field of 

Semantic Digital Library. Papers have been received in almost all fields covering various 

topics like Knowledge Representation, Digital Library Infrastructure, Open Source 

Solutions, and Knowledge Management Practices and so on. 

I hope the proceedings will serve as a reference content as well as benchmark of the 

technology advancement in various libraries and provide an opportunity for us to evolve 

as semantic digital libraries. 

M. Sai Baba 

Convener – READIT 2009

About SIRD 

The Library at IGCAR has grown into its present stature of “Scientific and Information 

Resources Division” from being “Library and Documentation Services” and later on 

“Library and Information Services”. In line with the metamorphosis, the services offered 

have also multiplexed in quality and quantity over the past three and a half decades. 

What started in the conventional way assumed the mantle of information service, which 

moved on to computer based automated services and today it has matured into a digital 

world and a knowledge resource hub with relevant information available at the click of 

the mouse. 

The Library at the Centre was born in 1972, when the Centre was very young. It started 

with three thousand books and subscription to a dozen of journal titles. The Centre grew 

at a fast pace with activities encompassing basic physics to environmental science not 

leaving out the mission oriented research on fast reactor technology. The management 

of library was posed with a challenge to keep pace with this rapid growth and cater to the 

requirements of a diverse science, engineering, technology and administrative 

communities. 

Barcode system was introduced for charging and discharging of books. Libsys software 

package was purchased and introduced in the library with a view that all DAE Units will 

also use this software so that it may be easy to retrieve information from their data base 

through internet. 

Digital Library was established in our Centre in the IX Five Year Plan with consultancy 

services from Supercomputer Education & Research Centre, IISC, Bangalore. In 

September 2004, the Library and Information Services was renamed as Scientific 

Information Resource Division (SIRD). 

The untiring efforts put up by the staff made the SIRD pioneer in information services. 

With the latest technologies integration, the library services are made accessible over 

the IGCAR intranet by anyone, anytime and anywhere. High-end servers, content 

creation devices, storage area networks etc are all part for the digital infrastructure of 

SIRD which is the backbone of the information services. Patrons have access to almost 

all full text / bibliographic information resources like web OPAC, Reports, CD/DVD, E- 

Journal, Scientific/Technical databases, Full text Standards, FBR Portal, IGC Publication 

database etc. A Library gateway with links to all the resources provides organized

access to information resources. RFID based Circulation, Electronic article surveillance, 

video streaming, Fire detection and alarming are some of the new technologies 

implemented in SIRD. An initiation is also made to capture and build the knowledge 

resources of IGCAR such as photo images, news clips, internal reports, publications and 

translated documents. 

As part of the progressive plans, the emphasis at SIRD has been in the area of digital 

library. The initiative is to make the information available in the digital form atleast upto 

Table of Contents for books and journals. Also subject specific gateways on nuclear 

fuels and reprocessing have been initiated. Advanced digital library infrastructure and 

disaster recover network have been implemented. User-Centric development on 

information services is the vital aspect of SIRD.

About MALA-KC 

Madras Library Association – Kalpakkam Chapter (MALA-KC) is formed in 1995 and it is 

committed to carry forward the programmes of MALA at Kalpakkam. MALA-KC has been 

conducting a series of conferences in Recent Advances in Information Technology 

(READIT). The earlier conferences were conducted during, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 

2005 and 2007, which were well received by professionals engaged in IT and Library 

Information Science from R&D and Academic Institutions. The present conference 

“Recent Advances in Information Science & Technology-2009 (READIT-2009), a two 

day conference (29th & 30th December 2009) will have the theme on “Knowledge 

Representation through Semantic Library”. The Pre-Conference Tutorial on 28 th 

December 2009 (Monday) will be conducted on “Digital Repository Creation and 

Preservation Management”.

Organising Committee 

READIT-2009 

Chairman: Dr. P. Swaminathan 

Director, EIG & Chairman , L&ISC 

Convener: Dr. M. Sai Baba 

Head, SIRD 

Members 

Shri S.A.V. Satya Murty 

Head, CD, IGCAR 

Dr. G. Amarendra 

Head, MPS/MSD, IGCAR 

Prof. A. Amudhavalli 

Head, DLIS, University of Madras 

Dr. Samyuktha 

Librarian, University of Pondicherry 

Dr. Vidya Sundararajan 

S&HRPS, IGCAR 

Shri R.V. Subba Rao 

CSTD/MMG, IGCAR 

Dr. Vijaya K Sundaram 

President, MALA 

Shri R.G. Raghavan 

AO, IGCAR 

Shri R. Sathyamurthy 

DCA, IGCAR 

Shri A. Narayanan, SIRD 

Shri V. Rajendran, SIRD 

Shri C. Jayakumar, SIRD 

Shri E. Soundararajan, SIRD 

Shri K. Ganesan, SIRD 

Shri M. Pandurangam, SIRD 

Smt. S. Prabavathi, SIRD

Local Organizing Committee 

READIT-2009 

Tutorials 

Shri E. Soundararajan - Convener 

Shri V. Rajendran 

Shri C. Jayakumar 

Shri A. Narayanan 

Technical 

Shri A. Narayanan – Convener 

Shri E. Soundrarajan 

Shri V. Rajendran 

Mrs. S. Prabavathi 

Publication 

Shri K. Ganesan - Convener 

Shri K. Varathan 

Shri A. Rangarajan 

Shri G. Pentaiah 

Hall Arrangement 

Shri C. Jayakumar – Convener 

Shri J.V.M. Joseph 

Shri S. Gandhi 

Shri K. Karunanithi 

Shri J. Gopalakrishnan 

Shri A. Muthuvel 

Finance 

Smt. S. Prabhavathi –Convener 

Smt. P. Parimala 

Exhibition & Posters 

Shri M. Pandurangan – Convener 

Shri A. Poruran 

Shri V. Rathinam 

Catering 

Shri S.P. Singaram - Convener 

Shri K. Arumugam 

Mrs. M. Leena 

Accommodation 

Shri V. Rajendran – Convener 

Shri R. Srikanthan 

Mrs. P. Seema 

Security & Transport 

Shri E. Sundravadivel – Convener 

Shri P.K. Samikannan 

Shri R. Baskaran 

Réception & Registration 

Smt. M.Ruckmani – Convener 

Smt. S. Prabhavathi 

Smt. N. Hemalatha 

Smt. M. Saradamba 

Smt. K. Loganayaki

Invited Presentations: 

CONTENTS 

Session-I: Semantic Web Technologies and Knowledge Representation 

Understanding and Exploiting Knowledge Sharing Possibilities 

L.S. Ganesh, Dept of Management Studies - IITM, Chennai 

Semantic Web Technologies 

G. Sivakumar, Dept of CSE - IITB, Mumbai 

Semantic Web Technologies and Knowledge Representation – 

Devika P. Madalli, DRTC - ISI, Bangalore 

Semantic Information Retrieval from Enterprise Data – 

Dr. C. Anantaraman, Principal Scientist - TCS Innovation Labs, New Delhi 

Session-II: Digital Library Infrastructure and Information Retrieval 

Role of ICT for Successful Implementation of KM 

S.A.V. Satya Murty, HEAD - Computer Division, IGCAR. 

Information Architecture in the Digital Era 

T. V. Gopal - Dept of CSE - Anna University, Chennai. 

Archiving Digital Information 

S. Venkadesan - Librarian - IISc, Bangalore. 

Digital Information Creation Challenges faced by Amazon - Amazon, India. 

M. Viswanath 

Session-III: Open Source Solutions & Federated Search 

Open Access Archives and the Open Source DSpace 

M. G. Sreekumar - Librarian - IIM, Kozhikode. 

Drupal -Open Source CMS – 

Shyamala Rajaram – Technology Head - Netlink Technologies, Chennai. 

Open Source Software for Libraries 

M. Kumaran - Head CSE - Jaya Engg College, Chennai 

Open Source Solutions and Federated Search 

R. SunilKumar - Product Manager - HCL, Noida. 

Session-IV: Knowledge Management Practices in Library & Information 

Centers 

Knowledge Management in Nuclear R & D Organization 

P. Swaminathan - Director - EIG, IGCAR, Kalpakkam. 

Institutional Knowledge Repositories - A Case Study at the ISB 

K. Mohan - Senior Director - ISB, Hyderabad. 

Human Resources Development and Knowledge Management in Department

of Atomic Energy 

R. R. Puri - Head, Training School - BARC, Mumbai. 

SRU/W: A Digital 'Lingua Franca' for Bridging Heterogeneous Applications 

K. T. Anuradha - NCSI - IISC, Bangalore. 

Contributed Papers: 

Session-I: Semantic Web Technologies and Knowledge Representation 

Semantic Interoperability of Electronic Health Records Pertaining to Diverse 

Standards through Ontology mapping : A Semantic Web Service oriented 

model 

P.Vidhya, Jany Shabu - Sathyabama University, Chennai. 

Comparative study of BPEL based static composition and OWLS – Xplan 2.0 

based Dynamic composition of web services 

P.Sandhya, Dr. M. Lakshmi - Sathyabama University, Chennai 

An overview of Taxonomy Development in Library Information Management E. 

Suthanthira Devi, E. Kayalvizhi and N. Thilagavathy. 

Semantic Search Engines : A brief Analysis 

Rekha Kishore , Pondicherry University. 

Errand of Search Engines for exploring information in Digital Epoch 

K. Tharani Devi, Panner Selvam and Vinitha Prabakaran. 

Ranganathan’s Facet Analysis and the Semantic Web in the age of e- 

Science(P) 

M. Ratnasamy, IIT Kharagpur 

Session-II: Digital Library Infrastructure and Information Retrieval 

A study of Video-on-Demand Learning System in E-Learning Platform : An 

RTP approach 

M.Harish, K. Saravanan and K.Ramesh babu - VIT University, Vellore 

Digital Library Infrastructure Development : Issues & Methods 

E. Soundararajan - SIRD/IGCAR, Kalpakkam. 

Digital Information Services - Infrastructure & Development 

R.Pandian, M.Aruldhanakar and Dr. G. Krishnamoorthy - Anna University, Chennai 

Are We Ready for Library 3.0 ? 

V.Rajasekar, M.Arulpandian and R.Pandian - Anna University, Chennai 

Building of Digital Libraries for the Future : A Study 

R.Pandian, M.Aruldhanakar and G. Krishnamoorthy - Anna University, Chennai 

Use of E - Journals by Engineering College Students and Faculties in Karur 

District : A Survey Report 

G.Sasireka, Anna University - Chennai 

International Nuclear Information System (INIS) as Knowledge Repository : 

Discovery Tools and Retrieval Techniques

C. Jaykumar, E. Soundararajan, V. Rajendaran, A. Amudhavalli and M. Sai Baba. 

Session-III: Open Source Solutions & Federated Search 

Federated Search : A Single interface for multiple access 

N.Ashok Kumar, Tamilnadu Physical Education & Sports University, Chennai. 

A study of Information seeking behavior of the Faculty members of self finance 

Engineering Colleges in Chennai - 

P. Balasubramanian and G.Ramasamy - Sri Ramanujar Engg College, Chennai. 

Impact of Open Source Solutions to Libraries ( P) 

M. Natarajan, Scientist - NISCAIR, New Delhi. 

Session-IV: Knowledge Management Practices in Library & Information 

Centers 

Knowledge Management Knowledge Sharing and Co-opetition - A Case Study 

K.K.Kuriakose, R.Malathi, V.Parameswaran, S.A.V. Satya Murty and P. 

Swaminathan - IGCAR, Kalpakkam. 

Knowledge Management practices in Library & Information Centers in Digital 

Era 

K. Dhanalakshmi, Dravidian University. 

Knowledge Management and Representation for Nuclear Reactor – 

N.Madurai Meenachi, M.Sai Baba, B.Babu, B.Anandapadmanaban and 

V.Ramanathan - IGCAR, Kalpakkam. 

Preservation of Manuscripts with special reference to Digital Preservation : An 

Attempt 

K. Ramakrishna Reddy, SCSVMV University - Kanchipuram. 

Knowledge Management – An Organization’s Perspective 

R.Malathi, K.K.Kuriakose, V.Parameswaran, S.A.V. Satya Murty and P. 

Swaminathan -IGCAR, Kalpakkam. 

Knowledge Warehouse for Library 

D. Thirupurasundari, S. Rajeswari and S.A.V. Satya Murty - IGCAR, Kalpakkam. 

Knowledge Management Practice in Library and Information Centers – 

M. Veerabasavaiah, and K.K. Suresh Kumar.

Invited Presentations

Session-I: 

Semantic Web Technologies and Knowledge Representation

Proceedings of READIT-2009, Kalpakkam - 603 102, 29-30 Dec 2009 

SEMANTIC WEB TECHNOLOGIES 

G. Sivakumar 

The Internet (World Wide Web) revolution has both democratized access to 

information and empowered users to become valuable producers rather than 

mere consumers. While search engines have to some extent tamed the 

complexity of locating useful information, their "syntactic" foundation limits 

them from discovering more useful "semantic connections" and delivering 

more value to users. One way to add this intelligence to the Web is to make 

the data smarter enabling such semantic search. In this talk, we will give a 

broad overview of the key technologies in the Semantic web stack including 

the Resource Description Framework (RDF), RDF Schema (RDFS), the Web 

Ontology Language (OWL). We will also assess the strengths and 

weaknesses of this approach using relevant case studies. 

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai – 400 076 

Email: siva@iitb. ac. in 

1


SEMANTIC WEB TECHNOLOGIES AND KNOWLEDGE 

REPRESENTATION 

Devika P. M. 

Semantic web proposes 'meaningful web'. In effect it means that the web 

should be supported with enriched descriptions so as to aide in accurate and 

efficient retrieval. Digital Libraries (DLs) and Digital Repositories are data 

intensive with large masses of full text resources accessible online. Activities 

in the area of Semantic Web development recognize the significant part 

played by metadata and knowledge organization systems (such as 

classifications and thesauri) in capturing and communicating 'meaning'. We 

now have web ontology standards, such as Simple Knowledge Organization 

Systems (SKOS), a common data model for sharing and linking knowledge 

organization systems via the Semantic Web. Standards such as SKOS are 

also meant to be used as a vehicle for deployment of knowledge organization 

systems that were not born digital (or XML/RDF) such as thesauri and 

bibliographic classifications. The talk attempts to present application of 

faceted classification scheme as enunciated by Ranganathan in developing 

ontologies. It further explores the issues in modelling faceted scheme of 

Ranganathan using SKOS. 

Documentation Research and Training Centre, Indian Statistical Institute 

Bangalore – 560 059 

Email: devika at drtc.isibang.ac.in 

2


SEMANTIC INFORMATION RETRIEVAL 

FROM ENTERPRISE DATA 

C. Anantaraman 

The focus of the talk would be to discuss a technological architecture to 

enable semantic information retrieval for enterprise data that is spread 

across data sources and applications each having their own data. In order 

to search and query such enterprise data effectively, the different 

applications and data sources that contain relevant data will need to be 

semantically tagged and their semantic cross-relationship identified. As a 

first step towards semantic enrichment, the basic data can be converted to 

a common data format with semantic labels (such as RDF) from its relational 

data store. Some of the data will be ingested into the Ontology and some 

will consist of that data that will be referred from the applications on a 

“when-needed” basis. The data and metadata that will be ingested into the 

Ontology is called the Level-1 Ontology. The common data will then be 

semantically merged through a Composite Mapper to determine the 

Composite entities and relations between them. The Composite Mapper will 

map the various entities using Ontology and apply the rules for mapping. The 

rules itself can be defined in a rulebase in the OWL schema. This will create 

the Level-2 Ontology. In order to create meaningful entities for the 

higher-level applications, we will have to enhance the Level-2 Ontology 

with the semantic schemas of the information retrieval application and its 

domain specific rules. This will create the Level-3 Ontology that will form 

the basic backbone for the enterprise semantic information search and query 

operations. 

Tata Consultancy Services, Chennai, 600 113 

Mail: c.anantaram@tcs.com 

3


KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION, SHARING AND TRANSFER 

L.S. Ganesh 

The talk would be covering about the need of knowledge management, the 

values of knowledge and highlights the knowledge management process. The 

issues related to Knowledge dissemination, sharing and transfer will be 

addressed in detail. Finally it would focus on knowledge to wisdom. 

Department of Management Studies, IITM, Chennai – 600 036 

Email: lsg@iitm.ac.in 

4

Session-II: 

Digital Library Infrastructure and Information Retrieval


ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION 

TECHNOLOGY IN THE SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF 

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 

S.A.V. Satya Murty, P. Swaminathan and Baldev Raj 

The new millennium has ushered in a new era of economy and development 

which is being referred as "Knowledge Economy", in which knowledge is 

described as the critical competitive asset of any organization. In this era it is 

the possession and application of valuable knowledge that supports long term 

superior organizational performance. 

Though knowledge management was conceived four decades back, the last 

10 years have seen a growing realization by the organizations about the 

importance of knowledge management and they are framing policies to 

convert the knowledge in to intellectual capital and leverage it for 

organizational productivity. 

The technological developments in Information and Communication 

Technology (ICT) are enabling successful implementation of Knowledge 

Management Systems. 

The paper covers the importance of Knowledge Management, the various 

steps involved in developing a Knowledge Management System and how ICT 

helps in realizing each of the steps viz. Creation, Capture, Storage and 

Dissemination of knowledge. 

It also mentions how ICT enables collaborative research and how ICT helps in 

preserving the confidential information and providing access to authenticated 

people. 

The paper also briefly explains the knowledge management system 

implemented at IGCAR. 

The success of any Knowledge Management project depends on the passion 

and profound belief that Knowledge Management is not only worthwhile but 

shall be a way of living. It should also be realized that Knowledge 

Management is not a destination but a journey. 

Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam - 603102 

Email: satya@igcar.gov.in 

5


INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE IN THE EMERGING 

DIGITAL WORLD 

T.V. Gopal 

An information explosion often baffles the user and makes him unsure of his 

needs. Library and Information sciences understood: 

Selectively acquiring information and organizing it for efficient retrieval. That 

by no means all possible future needs can be anticipated for the information 

being organized. Several models to cater to evolving needs and usage 

patterns. Information Technology has become a natural choice to arrive an 

effective and efficient models to cater to the overall “User Experience” with 

“Information”. Database Models attempted at replicating the real world needs 

but ended up with according definition to a “Miniworld” implemented through a 

DBMS based on a data model. Large Databases can be handled efficiently. 

Programming Models have been deployed to bridge the gap between the 

“Miniworld” of a DBMS and the reality. However, the Data Model and 

Programming Model are designed separately and integrated. 

Datawarehouses were the next step to provide “Integrated Information 

Enterprise”. 

'You can't manage knowledge” says Peter Drucker. 'Knowledge is between 

two ears, and only between two ears.' To that extent, Drucker says it's 

really about what individual workers do with the knowledge they have. When 

employees leave a company, he says, their knowledge goes with them, no 

matter how much they've shared. Informatics professionals began developing 

models for “Tacit Knowledge”. 

“True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, 

and conflicting information.” 

-Winston Churchill 

Information Architecture that banks on Emerging Digital Technologies such as 

Software Agents, Semantic Web and Web Science is a comprehensive effort 

to support knowledge based decision making. 

Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Anna University, 

Chennai - 600 025 , Email : gopal@annauniv.edu 

6


ARCHIVING DIGITAL INFORMATION 

S. Venkadesan 

Digital objects are becoming a critical component of scholarly research, but 

stakeholders show an alarming lack of concern about preserving digital data 

accurately and sustainably; those charged with archiving information have not 

yet developed strategies that will enable future generations to build their 

knowledge on what has gone before. How will research findings be 

communicated in the future, and how true to the original look, feel and 

behaviour of these publications will digital archives need to be? Scenario 

planning can address the challenge of developing strategies in the face of 

these uncertainties to help librarians and archivists maintain the timehonoured 

tradition of preserving the past to inform the future. 

JRD Tata Memorial Library, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-560012. 

Email:venky@library.iisc.ernet.in 

7


AMAZON KINDLE – DIGITIZING THE CONTENT 

M. Viswanath 

Amzon.com is one of largest e-commerce sites in US and one of the Pioneers 

in E-Book readers and technology. Amzon’s recent E-Book reader Kindle is a 

big success and it is making long-form reading on a screen a mainstream 

activity. 

What caused this shift in read’s mind? The book survived in its form for over 

500 years without many changes. So, there should be some ground breaking 

improvements to change people’s reading habits. In this paper we will 

examine the evolution of digital content at Amazon, the challenges Amazon 

faced as technology pioneer and digital content processing overview. 

Kindle Better than a Book? 

Amazon started working on Kindle a few years back. Video and Music have 

been digitized for a longtime as also short-form reading like personal 

documents, web and email. But the book turned-out to be an incredibly 

powerful device that survived for 500 years because it just disappears in a 

reader’s hand. When a person is reading a book he or she will focus solely on 

content and nothing else. We will discuss on how Amazon overcome this 

obstacle to change people’s reading habits to adopt a device for long-form 

reading. 

How do you get Digital Content to Kindle? 

Amazon vision for Kindle is to make every book that is ever printed to be 

available on Kindle in 60 seconds or less. There are millions of titles that are 

available on Amazon catalog as Physical books. The digitization of books is 

not a completely solved problem. The quality of Optical Character Recognition 

(OCR) varies depending upon quality of the physical edition. We will discuss 

the challenges of solving this issue. It is a very important problem to solve as 

otherwise people will conclude that E-books are inferior into Physical books in 

quality. We will discuss about some of these challenges.In summary, we will 

discuss about the challenges in digitization of content and pioneering a device 

for reading digital content which is a precursor for digital information 

organization for long-form reading. 

Amazon India, Chennai - 600 001 

Email: vish@amezon.com 

8

Session-III: 

Open Source Solutions and Federated Search


INSTITUTIONAL KNOWLEDGE REPOSITORIES – A CASE 

OPEN ACCESS ARCHIVES FOR KNOWLEDGE 

MANAGEMENT AND THE OPEN SOURCE ‘DSPACE’ 

M.G. Sreekumar 

The primary goal of an academic or a research institution include, among 

others, creating, imparting (disseminating) and preserving knowledge for the 

domain/target audience for which it is established. During the process of the 

academic discourse and research activities, the faculty and researchers 

publish their findings through various vehicles of scholarly communication 

such as journals, conference/symposium proceedings, books, case materials, 

patents etc. Institutions also produce lots of knowledge in the form of 

ephemeral and unpublished materials such as working papers, technical 

reports, courseware, classroom presentations (PPTs), lecture notes etc. 

Unfortunately, in India, the vast treasure of academic wealth created as well 

as possessed by many of the institutions are left unnoticed and untapped for 

productive utility, as these lie disorganized, distributed and scattered. At the 

same time, fortunately, technology now provides a golden way forward with its 

multitude of systems, services and capabilities. The advent of the Internet and 

its world wide social acceptance, the astounding achievements on the 

computing front, the emergence of an array of powerful open source 

softwares etc. have all opened up a plethora of opportunities for the 

library/information fraternity in capturing, organizing, retrieving, disseminating 

and preserving the institutional intellectual output in a seamlessly accessible 

and outreaching manner. Further more, this aggregation and integration 

process of the institutional knowledge greatly supports and supplements the 

instructional/scientific process of the institute as a backup information support. 

This indeed does a catalytic effect on the institutional knowledge creation 

cycle, and the active role of the information professional in this activity is 

extremely crucial. An Open Access Archive (OAA), also more popular as 

Institutional Repository (IR) or ‘e-prints archive’, is a digital archive of the 

research output created by the faculty, researchers, and students of an 

institution and accessible over the Internet to end-users both within and 

9


outside of the institution. As a facility it consists of hardware, software and 

procedures to capture, organize, archive, disseminate and manage digital 

research resources of the institution. IRs provide a simple, Web-based 

mechanism to researchers to deposit (‘self-archive’) and access their 

research publications. There are many world renowned open source IR 

softwares available such as EPrints, DSpace, FEDORA, ARNO, i-TOR, 

CDSWare etc. Each of this software has a host of features, unique facilities 

and excellent capabilities, which the users could explore and experiment. This 

lecture emphasizes the need for deploying interoperable open access IRs, 

and shares our experience in creating a state-of-art scholarly Institutional 

Repository using the DSpace software. 

Center for Development of Digital Libraries (CDDL), Indian Institute of Management 

Kozhikode (IIMK), IIMK Campus P.O., Calicut – 673570, Kerala, INDIA 

Email: mgsree@iimk.ac.in 

10


DRUPAL - OPEN SOURCE CMS 

Shyamala R. 

The focus would be to provide an overview and introduction to the key 

principles of Drupal as an open source platform and its relevance to the 

Librarians in terms of creating the next level of knowledge sharing and 

management options. 

The main points that will be covered are: 

An introduction to Drupal as an Open Source Solution & Content 

Management System. The role Drupal can play in building a strong, intuitive 

and user friendly interfaces. Drupal's relevance to Librarians and Library 

management in today’s context of Semantic web. Drupal's capabilities in 

helping Librarians reach out to their community and bring them together. 

Drupal will open out the Knowledge repositories and let visitors to interact with 

it in new and different ways. The Libraries can then leverage the social 

publishing capabilities of Drupal for commenting, social tagging, personalized 

collections, mashups and a wide variety of other Web 2.0 features. 

Technology Department, Netlink Technologies, Chennai - 600 017 

Email: Shyamala@netlinkindia.com 

11


OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE FOR LIBRARIES 

M. Kumaran 

Introduction to Open source software, philosophy and advantages, various 

open source licensing, collaborative development, Various tools for 

collaborative development, various open source software for library and their 

features, library repository system, fast retrieval of digital content, various 

technologies and techniques used to manage the digital content in the open 

source environment. 

CSE, Jaya Engineering College 

Chennai – 602 103 

Email: kumaran.ma@gmail.com 

12


ROLE OF OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IN LIBRARIES 

R. Sunil Kumar 

Role of open source software in libraries and comparison between 

commercial library management software available. OSS features, 

advantages, disadvantages. Support of open standards like MARC 21, 

Z39.50, ISO 2709, etc by Open Source Software in the library management 

software. Difference between Search and Federated Search, role of federated 

search in library and future growth. 

HCL Infosystems Ltd. 

Noida - 201301 

Email: sunil.r@hcl.in 

13

Session-IV: 

Knowledge Management Practices in 

Library & Information Centers


KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOR NUCLEAR R&D 

ORGANISATION 

P. Swaminathan, S.A.V .Satya Murty and Baldev Raj 

In Nuclear installations like Nuclear power plant, Fuel reprocessing plant, fuel 

fabrication plant, Heavy water plant etc knowledge is generated while 

improving the availability and safety of the plant. Quality circle also plays a 

major role in knowledge generation. But knowledge generation process in 

Nuclear R & D organization is capital intensive, inter disciplinary and long 

terms in nature. Unique dimensions of Nuclear R & D organization is 

explained in detail. Nuclear R & D organization will generate knowledge 

through collaborative research with other R & D organizations, industries and 

academic institutions. Knowledge generation and management during 

collaborative research is detailed with specific examples. 

The culture is Nuclear R& D organization should be similar to the culture in 

academic institutions. There shall be healthy relationship between the senior 

scientist and junior scientist to encourage effective transfer of knowledge. 

Ideal culture of Nuclear R & D organization is discussed in detail. For 

converting tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge motivating climate in 

necessary. As an example, knowledge management policy of Indira Gandhi 

Centre for Atomic Energy is presented briefly. 

Electronics & Instrumentation Group 

Indira Gandhi Centre For Atomic Research, Kalpakkam – 603 102 

Email: swamy@igcar.gov.in 

14


INSTITUTIONAL KNOWLEDGE REPOSITORIES – A CASE 

STUDY AT THE ISB 

K. Mohan 

The concept of Institutional Knowledge Repositories and how the repositories 

are integral part of knowledge management activities in an organization will 

be addressed in detail. The tools and software that can be deployed to create 

the repositories in an organization will be highlighted. The experience at the 

ISB for building the knowledge repositories will be shared . The talk would 

also cover the benefits of having the knowledge management initiated in any 

organization, some of the constraints in making KM practice as a success, the 

culture of knowledge sharing, KM strategy, etc. 

Indian School of Business 

Hyderabad – 500 019 

Email: Arundhati_G@isb.edu 

15


HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND KNOWLEDGE 

MANAGEMENT IN DEPARTMENT OF ATOMIC ENERGY 

R.R. Puri 

The Knowledge Management (KM) stands for systematic approach to 

identifying, acquiring, transforming, developing, using, sharing and preserving 

knowledge. It helps an organization to gain insight and understanding from its 

own experience to better acquire, store and utilize knowledge. In practice, KM 

comprises human resource development, scientific information resource 

management, technology transfer and related issues. It consists of three 

fundamental components: people processes and technology. Of these, people 

are the most important component as they are repository of the knowledge 

which may be explicit or, more importantly, implicit and tacit. In the 

implementation of KM, biggest challenge is to create channels for flow of 

implicit and tacit knowledge. Whereas the explicit knowledge may be 

communicated even without personal interaction between the creator and the 

user, the communication of tacit and implicit knowledge requires personalized 

strategies. The talk will focus on the human resource development (HRD) 

strategies in the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and bring out how the 

HRD in DAE has been successfully addressing the abovementioned 

challenging HRD concern of the KM. 

Human Resource Development Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre 

Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai - 400 085 

Email: Shrutirpuri@yahoo.com 

16


SRU/W: A DIGITAL 'LINGUA FRANCA' IN BRIDGING 

HETEROGENEOUS APPLICATIONS: A CASE STUDY 

K.T. Anuradha 

It is increasingly important for digital libraries to consider how 

Internet-based applications can share data and provide standardized means 

for exposing content and allow more sophisticated querying to occur. 

In the present digital world, where two heterogeneous applications or 

services need to communicate with one another and share data without the 

need for idiosyncratic or proprietary software modules to be written, XML 

is most decidedly the 'Lingua Franca':a common language two computers can 

use to efficiently speak with one another. The metaphor of the Lingua 

Franca is just now becoming evident within the realm of digital libraries, 

as more and more institutions of all types use XML as a means to share 

data and provide an increasing range of web based services. A plethora of 

XML 'technologies' are available and SRW (Search/Retrieve Web) and SRU 

(Search/Retrive URI) are twin XML web services protocols available, which 

is championed by the Library of Congress and being standardized by NISO 

(National Information Standards Organization). SRU/W is defined as an 

efficient mechanism for information retrieval. 

This paper discusses how SRU/W technology is used to integrate Digital 

Library Software (DLS) into Library Automation Package (LAP), thereby 

enabling LAP to perform fulltext search, a feature not available in a LAP. This 

is carried out by passing SRU request from LAP to DLS and getting the 

results in LAP itself. For this purpose Greenstone Digital Library 

Software, a DLS and KOHA, a LAP is taken as case study. Implementation of 

this can be viewed at: http://dharmaganja.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in:8082/ 

National Centre for Science Information (NCSI) , Indian Institute of Science, 

Bangalore - 560 012. 

Email: anu@ncsi.iisc.in 

17

Contributed Papers


Session-I: 

Semantic Web Technologies and Knowledge Representation 

120


A Study of Video-on-Demand Learning System in 

E-Learning Platform: An RTP approach 

M. Harish * , K. Saravanan # and K. Ramesh Babu # 

* M.S.Software Engineering 

# School of Computer Science and Engineering, VIT University, Vellore-632014 

Email: hunter.harish@gmail.com, saravanank@vit.ac.in, krameshbabu@vit.ac.in 

. 

ABSTRACT 

E-learning concerns an education system based on computer network technology and has become one 

of the most potential for e-commerce applications. As a part of E-Learning system, Video-on-Demand (VoD) 

offers learner an additional approach to absorb new knowledge without the restriction of time and place. Many 

researchers have proved that bandwidth is one among the key factor to commercialize VoD system. In this 

paper, we propose a way to implement a service over a limited bandwidth/best effort Intranet based network. 

Our proposal consists of implementing dynamic clustering algorithm and introduction of Quality of Service 

(QoS) features which provides an easy way for the clients to search the video files according to the categories. 

Further our idea is to separate the video file into two formats viz., audio and video to provide QoS which in turn 

reduces the transmission delay. Distributed architecture of VoD learning system is proposed in this paper which 

invokes the real time streaming using RTP protocol and Java Media Framework. 

Keywords: e‐learning, video on demand(VoD), RTP,JMF , Quality of Service. 

1. INTRODUCTION 

With the rapid development of information technology (IT) in recent years, E-learning 

has become a very efficient and popular method for teaching-learning process. E-learning can 

provide a variety of instructional aids communication methods and the learners can process 

their learning activities without the limit of location and time. Moreover E-learning can 

provide an alternative approach for the learners who request for professional experience and 

knowledge. With these advantages, e-learning has become one of the most potential areas for 

business and educational institutions and a massive investment is made towards E-Learning 

system 

2. RELATED WORK 

Under the gradual improvement of network bandwidth and quality, the transmission 

of high-quality video and audio becomes possible. In VoD learning system, the pre-recorded 

video tapes or stream files would be used to present visual oriented contents. These taps or 

files are produced to video streams combined with audio (one-way or two-way audio), and 

then these streams are uploaded in Video on Demand server. The people, who wants to watch 

the video can login and search for the particular video file. VoD system allows the 

subscribers to watch a video of their choice at anytime. Although VoD learning has many 

advantages, the application of VoD is limited by the high cost of providing services, 

especially the investment on equipment. VoD system is typically implemented by clientserver 

architecture, as soon as the work load increase, the growth in communication 

bandwidth may not keep up with the growth in the numbers of clients, if each client is served 

with a dedicated stream. 

The Java Media Framework API (JMF) enables audio, video and other time-based 

media to be added to applications and applets built on Java technology. In this VoD system 

the transmission of video file is carried out by using JMF. JMF API extends the framework to 

provide support for capturing and storing media data, controlling the type of processing that 

18


is performed during playback. The Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) defines a 

standardized packet format for delivering audio and video over the Internet. It is an 

Application layer protocol that provides end-to-end real-time data delivery services, 

Streaming Multimedia Applications. It supports multicasting, multicasting is delivering the 

video file to many clients at the same time and also streaming in RTP is really fast when 

compared to other protocols. 

3. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE 

Based on the general architecture of E-Learning system, the main entities of VoD 

Learning system are Video Server, Learners and Network. A simple centralized architecture 

of VoD system is shown in Fig. 1. Video server is seen as the core server of system and all 

the learners would be seen as clients. Video data are stored in video server. Centralized 

architecture is easy to implemented, but it is weak at expansion. Bandwidth usage increase 

linearly with the number of clients, so do the resources of video server (e.g. the disk 

capability and transfer rate). With the increasing number of consumers, the resources of video 

server and network may not match the requirement. 

Consequently the number of clients accessing server in parallel should not exceed the 

maximum bandwidth which the system can burden. Yet VoD system have huge number of 

consumers, distributed architecture is an appropriate solution to address this problem. Here a 

new architecture called Edge Server architecture is proposed to distribute the streams, as 

show in Fig. 2. 

The video data are saved in Core Server, at the same time, some copies of video data, 

and some hot/latest video data are stored in Edge Servers. When a client requests a video, the 

Edge Server would handle the demand directly and transmits the requested video streams to 

the client through network. If the requested video is not located at Edge Server, the Core 

Server would deliver this video to the related Edge Server via the core network. 

19


It is noticeable that distributed architecture has the obvious advantage, which refers to 

flexible expansion. If a new client group wants to join in the Video on Demand system, it 

should choose the nearest Edge Server and establish the relation with the server, then it will 

become o 

4. IMPLEMENTATION 

All the video tutorials are stored in the video server. The learners can request file by 

entering partial or related name of the video file or they can view list of files present in the 

server by their category (like author name, year of releasing, topic).The results are displayed 

to the clients by applying Dynamic clustering algorithm. Dynamic clustering algorithm is 

used to provide the client the search result very quickly and also to categories the result. 

20


The client can view the video file by just clicking the file. When the file is clicked that 

video file is selected from the database and by using the client’s IP address the file is 

transmitted to the client. While transmitting the video file it is divided into two streams 

(audio and video) and sent in different ports to reduce the transmission delay and also to 

reduce the size of the bandwidth. The divided audio stream and video stream is sent through 

RTP protocol. In the receiver side the divided audio stream and video stream is merged to 

avoid the mismatching of audio and video and to provide the quality of service (QoS). 

5. RESULTS & DISCUSSION 

This VoD system consists of two modules namely server and client. When the client 

requests a file the whole information of the client will be sent to the server. If the server is 

refreshed it will display client information if any new clients are joined. Then the requested 

file is transmitted to the client by clicking transmit button. While transmitting the video file is 

divided into audio stream and video stream which decreases the transmission delay at the 

startup. In the receiver side these two streams are merged and displayed to client to avoid 

audio-video mismatching. 

6. CONCLUSION 

The architecture of VoD learning system is presented in this paper. Edge Server 

architecture is proposed to share the burden of Core Server and it handles the demands 

directly. During transmission the video file is divided into audio and video formats to reduce 

the transmission delay and to provide QoS. Since the cost of implementing a VoD system can 

be reduced observably, it is possible to provide VoD as a commercial service in E-Learning 

platform. 

References 

[1] A Study of Video-on-Demand Learning System in E-Learning Platform Ping Zhang, 

Weizhong Liu, Xuecheng Zou Department of Electronic Science and Technology,Huazhong 

University of Science and Technology,Wuhan, P.R.CHINA, zhangping_wh@yahoo.cn 

[2] Developing multimedia applications with the Java Media Framework by T.G. Venkatesh, 

Cosmos Software, First Edition, 2004. 

21

Digital Library Infrastructure Development: 

Issues & Methods 

E.Soundararajan, R. Baskaran and M.Sai Baba 

Scientific Information Resource Divison, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research 

Kalpakkam, Tamilnau – 603 102, Email: sound@igcar.gov.in 

ABSTRACT 

As the result of emerging digital technology trends, the revolution of information technology is felt 

in every organization in particular libraries. Digital Library Infrastructure development is a vital issues 

which needs complete planning, analysis and systematic approach. The various techniques involved are 

server, storage solutions, content creation units, scanning devices, RFID technology, Surveillance 

Cameras, Wi-Fi networking, Protocols, standards, and Software etc. Proper implementation of these will 

provide a new definition for Digital Libraries in terms of its improved information services and any where 

anytime virtual access. This paper highlights issues and methods of implementing digital infrastructure in a 

comprehensive manner. 

1. TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS 

Digital collection development requires extensive use of technological resources. 

In the early days of digital library development, when collections were typically small 

and experimental, a wide variety of hardware and software was utilized. Today, the 

leading digital library developers are putting substantial collections online. Some of these 

collections include millions of digital objects; collections are being planned that will 

require storage measured in petabytes—the equivalent of more than 50,000 desktop 

computers with 20-gigabyte hard drives. 

As digital libraries scale in size and functionality, it is critical for the underlying 

technology platform to deliver the performance and reliability required. Many digital 

libraries are considered “mission critical” to the overall institution. In addition, patrons 

expect high service levels, which mean that downtime and poor response time are not 

tolerable. Moreover, because cost is a foremost concern, scalability and efficiency with a 

low total cost of ownership are also key requirements. This type of digital library 

implementation requires a scalable enterprise-level technology solution with built-in 

reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features. 

Storage capacity also must be scalable to adapt to rapid growth in demand, and 

must be adapted to the mix of media types that may be stored in a digital library, such as: 

• Text, which is relatively compact. 

• Graphics, which can be data-intensive. 

• Audio, which is highly dynamic. 

• Video, which is highly dynamic and data intensive. 

Storage capacity should be expandable in economical increments and should not 

require redesign or re-engineering of the system design as requirements grow. An open 

systems architecture provides both a robust platform and the best selection of digital 

media management solutions and development tools. The inherent reliability and 

scalability of open platforms have made them the most popular choice of IT professionals 

for Internet computing. This computing model features an architecture that is oriented

totally around Internet protocols and stresses the role of Web sites for a vast and diverse 

array of services that follow a utility model. 

The development of the digital library (DL) requires the following technologies: 

1.1 Contents processing technology 

Technology that provides effective creation, storage, and retrieval of primary 

information and secondary information: including digital conversion from conventional, 

non-digital media. 

1.2 Information access technology 

Technology that enables efficient accesses to myriad types of information without 

time or location limitations. 

1.3 Human-friendly, intelligent interface 

User interface that brings, to diverse users, increased intellectual productivity and 

an improvement to the active cultural environment. 

1.4 Interoperability 

Technology to make interoperable works possible in heterogeneous environments. 

1.5 Scalability 

Technology that enables DL systems to handle increases in information and users. 

1.6 Open system development 

Development using international and de facto standards, without loss of 

performance. 

1.7 Highly flexible system development 

Technology that can adjust quickly to new information and related changes to 

social systems. 

2. HARDWARE INFRASTRUCTURE 

Establishing appropriate infrastructure would facilitate effective and scalable 

information retrieval solutions. In this context, libraries need to plan networking, server, 

workstation, capture devices, storage solutions etc. 

2.1 Server Technology 

Servers are basically specialized into three classes: database servers with large 

high speed disks and very fast local communications, applications servers with fast 

processors, and communications servers with fast communications peripherals. They are 

usually adaptations of the same basic range of machines with specialized equipment and 

larger capacities added. This means that a good basic platform can be utilized for all three 

classes. If the basic platform server is scalable, then each of the specialized servers will 

be scalable, and the library will be able to grow as needed. The real point of the 

specialized servers is to allow the library to buy capacity (whether it is storage,

processing power, or networking) where they need it without having to over purchase. 

The flexibility is there to grow and the redundancy provides security in case of failures. 

2.2 Storage Solutions 

Since digital libraries require large amounts of storage regardless of their content, 

it is a good idea to pay particular attention to the storage solution. Particularly important 

is the future flexibility of the subsystem. In this respect, Storage Area Network (SAN) 

shows the direction of the future, where the physical storage devices are intelligently 

controlled and made available to a number of application and database computers. The 

data then become independent resources that can be accessed with permission from any 

system. 

2.3 Workstations 

They may be regular PCs running a graphical or text interface through special 

software loaded on each PC, or they maybe network computers which automatically 

download software from a local server to run as required, or even run it on the server. 

The requirements for different digital libraries will vary enormously. 

Some libraries will have no requirement for workstations because they will expect all 

their users to connect remotely, using their own computer and a standard interface like a 

web browser. 

There are the normal large amounts of peripheral hardware necessary for a digital 

library as for any other installation. 

‣ LANs 

‣ Capture Devices 

‣ Routers 

‣ Modem/ISDN/terminators 

‣ RAID arrays 

‣ Tape/disk backups 

‣ Uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) 

‣ Printers 

‣ Consoles and test computers 

3. SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS 

Digital libraries require variety of software solutions like library automation 

systems, metadata management solutions, web hosting solutions and e-collection 

management solutions. Although proprietary software solutions are available, open 

source solutions have greater potential in the field of information services. In particular, 

the libraries are the great beneficiaries of these open source technology. Linux, which is a 

freeware and powerful operating system, provides tighter security, better performance 

and processing support for the digital library solutions. It is packed with lots of utilities 

and tools that may be useful for developing information retrieval applications and for 

hosting e-collections

Linux has been under continuous development by a large group of users and 

capable of meting the requirements of today’s operating system. The desktop 

environment namely KDE or GNOME of Linux is a user-friendly GUI interface. Besides 

there are many important reasons to choose Linux 

Mutli User / Multi Threading / Multi Processing/ Multi Language Support 

Plug and Play highly secure and stable 

High Performance and better networking support 

Processor support from 486 to serve class 

Compiling source code and tuning to the required system 

There is a huge list of open source, commercial, shareware and freeware 

applications, utility programs, development tools and libraries available for Linux 

platform. All of the programs have either a Linux native binary available, or source code 

available which has been successfully compiled to run under Linux. The following are 

some of the different categories of software available for use with digital information 

resources management under Linux. 

Samba: File and Printer Server Utility 

Apache: Web Server 

MySQL: Database Management System 

Programming Languages: C,C++, PERL, PHP, Java 

Star Office: Office Automation Package 

4. DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT & DISASTER RECOVERY 

Digital Asset Management refers to the systematic management, which includes 

administration, maintenance and accessibility of digital contents. Nowadays most of the 

documents are created in digital format. Digital libraries have become repositories of 

digital assets such as e-resources, databases, multimedia contents, full text resources, inhouse 

publications etc. The real challenge before the digital library after making the 

information resources accessible to user community is to ensure that they continued to 

get accessed these resources in spite of technological changes, contingencies, disasters 

Digital 

Preservation 

Storage 

Management 

Backup & 

Recovery 

DAM 

Information 

Description & 

Retrieval 

Hardware/ 

Software 

Management 

Authentication 

& Security of 

Contents

5.0 CONCLUSION 

To evolve as semantic digital library, it is essential to have adequate technology 

infrastructure at various levels. The roles that the digital librarians have to play are vital 

and they need to be competitive with the information professionals. Open Source 

solutions provide a greater contribution to these activities. Scientific Information 

Resource Division (SIRD) of Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research has made 

initiative towards intelligent library as part of it’s progressive plan. This includes 

planning server architecture, Terra bytes of storage solutions, video libraries, Disaster 

recovery mechanism, RFID based electronic article surveillance, TOC Level Linking at 

OPAC and Virtual Library Services to its patrons. 

REFERENCES 

[1]. E.Soundararajan, JVM.Joesph and C.Jayakumar. “E-Collections Building at IGCAR 

Library”. Proceedings of the Conference Recent Advancements in Information 

Technology (READIT –2001). 

[2]. Digital Libraries in the Knowledge Era: Knowledge Management and Semantic Web 

Technologies. Library Management Journal, Vol 26 no 4/5, 2005 

[3]. Digital Asset Management in a Networked Environment E.Soundarajan et al. LIST 

2003, Feb 21-22 ,2003


Digital Information Services: Infrastructure and 

Development. 

R. Pandian, M. Aruldhanakar and G. Krishnamoorthy 

University Library, Anna University Chennai-600 025 

ABSTRACT 

The paper discusses the concept of digital libraries, embarking on why it is essential to adopt 

digitization in the present information intensive era. It’s also discusses the Initiative of Digital Library in 

University Library, Anna University Chennai, process of digitization of resources, identification for resources 

and requirement for digitization. 


The idea of converting library materials into digital formats for creating digital 

collections has advanced rapidly in the last few year, thus leading to the concept of a virtual 

in the last few year, thus leading to the concept of a virtual library or a library without walls. 

Making the concept functional involves the use of hardware and software for capturing and 

converting an item in to a digital format. Further, it is to be matched by developing a set of 

methods for describing and retrieving the digital information. The collections, services and 

information needs in Anna University library are different from other types of libraries. The 

information required for R & D work, Engineering, Science and Technology faculty members 

and students are normally available in books, journals, technical reports, patents, standards, 

theses, databases, institutions websites etc., in various places and also in various format and 

media. These users are requires the latest information for the time bound for them study. It is 

vary difficult for a single library to acquire all these resources and provide them to their 

users, yet, at the same time. In this context Anna University holds the responsibility to initiate 

requisite action to establish a Digital Library for the benefit of its user community. University 

has already received adequate funds from the Alumni plus its own funds to initiate this 

project. To this end, it is imperative that this Centre needs to be improvised to extend its 

services to a wider access. 

The prime objective of this Digital Library is to act as a subject gateway providing 

access to the information resources of various libraries and information services both internal 

and external, all in one place, enabling users to search, browse and download any required 

data needed quickly and easily. it is the duty of the librarian to provide the required latest 

information, wherever available and in whatever form and whenever required. 

it is important to find out the various patterns in digital applications that enable 

effective and creative use in the traditional library functions of collecting, reserving, and 

making information accessible that is before the process of digitization. 

2. CURRENT LIBRARY FACILITIES AND TRENDS 

The current access of digital library system and services at Anna University ranks 

amongst top 10 institutions in Tamilnadu state. The Library has computerized all its 

housekeeping activities using software developed in-house that is being maintained and 

updated regularly. 

Our first priority is to enhance the collection by using power and efficiency of digital 

library. By adding more digital resources, the Faculty Members, Research Scholar, Students 

will immensely benefit in their academic pursuits. It is proposed to strengthen the Digital 

Library in phase. 

27


More than 100 systems are connected to and the services extended to the users. Other 

services are also made available for the users like downloading to light pen’s, CD’s and 

printouts. Dedicated qualified staffs are place to help students in accessing the data base 

subscribed by the library. 

A separate wing is totally devoted for the Audio Visual and Video Conferencing 

purposes. At a time, 80 participants can take part in discussion or in debate. The interested 

users can view educational films on the subjects. There is also a scope for personality 

development, communication skill and power point paper presentation. 

3. WHAT IS DIGITAL? 

"A digital library is a managed collection of information, with associated services, 

where the information is stored in digital formats and accessible over a network." (Arms, 

2000) 

"Digital libraries are focused collections of digital objects, including text, video, and 

audio, along with methods for access and retrieval, and for selection, organization, and 

maintenance involves two communities: end users who are interested in access and retrieval 

and librarians who select, organize, and maintain information collections." (Witten & 

Bainbridge, 2003) 

4. WHY DIGITIZE? 

Digitization helps to preserve the precious materials and to reduce wear and tear on 

fragile items. This does not mean however, that digital copies should be seen as replacement 

for the original documents. Even after digitization, original documents and artifacts must still 

be cared. 

It is often said that digital information is transforming the way we learn, the way we 

communicate, even the way we think. It is also changing the way that libraries and archives 

not only work, but more fundamentally, the very work that they do. It is early to overstateand 

underestimate- the transformative power of a new technology, especially when we do not 

yet understand the full implications of its many applications. 

5. BASIC FUNCTIONS INVOLVED IN SETTING UP A DIGITAL 

LIBRARY 

- Identification and collection of content to be digitized. 

- Classification and digitization of these contents. 

- Editing, formatting and storage of the contents. 

- Designing search engines to selectively search and access the contents. 

- Publishing contents digitally for end-user access. 

5.1. Digitization 

- Scanning at the highest resolution at an appropriate level of quality to avoid 

rescanning and re-handling of the originals. 

- Creating and storing a master image file. 

- Using system components that are non-proprietary. 

- Using image file formats and compression techniques that conform to industry 

standards. 

28


- Creating backup copies of all files on a stable medium. 

- Creating meaningful metadata for image files or collections. 

- Storing media in an appropriate environment. 

- Monitoring an recopying data as necessary. 

- Outlining a migration strategy for transferring data across generations of technology. 

- Anticipating and planning for future technological developments. 

Since the different steps in digitization listed below must be identified and a workflow 

carefully designed and executed by each library, it is only possible to highlight the major 

challenges under each of the steps here. Deciding on appropriate formats for incorporating 

the contents into CD or on the Web will be dependent on the presence of different software 

required, and the means to support any extra systems needed as well as the size and features 

of materials to be digitized. 

5.2. Building-up digital collections 

The most important component of a digital library is the digital collection it holds or 

has access to. Viability and extent of usefulness of a digital library would depend upon the 

critical mass of digital collection that it has. A digital library can have a wide range of 

resources. It may contain library can have a wide range of resources. It may contain both 

paper-based conventional documents and information contained in computer-processible 

form. Information contents of a digital library, depending on the media type it contains, may 

include a combination of structured / unstructured text, numerical data, scanned images, 

graphics audio and video recordings. Different types of resources need to be handled 

differently in digital library. 

Rusbridge (1998) divided resources for a digital library in three distinct categories, 

i.e., Legacy, Transition, and New. 

Legacy resources, according to Rusbridge, are largely non-digital resources, 

including manuscript, print, slides, maps, audio and video recordings. In spite of the fact that 

large investments are being made in the process of digitization of resources, vast majority of 

existing legacy resources will remain outside the electronic domain for many years to come. 

These legacy resources are the major resources of existing libraries. 

Transition resources, primarily designed for another medium (mostly print), are 

those which are being or have been digitized, making the transition into the digital world. 

Such resources are converted for increased access and to reduce reliance on physical libraries. 

The transition resources are either digitized images or images that are converted to text by the 

process of Optical Character Recognition (OCR). 

New digital resources are either expressly created as digital or are created in parallel 

to print. Data files created in the process of electronic publishing are used for generating 

outputs suitable for the Internet and the web. These data files are converted into SGML, 

HTML, PostScript and PDF. While HTML and PDF (sometimes PostScript) is posted on the 

web. The SGML version which is a rich archive format is used for preservation. 

6. LIMITATIONS 

Some of the key issues facing digital libraries today: 

- Technological obsolescence: Hardware and Software 

- Cost of Content refreshing: Digital preservation will be an ongoing operation that 

requires considerable recurring expense. 

29


- Rights Management: It is vary easy to copy, replicate, message and distribute digital 

information. Enforcing copyright in digital environment is a major issue. 

- Network bandwidth: With the exploding number of users, multimedia content, 

websites and applications (eg chat and games), bandwidth available for accessing 

digital libraries is going to be a serious issue. 

7. PURPOSE OF THE DIGITAL LIBRARY INITIATIVE IN ANNA 

UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 

- To collect, store and organize information and knowledge in digital form. 

- To promote economic and efficient delivery of information. 

- To leverage the considerable investments in computing / communications 

infrastructure. 

- To strengthen communication and collaboration between research, project and 

educational communities. 

- To contribute to lifelong learning opportunities. 

7.1. Infrastructure for Digital Library in Anna University Library 

The Digital Library is to act as a subject gateway providing access to the information 

resources of various libraries and information services both internal and external, all in one 

place, enabling users to search, browse and download any required data needed quickly and 

easily. It is imperative that this Centre needs to be improvised to extend its services. 

7.2 Hardware 

S.No Description 

HARDWARE 

1 2.no.Servers with RAID-5 

2 60.no.Thin Client 

3 2.no.MS Windows 2003 Server 

4 Win Xp Client Access Lic. 

5 Terminal Server Client Access License 

6 Automatic Monitoring System including one CCTV with rotating Colour Camera 

(5 Nos.), Pan & zoom facility. 

7 Epson Aculaser C8500 Color Laser printer 

8 A4, HL5250DN net Laser printer brother 

9 A4,Hp laserjet 3050 3-in-1 laser printer 

10 20 KVA online UPS, SMF batteries with one hour backup 

11 CAT6Network cabling work, 24 port L2 switch (4 Nos.), 12U wall mount rack 

12 2.no Cd-Server Fish Cdh 160-gb 

13 Access control system 

7.3. Information Resources 

The Digital Library enables access for the following through 

http://www.annauniv.edu/Library/digi_index.html: 

E-Journals 

E-Databases 

E-Books 

30


E-Resources 

Learning Resources 

Useful Links 

ACCESS TO E-Journals 

Access to the following e-resources are provided to Anna University from July 2003 

onwards with financial support from AICTE through Indian National Digital Library in 

Engineering, Science & Technology (INDEST-AICTE) Consortium, New Delhi. 

1. IEL on-line - Single users 

2. ASCE - Multiple users 

3. ASME - Multiple users 

Access to IEL Online has been upgraded to 5 users from 2004 onwards in order to cater 

to the needs of the users under self-supporting. Besides, the Library also subscribes to 

Proquest Science Online Database under “Self-supporting. 

The current list of e-resources/e-journals available under INDEST-AICTE consortium and 

UGC Infonet program are given below. 

Name of the Publisher Website Address Number of Journals 

IEL Online http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ 219 

ASCE http://scitation.aip.org/ 30 

ASME http://scitation.aip.org/ 22 

Proquest http://proquest.umi.com/login/ipauto 661 

ACM Digital Library http://portal.acm.org/portal.cfm Digital Library 

American Chemical Society http://www.pubs.acs.org/ 31 

American Institute of Physics http://scitation.aip.org/ 18 

American Physical Society http://scitation.aip.org/ 8 

Annual Reviews http://arjournals.annualreviews.org 31 

Biological Abstracts 

http://web5.silverplatter.com/webspir/ 

One Database 

start.ws?customer=c180490 

Blackwell http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/ 501 

Cambridge University Press http://journals.cambridge.org/ 194 

Elsevier Science http://www.sciencedirect.com/ 34 (UGC-Infonet) 

382 (INDEST) 

Institute of Physics http://www.iop.org/EJ/ 36 

JCCC 

http://www.jccc-ugcinfonet.in/ 

(Pl. refer the site for details) 

Access to jnls. subsd. 

by the Consortium 

J-Stor http://www.jstor.org/ 582 

MathSciNet 

http://web5.silverplatter.com/webspirs/ 

One Database 

start.ws?customer=c180490 

Nature http://www.nature.com/ 1 journal 

Oxford University Press http://www.oup.co.uk/ 169 

Portland Press http://www.portlandpress.com 4 

Project Euclid http://projecteuclid.org/ 18 

Project Muse http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/ 222 

Royal Society of Chemistry http://www.rsc.org/ 23 

SIAM Journals Online http://epubs.siam.org/ 13 

Springer & Kluwer http://www.springerlink.com/ 1004 

Taylor & Francis 

http://informaworld.com/ 

1150 

smpp/home~db=all 

Open J-Gate http://www.openj-gate.com 4300+ Open Access 

Jnls. 

Learning Resources http://elearn/les 188 Titles 

31


E-Learning Resources 

The Learning Resources available can be accessed through the URL 

http://elearn/les 

CD-ROM Facilities: 

The library of this university has established CD-ROM facilities to enable users to 

search, browse and take print out or down load in floppies. 

1. Ei compendex 1989 to December 2002. 

2. Dissertation abstract international sec. A & B 1989 to 1991 

3. ISI – Complete set with periodical updates 

4. ISO 9000 compendium – Full text 

5. ISO 14000 compendium – Full text. 

The users are allowed to take print out from the above CDs at the cost of Rs.2.00 

Per page. 

Networking Facilities: 

(I) MALIBNET 

The Anna University Library takes active part in the Malibnet (Madras Library 

network) programme for the benefit of the users. Anna University is also a life member in 

MALIBNET. The following benefits are available to Anna University users. 

1. Location of 3000 serials currently subscribed by the participating libraries in the city 

of Chennai. 

2. Obtain current content information for 200 journals available in participating libraries. 

3. Access union catalogue of serials. 

The MALIBNET has supplied 30 consultation cards to Anna University Library 

which are issued to the members to enable them to use all the member libraries of 

MALIBNET. 

Advantages of Digital Library 

The following are the advantages of Digital Library in Anna University. 

 

 

 

 

 

Access to latest information earlier than the printed version 

Access to contents page of journal free of cost 

Allows search using several attributes / data elements 

No need to create and maintain the database locally 

These journals can also be subscribed through consortium. Subscribes have to pay an 

extra percentage over and above the cost of the printed version. Members of 

the consortium have online access to full-text journals subscribed by 

participating libraries. 

7.4 Digitizing Resources Produced/Published Internally in Anna University Library. 

- R & D works 

- Project Reports (BE, M.E., M.Sc., M.Tech., MCA, MBA 

- Question Paper 

- Thesis 

- Articles published on other national – international journals 

- Newsletter of the institution 

- Annual reports 

- Technical reports (Consultancy /Sponsored. etc) generated in-house. 

- Regular course materials 

32


- Lectures 

- Video/audio clippings, explaining working of some instruments, facilities, etc 

available 

- Publications / services from the library likes CAS, SDI, select bibliographies on 

certain topics 

- Newspaper clippings – recent and relevant information published in newspapers. 

- Internally created files (correspondence, communication, circular, office order etc) 

available in various file formats such as ascii, txt., pdf.,xls, etc. 

- Internally created records using databases such as foxbase. 

8. CONCLUSION 

The Central Library of Anna University is fully computerized and has well 

maintained infrastructure. Computerization has provided high quality of reproduction, 

compact storage, speed of communication and online access, more accurate and better 

services to their users. As the Central Library has access to Internet, the task of bridging the 

digital divide became much easier. Internet has become the key term of today’s digital age, 

Central library, Anna University also stepped in to be at par with the latest trends. Digital 

library, Subject Gateways, E-reference desk and E-resources are the latest addition on the 

website of Anna University library to provide better service to our users. 

REFERENCE 

1. RUSBRIDGE(Chris). Towards the hybrid library. D-Lib Magazine, July / August, 

1998. http://www/dlib/july98/rusbridge.html 

2. Weisser, C.R., & Walker, J.R. (1997). Electronic theses and dissertations: Digitizing 

scholarship for its own sake. The Journal of Electronic Publishing, 3(2). Retrieved 

from http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/03-02etd.html. 

3. Digital Divide: an overview in – Indian context. By Padma V. Udayaya, MIM 

Manipal, Proceeding of the national conference on Recent Advance in Information 

Technology Conference: theme-Digital Asset Management held at IIT Madras, - 

Chennai on September 2001. 

4. Association of Research Libraries (1996). Definition and purposes of a digital library. 

Retrieved on December 6,2000, from http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/ARL/definition.html. 

5. Bishoff, L.(2000). Interoperability and standards in a museum/ library collaborative: 

The Colorado Digitization Project. First Monday 5(6). Retrieved from 

http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue5 6/bishoff/. 

6. Srinivasan, P. (1997). Digital library projects in the United States. DESIDOC Bulletin 

of Information Technology, 17(6), 15-21. 

33


Are we ready for Library 3.0? 

V.Rajasekar M. Arul Dhanakar and R. Pandian 

University Library, Anna University Chennai, Chennai-600 025 

ABSTRACT 

The Technological explosions in the arena of information communication technology paved ways for 

latest internet tools such as Library 2.0 are Library 3.0. The Library 3.0 is just around the corner. At this 

crucial juncture, this paper examines the pros and cons of Blog 2.0 and the emergence of Library 3.0. A 

detailed review of tools of Library 3.0 has been made along with the feasibility of Library 3.0. And at the last, 

the difficulty for the Indian libraries to adopt the tool is also explained. 


The Library is ever growing entity. Once it was called as store house and used only by 

the privileged people of the society. And slowly this concept had been eroded with the 

agricultural, industrial and social developments of the society. And in the closing years of the 

last century, the functioning and services of the library are changed due to the ever changing 

nature of the ICT and that results in the new methods to acquire, manage and deliver the 

information to the clientele who are always expect variety of information from the Library. 

However, many tools and techniques are emerged to ease the functioning of the library, one 

such tool is Library Blogs. The latest one is being Library 3.0. We know that Library 3.0 is 

just around the corner and even though we don’t know exactly what form Library 3.0 will 

take we do know that it will deliver a new generation of library products and services. We 

therefore have to ensure that our library staff - current and future - workforce possess the 

necessary skills to work in Library 3.0 successfully. 

2. THE BASICS 

A blog (a contraction of the term "web log") is a type of website, usually maintained 

by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material 

such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. 

"Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. Many blogs 

provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online 

diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other 

media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is 

an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art 

(Art blog), photographs (photoblog), videos (Video blogging), music (MP3 blog), and audio 

(podcasting). Microblogging is another type of blogging. Some of the blogs are listed as 

follows. 

2.1 Personal blogs 

The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, is the 

traditional, most common blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride in their blog posts, even 

if their blog is never read. Blogs often become more than a way to just communicate; they 

become a way to reflect on life or works of art. Blogging can have a sentimental quality. Few 

personal blogs rise to fame and the mainstream, but some personal blogs quickly garner an 

extensive following. A type of personal blog is referred to as "microblogging," which is 

extremely detailed blogging as it seeks to capture a moment in time. Sites, such as Twitter, 

34


allow bloggers to share thoughts and feelings instantaneously with friends and family and is 

much faster than e-mailing or writing. 

2.2 Corporate and organizational blogs 

A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business purposes. Blogs, 

either used internally to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation or externally 

for marketing, branding or public relations purposes are called corporate blogs. Similar blogs 

for clubs and societies are called club blogs, group blogs, or by similar names; typical use is 

to inform members and other interested parties of club and member activities. 

2.3 By genre 

Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, travel blogs (also 

known as travelogs), house blogs,[fashion blogs, project blogs, education blogs, niche blogs, 

classical music blogs, quizzing blogs and legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs) or 

dreamlogs. Two common types of genre blogs are art blogs and music blogs. A blog 

featuring discussions especially about home and family is not uncommonly called a mom 

blog. 

2.4 By media type 

A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called a linklog, a 

site containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblog or one comprising photos is 

called a photoblog.[10] Blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types are called 

tumblelogs. Blogs that are written on typewriters and then scanned are called typecast or 

typecast blogs. A rare type of blog hosted on the Gopher Protocol is known as a Phlog. 

2.5 By device 

Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blog 

written by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA could be called a moblog. One early 

blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's personal life 

combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap 

device to a web site. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with 

text was referred to as sousveillance. Such journals have been used as evidence in legal 

matters. 

3. LIBRARY BLOG OR LIBRARY 2.0 

This is the blog useful for libraries to expose4 their resources by announcement to 

their readers. And also Library 2.0 is helpful for the users to known the recent developments 

in the library. The library 2.0 is now is being transformed into 3.0 

4. LIBRARY 3.0 

4.1 Virtual communities 

A virtual community, e-community or online community is a group of people that 

primarily interact via communication media such as newsletters, telephone, email, internet 

social network service or instant messages rather than face to face, for social, professional, 

educational or other purposes. If the mechanism is a computer network, it is called an online 

community. Virtual and online communities have also become a supplemental form of 

communication between people who know each other primarily in real life. Many means are 

used in social software. Virtual communities or online communities are used for a variety of 

social and professional groups interacting via the Internet. It does not necessarily mean that 

there is a strong bond among the members, although Howard Rheingold, author of the book 

of the same name, mentions that virtual communities form “when people carry on public 

35


discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal 

relationships”. An email distribution list may have hundreds of members and the 

communication which takes place may be merely informational (questions and answers are 

posted), but members may remain relative strangers and the membership turnover rate could 

be high. This is in line with the liberal use of the term community. 

The future of libraries will be a digital one, where the successful librarian will be 

flexible, adaptable, and multi-skilled in order to survive in an environment of constant and 

rapid change. Drivers for change will require this new generation of librarians to navigate not 

only new technologies as well as understanding their users’ behaviour, but ultimately 

themselves. 

5. HOW IT WILL WORK? 

To understand, how does web 3.0 works, we have to speak about the technologies. 

The first step is, show an example: so, just imagine, to understand each other, we need a 

language. So one of the most important part of the language are the words. online, we 

describe things with XML we can’t understand words alone. We also need grammar, it is 

RDF we can define concepts and make simple relations between them, RDF Scheme but 

RDFS is limited. A language needs more expression and logic to make good reasoning 

possible, OWL (Web Ontology Language) we needs rules too: 

SWRL (Semantic Web Rule Language) and the other technologies: 

URI 

SPARQL (Protocol and query language), 

XDI 

XRI 

API 

OAUTH 

6. HOW SHOULD BE LIBRARIAN 3.0? 

Institutionalization – Creating the right culture. Flexible hours and attractive salaries, without 

micromanagement while encouraging working in teams and individual praise and recognition 

for their accomplishment. The key to retaining these employees is the quality of relationships 

they have with their managers - Gen X and Y's see their work demand a better balance in 

their work and personal lives. 

Innovation – Doing things differently – Innovative services will mean taking-the-service to 

the clients. 

Imagination – Changing the rules. Collaboration with a wide range of information providers, 

where rethinking of the catalogue means it is no longer relevant in its current form – the 

catalogue should be a “one-stop shop” for searching resources, providing access beyond local 

collections, and to different types of resources in a seamless way 

Ideation – A Culture that encourages ideas – In creating the appropriate working 

environment, it is necessary to be also supported by professional associations. 

Inspiration – Doing things differently – As competition increases for the future workforce, 

ongoing professional development as opposed to formal training in a library school is 

necessary. Already free web-based instruction similar to the popular Five Weeks to a Social 

Library are already popping up. 

36


7. ARE WE READY FOR LIBRARY 3.0? 

We can put this question in the high of the explanations given in the previous pages. If we 

analyse this question like this, the answer for this is no, still we are ready for library 3.0? The 

reasons are as follows: 

Many of the leading libraries are not in a position to adopt library 2.0 and many of the 

libraries are not automated because of lack of manpower, infrastructure recognized and so on. 

So the answer for this is no we not ready. 

8. CONCLUSION 

Library 3.0 is just around the corner and with foresight and planning we are confident that 

libraries will overcome the barriers. Current experience suggests that librarians will spend an 

increasing amount of their time in the electronic frontier. Many dimensions and properties of 

this electronic frontier is unfamiliar and uncharted territory and our survival depends on well 

we adapt our values and skills. With digital collections "remote access", and virtual reference; 

access is on point of need so the issue is function and service not people and service. Services 

will be in a variety of forms and places. So what does that mean for Librarian 3.0? Ability to 

collect and provide information and to offer instruction in research techniques and 

information use rather than by physical presence as somewhere people go. Librarian 3.0 will 

also have to offer alternative services such as help at the ‘point of failure’ and other value 

added services. Librarians or library staff of the future will have to be prepared for lifelong 

learning. Some library staff may not be library trained so continual professional development 

will be part of their everyday work. No one person can be expert in the vastness of 

cyberspace and librarians will seek new alliance and develop new talents. Those libraries or 

librarians that don’t will not be around to work with Library 3.0. Those that will be would 

have taken heed of the following words from the naturalist Charles Darwin- 'It is not the 

strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to 

change. 

References 

1. Baker, Stephen. “Web 3.0” 

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2006/10/web_30.html 

(26 April 2007) 

2. Bailin, Alan, and Grafstein, Ann. “From place to function: Academic libraries in 2012” 

http://alpha.fdu.edu/~marcum/bailin_grafstein.doc (12 May 2007) 

3. Choi, Youngok, and Edie Rasmussen. “What Is Needed to Educate Future Digital 

Librarians”, D-Lib Magazine, September 2006. 

http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september06/choi/09choi.html (27 April 2007) 

4. Choi, Youngok, and Edie Rasmussen. “What do Digital Librarians Do?” Proceedings of 

the 6th ACM/IEEE-CS joint conference on Digital libraries, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. June 

2006. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=4119118 (27 April 2007) 

5. Davis, Kate. “why Generation: the Millennial Librarian, or the future of Library 

Management”. ALIA New Librarians Symposium 2006. UNSW, Sydney, Australia” 

December 2006. 

http://e-prints.alia.org.au/archive/00000135/01/davis%5Fk%5Fpaper.pdf 

(4 May 2007) 

6. De Rosa, Cathy, et al. Perceptions of libraries and information resources: a report to the 

OCLC membership Dublin, Ohio : OCLC, 2005 (18 April 2007) 

37


7. Feret, Blazej and Marzena Marcinek. “The future of the academic library and the 

8. academic librarian: a Delphi study”. Proceedings of the IATUL conference The 

Future of Libraries in Human Communication, Crete, Greece, May 1999. 

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do?contentType=Article&c 

ontentId=860338 (4 May 2007) 

38


Building Of Digital Libraries for the Future: A Study 

M. Aruldhanakar, R. Pandian and G. Krishnamoorthy 

University Library, Anna University Chennai-600 025 

ABSTRACT 

Information resources are being made available in a variety of digital formats. Attempts are being made 

world wide to build Digital Library to access the collection across the globe. Traditional Libraries are limited 

storage space; digital libraries have the potential to store more information, simply because digital information 

requires very little physical space to contain it. The exponential growth of information could only be managed 

by a digitalized environment. This paper discusses the uses, search methodologies, technologies, creations, 

innovations, requirements, budget and implementation of digital libraries for the future. 

Key words: Digital Library, Innovations, Metadata 


Libraries are undergoing tremendous changes due to digital revolution. Information 

resources such as books, reports, articles, theses, etc. are being made available in digital 

formats in recent year. The digital library systems which are computerized information 

storage-retrieval systems connected to computer networks are some of the most widely used 

applications. Presently, through their use, researchers in laboratories and students at 

universities are able to access the information in digital libraries. Once created, the digital 

library system has maximum flexibility, durability, adaptability and compatibility. At the 

same time the investment is low cost and minimum space and also easy maintenance. 

2. DIGITAL LIBRARY 

Digital Library is a collection of digital objects, including text, images video and 

audio. Digital Library allows to catalogue, organize, browse, search and maintain the 

collection. Digital Library is a library in which a significant amount of the resources are 

available in machine readable format. The digital contents may make a LAN and WAN 

through computers. 

3. DEVELOPING DIGITAL COLLECTION 

The build-up strategy whether digital or otherwise is the same. It is driven by the user 

demand availability and the material availability and the material value. In general, there are 

3 different ways through which digital collections are acquired. 

3.1 Digitizing own collection 

The basic requirement for digitizing the Library’s own collection is a scanner and the 

associated software like OCR. Libraries are to establish a content creation section that has to 

cater to digitizing both text and multimedia information. Multimedia section can contain both 

visual and sound information. Digitized information must be clearly identified, properly 

indexed and well organized for it’s archival and dissemination. For the multimedia part more 

than one database systems may be required for proper storage, cataloging and retrieval. 

3.2 Acquiring or licensing from third parties 

Digital resources could be in the form of databases and even full text. They could be 

purchased from the vendors or publishers. These resources may be offered to library in one of 

the following models 

a. Individual / Library Subscription 

- 1 - 

39


b. Site License 

c. Subscription through Consortia 

The usage based pricing concept, which defines the price based on the amount / time of 

usage by the patrons, is the emerging one. Whatever be the model, the guaranteed access & 

continued support from the vendor are the key factors for the smooth functioning of a digital 

environment. 

3.3 Creating resources from World Wide Web (Free Resources) 

The web has a very large content and continues to grow exponentially. The content from 

the web could be a good resource to any library. There are many free resources available 

from Internet like free e-journals, databases, and bibliographic & full text contents. Using 

search engines or web crawlers, in conjunction with proper and appropriate key words the 

required information can be filtered and classified to make subject specific portal and can be 

made available locally. 

4. DIGITAL LIBRARY TECHNOLOGIES 

In particular, the importance of understanding the human and social context while 

carrying out technical work remains the heart of all work in digital libraries. 

The basic technologies involved in Digital Libraries are 

Open architectures (open DLs) 

Unified interface for heterogeneous libraries 

OAI compliant data and service providers 

Publications tools 

Searching tools 

Componentized V/s Monolithic systems 

Interoperability 

Scalable digital library architectures 

Multilingual digital libraries 

5. USES OF A DIGITALIZED LIBRARY 

 

 

 

 

 

No physical boundary: The users of a digital library need not to 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. 

Structured approach: Digital libraries provide access to much richer content in a more 

structured manner, i.e. we can easily move from the catalog to the particular book 

then to a particular chapter and so on. 

Information retrieval: The user is able to use any search term bellowing to the word or 

phrase of the entire collection. Digital libraries can provide very user-friendly 

interfaces, giving clickable access to its resources. 

Preservation and conversation: An exact copy of the original can be made any number 

of times without any degradation in quality. 

6. DIGITAL LIBRARY CREATIONS 

There are 5 stages in building of digital libraries as follows. 

Search and Access 

Storage and Management 

- 2 - 

40


 

 

 

Selection of documents and scanning 

Distribution, and 

Rights management. In digital library parlance, duplicating the printed publications 

into digital format is called ‘retrospective conversion’. While creating the printed 

information is called ‘e-publishing’. 

The holdings in a digital library are called ‘items ‘or ‘objects’ which contains data or 

the ‘content that is stored in the form of ‘repositories’. The description of the stored 

data/information is known as ‘metadata’ or ‘properties’ of that data. Almost every type of 

information can be represented in digital form including text, pictures, music, computer 

programs, databases, models, video, and a combination of any of the above. Every digital 

‘object needs to be identified by a name, a time stamp and the owner, so as to establish 

the legal ownership. 

7. WORK PLAN FOR CREATING AND MANAGING E-COLLECTION 

1. Online access to E-resources 

2. Web page – Website is yet to be designed 

3. Preparation of a detailed blue print for installation and implementation of 

LAN and WAN for the proposed digital Library 

4. Updating of E-Resources 

7.1. Infrastructure Requirements 

This requirement can be viewed as 

• Hardware Requirements and 

• Software Requirements 

Hardware Systems 

Server / Desktop Systems 

Capturing Devices 

Switches / Routers 

LANs 

Modem / ISDN 

RAID arrays 

Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) 

Tape/ Disk Backups 

Printers 

Software Systems 

Server Class Operating System 

Desktop Operating System 

Data Base Management System 

Programming / Scripting Language 

Web/ FTP/ Mail Server Software 

Content Creation Software 

Firewall & Protection Software 

Office Automation Package 

7.2. Network environment 

The basic requirement for Digital Library and E-Collections is well-planned and 

tuned network environment. Networked Environment could mean a LAN to enable 

communication between the server systems and the local desktops or the front ends, an 

intranet, which is an ensemble of Local Area Networks (LANs) with in an organization. 

Connectivity to the information super highway –The Net- is a must to have access to the 

outside world. The bandwidth availability has to be properly ascertained and addressed to 

meet the varied user requirements. The performance of the Networked environment is 

determined by the factors of hardware (Switches, Routers, Servers etc.) and Software 

(Operating System, Application Programs). The networked environment should exist in the 

entire organization to serve its information requirements. Network accessibility to users has 

to be guaranteed for the successful functioning of digital library. 

- 3 - 

41


7.3 Content Creation 

Content creation has two distinct aspects. The first to convert existing non-electronic 

holdings to electronic holdings and the second to have a vision to be alert to have the soft 

copy (e-version) of all the newly generated documents (generated by the organization – 

reports, research findings etc.) or acquired holdings. The most important and the difficult and 

time-consuming aspect of a digital library is the content creation. The process of selection, 

convention, editing, cataloging and publishing the digital data is most demanding and labor 

intensive. Libraries are forced to establish a content creation section that has to consist of 

both multimedia and scanning units. To digitize any document, the basic requirement is the 

need to have a suitable scanner. Multimedia section can also go together for adding visual 

and sound information. Every effort has to be taken to acquire the electronic form of the 

publication from the author at the time of submission for archival. The published documents 

have to be digitized retrospectively, whenever e-version is not available. 

There are varieties of scanners available from desktop to publication scanner. 

Libraries must select suitable and adequate scanner. Some of the scanner types are 

1. Desktop Scanner – for scanning small documents, photos etc. Less Cost, Speed. 

2. Image Scanner – for high resolution /quality scanning for images/photos. 

3. Document Scanner –for scanning bulk of materials, high speed, high capacity. 

4. Publication Scanner – for scanning bound documents. 

The necessary software to convert the scanned TIF images to OCR or PDF format is also 

required. The most commonly used software products are: 

• Twain drive compatible scanning software for image capture 

• Omni Page Pro / Adobe Capture for OCR conversion 

• Photo Shop / Adobe Suite for editing and 

• Adobe Acrobat Suite for Conversion to PDF 

8. INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL (ISR) 

Digitized documents must be archived into database and must be made available / 

accessible from user desktops across the campus connected via an intranet. Fig.1. Illustrates 

the various steps involved in digitizing and archiving of E-Documents. 

After being scanned, the readability of document has to be checked and the quality 

has to be ensured. In case the quality is not satisfactory it has to be improved either by means 

of rescanning or scanning with better resolution. The scanned items must be reprocessed into 

textual format using OCR, which makes the documents “readable” by the system. After 

quality check, the documents have to be catalogued / indexed and should be stored into 

database along with the OCR information. The next step after archiving is to make the 

documents available for retrieval from user’s desktops. For this a good search engine has to 

be available which users should be able to utilise effectively to find the relevant documents 

by using key word search. Desktop access can be provided by designing a suitable web site 

- 4 - 

43


with easier hyperlinks and can be published over the network environment using web 

technology. 

Many file formats are available representing electronic documents like PDF, JPEG, 

GIF, TIF etc. Among these formats PDF is faster and economical for online viewing and 

archiving. Adobe Acrobat tool can be used for obtaining PDF format of documents. 

Document 

Acquisition 

Document 

cataloging and 

indexing 

Quality 

Check 

Scan 

OCR 

Export Documents to 

Storage 

Fig .1 - Document Digitizing & archiving 

Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is a language consisting of mark up tags used 

for creating WEB documents. HTML is used extensively and exclusively for web publishing. 

The tools like macromedia dream weaver, Microsoft Front Page offer easy methods for 

designing web pages visually without prior knowledge of HTML Language. 

Publishing the documents over the intranet is achieved using web publishing through 

Apache web server or Internet Information Server. Apache Web Server works with Linux 

environment and also with MS Windows based systems. Internet Information Server is meant 

for MS Windows NT server system while Personal Web Server Works on MS Windows 

machines. 

8.1 Importing Documents and Metadata 

The ability to import digital documents is a standard component of all of the products. 

The documents can be downloaded from a digital storage medium, by FTP, or directly from 

any TWAIN scanning device. Only requirement is the necessary software compatibility of 

the scanning devices. The documents can be images (GIF, JPEG, PDF or TIFF), plain text, 

HTML, audio, or video. Generally only a few parameters like size, resolution and access 

privileges are required to load documents. It is also possible to load metadata that already 

exists for the documents being imported. 

- 5 - 

44


8.2 Cataloging 

There are several cataloging options, including MARC, EAD, TEI, and Dublin Core, 

but the most widely used is Dublin Core. Several products offer the option of cutting and 

pasting information from the actual document to facilitate cataloging. Most of the systems do 

not limit the number of fields of metadata that can be created. At a minimum, the metadata 

will include the name of the author, title, language, the source, date, condition, access 

restrictions, and content description. The metadata can be linked to a single document, also 

known as an object, or to many. 

After the documents have been cataloged, virtual collections can be created. 

Documents can appear in several virtual collections. 

8.3 Editing 

Digital content can be edited, including reducing high-resolution JPEG or TIFF 

documents to lower resolutions or creating thumbnails. Metadata can not only be created, but 

also edited on a digital content management system. 

8.4 Storage 

Storing digital files demands substantial computer resources. The storage requirement 

depends on the volume and number of documents, the type of documents and also the 

concurrent users the system has to support. For example, a collection of 450,000 text 

documents accessible to 50 concurrent users requires at least 90 GB of disk storage and a 

four-processor server rated at 1 GHz or better, and 6.0 GB of RAM. If more than 25 percent 

of the documents are images, audio, and video, an even more robust hardware platform is 

required. It may not be possible and may not be required to have all the documents online all 

the time. Then methods can devised to make available the documents online based on 

demand with the main / frequently accessed collection online and others on secondary storage 

devices. 

8.5 Searching 

Searching can be done directly against the digital content management system or 

through an interface from a library’s patron access catalog, portal, or Web server. When a 

portal is used, simultaneous searching can be undertaken not only against the documents on 

the digital content management system, but also against other electronic resources within the 

library or on the Web. Because they have been developed for libraries, the systems support 

Z39.50 in addition to XML and HTTP gateways. Searching may be limited to specific 

documents, individual collections, multiple collections, or may encompass all collections. 

Searching can be done either against both the full-text of the documents and the 

associated metadata, or against just the metadata. Non-text documents searching are, of 

course, limited to searching the metadata. In most cases, searches can be natural language, 

Boolean, proximity, wildcard, truncation, date and date range, and pattern. Pattern searching 

makes it possible to find words with incorrect or missing characters either in the search term 

or the body of the text. Most of the system return merged result sets. Some also return 

relevancy-ranked results. All of the systems include an image viewer for JPEG and TIFF 

files, enabling image manipulation and printing. Security generally includes patron 

authentication to control access to the documents based on the profile of the documents and 

the users. For example, some documents may be subject to copyright, access restrictions 

required by donors, or the desire of a library to charge for printing or downloading. Some 

- 6 - 

45


categories of users may not qualify for access because they are not registered users, are not 

adults, or are delinquent borrowers. 

9. INNOVATIONS 

Future digital libraries have an opportunity to reinvent the information experience. 

Here are some examples that could be added to a digital library. 

Treadmills and exercise bicycles: people can listen to an audio book while they are in 

treadmills and bicycle with added blood flow to the brain. This type of exercise-learning can 

actually improve retention. 

Mini-Theaters: The world is rapidly shifting to video for the information. Mini 

theaters will be designed to offer a fuller sensory will be designed to offer a fuller sensory 

experience at a digital library. 

Pod casting Studios: Pod casting is quickly catching on, but few people understand 

how to use the equipment and post their pos casts online. 

Video casting Studios: The video version of Pod casting is video casting. These 

studios will quickly develop their own centre of gravity, attracting a wide spectrum of 

creative people ant to make their ideas come to life. 

Art studios: Oil painting, water colors, sculpting, sketching pads and variety of other 

types of artwork needs a right type of digital environment for some more creativity with the 

people. 

10. CONCLUSION 

Digital libraries to bridge the digital divide: Digital divide research is an 

interdisciplinary field, bringing together experts in economics, population studies, 

political science, communications policy, education policy and many other social 

sciences. Digital libraries cannot solve all the problems facing society today. 

Digital libraries and knowledge management: KM is the new buzzword in corporate as 

well as government sectors. General frame work for knowledge management in any 

organization that makes optimum use of digital libraries, along with intranet and internet 

resources. 

The future: Recent developments in ICT no longer require users to sit before a computer 

terminal to be able to interact with a library. Electronic journals, conferences, theses and 

many books are now coming out in digital format. 

REFERENCES 

1. Ganguly, R.C.(2007). “Digital Libraries: Challenges and prospects”, ISHA books, 

Delhi. 

2. Kaul, A.K. (2008). “E-Libraries in 21 st Centry”, ABS Publishers, Jaipur. 

3. Praveen Singh, C. (2008). “Digital Libraries tools and techniques, Alfa Publications 

New Delhi. 

4. http://www. dspace.org/ 

5. http://dublincore.org 

6. International Conference of Knowledge Networking in ICT Era held during 23-24 

January 2009 at B.S. Abdur Rahman Crescent Engineering College, Chennai, India. 

- 7 - 

46


Use of e-journals by engineering college students and 

faculties in Karur District: A survey report 

G.Sasireka 

Research Scholar (PT), Anna University, Chennai-25. 

Email: sasireka_mlis@yahoo.co.in. 

ABSTRACT 

This study attempts to find out the familiarity, popularity and utility of e-journals to the users of 

engineering colleges in Karur District. This paper highlight the various aspects like awareness of the users, 

user satisfaction, use pattern of e-resources, preference for print or electronic version, etc. finally on the basis 

of the findings follows the data analysis and interpretation which are collected through the questionnaire cum 

interview method. 


User’s increasing demand for electronic access to journals and the maturing of the 

electronic journal industry are contributing to the trend of shifting away from print journals to 

electronic journals. For over a decade traditional print journal collections in all types of 

libraries have been transitioning into hybrid journal collections. The resulting hybrid journal 

collections provide access to journals subscribed to as print-only, as electronic-only, or in 

both print and electronic formats, as well as access to selected, full-text journal articles in 

aggregators databases. This study examines the usage of e-journals by the users of 

engineering colleges in Karur District. 

2. ELECTRONIC JOURNALS 

Electronic journals are simply serial publications in which the end products are made 

available in digital format and whose contents are may or may not be peer- reviewed. Two 

media, i.e., the CD-ROM and the internet, are used for the dissemination of the e-journal. 

Presently e-journals have become the largest and fastest growing part of the digital 

collections for most of libraries. For instance, the e-journals a few years ago numbered just 

few hundreds of titles, are now running in many thousands and the rate of growth is 

phenomenal as well as amazing. The advancements in digital technologies and the recent 

proliferation of e-publishing across the world have brought in a revolution in journal 

publication, subscription, and access delivery mechanism. E-journals are the electronic 

equivalents of their print counter parts possessing numerous additional features. E-journals 

often referred to interchangeably as “Electronic Serials”, “Online Journals” and “Electronic 

Periodicals” 

3. FEATURES OF THE E-JOURNAL 

E-journals are becoming increasingly in demand both as a means of rapid desktop access 

to current research materials and as a way to view past volumes. E-journals offer a range of 

potential advantages to libraries and end-users: 

Allows remote access 

Can be used simultaneously by more than one user 

Provide timely access and at a 24 / 7 / 365 formula 

Supports different searching capabilities 

Accommodate unique features 

47


 

 

Save physical storage space 

Can support multimedia information 

4. OBJECTIVES 

The main objectives of the study are: 

To ascertain the awareness of e-journals among the users of engineering institutions in 

Karur district. 

To measure the frequency of access to digital library 

To assess the use pattern and preference of e-journals by the users 

To know the satisfaction level of current e-journals available in library 

To know the problems faced by the users in accessing the e-resources.To draw 

opinions and suggestions from the users regarding betterment and development of the 

e-resources service. 

5. METHODOLOGY 

The study adopted a descriptive survey method and employed a questionnaire as the 

data collection tool. There are 3 engineering colleges in Karur district. 

1. M. Kumarasamy College of Engineering & Technology (2000) 

2. VSB Engineering College (2002) 

3. Chettinadu college of Engineering & Technology (2007) 

The above engineering colleges have good collection of e-resources in there digital 

library. All the 3 engineering college of Karur district under study were visited personally to 

collect data from the library. The user community was divided in to 2 types: Faculty and 

Students. An equal number of 75 questionnaires was circulated among the users of 3 colleges. 

Out of 225 questionnaires distributed, 183 respondents returned filled in questionnaire. The 

response rate therefore accounts for 81.3%. Thus, the rest of the analysis is based on the 183 

coded filled in questionnaires. 

6. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 

Table 1 Demographic characteristics of respondents 

S.No. Demography of Respondents (n=183) Total no. of Percentage 

Response 

1. Gender Male 96 52.5 

Female 87 47.5 

2. Age < 25 103 56.2 

26-35 49 26.8 

>36 31 17 

3. Discipline Engineering 115 62.8 

Computer Applications/ IT 31 16.9 

Management studies 37 20.2 

4. Designation Faculty 52 28.4 

Students 131 71.6 

48


The data summarized in the table – 1 demonstrates the demographic characteristics of 

respondents. It shows that male respondents are high (52.5%) with compared to female 

(47.5). Half of the respondents 56.2% come under the age group of below 25 years. 26.8% 

respondents come under the age group of 26-35 years. Majority 62.8% of respondents 

belongs to various branches of engineering course, from engineering category, 20.2% of 

respondents are belongs to management studies. Response from students category is high 

71.6% with compared to faculties 21.4%. 

Table 2 Frequency of use of digital library 

S.No. Category Daily 

Once in a 

Week 

Once in a 

Fortnight 

Once in a 

Month 

Rarely 

1. Faculty 12(6.6%) 19(10.4%) 11(6%) 8(4.4%) 2(1.1%) 

(n=52) 

2. Students 34(18.6%) 40(21.8%) 26(14.2%) 18(9.8%) 13(7.1%) 

(n=131) 

Total 46 (25.2%) 59 (32.2%) 37(20.2%) 26(14.2%) 15(8.2%) 

The table 2 shows that 25.2% of users visits digital library daily. While 32.2% visit 

once in a week, and 20.2% of respondents visit once in a fortnight, and 14.2% of respondents 

visit once in a month, 8.2% of users used digital library rarely. 

Table 3 Awareness of electronic resources 

S.No. Category Awareness 

Well Known Known Poor 

1. Faculty 27 (14.8%) 22 (12%) 3 (01.6%) 

(n=52) 

2. Students 48 (26.2%) 64 (35%) 19 (10.4%) 

(n=131) 

Total 75 (41%) 86 (47%) 22 (12%) 

The above table summarizes the awareness of electronic resources among the students 

and faculty. It is clear from the table that 41% of respondents are well known about e- 

resources. 47% of respondents have awareness about e-resources. Only 12% of users felt 

poor. 

Table 4 Purpose of using e-journals 

S.No. 

Category 

Study / 

Teaching 

Purpose 

Research Paper presentation 

project / Update 

knowledge, etc., 

1. Faculty 

25(13.7%) 14 (07.7%) 13 (07.1%) 

(n=52) 

2. Students 87(47.5) 12 (06.6%) 32 (17.5%) 

49


(n=131) 

Total 112(61.2) 26(14.2%) 45 (24.6%) 

The intention here is to know the purpose of use of e-journals by the respondents. 

Users in this study used the e-journals in support of their study and teaching (61.2%), and 

14.2% of respondents used the source for research. 47.5% of students used e-journals for 

study purpose. 24.6% of respondents using e-journals for paper presentation, projects and 

update their knowledge. 

Table 5 Preference about form of electronic version Vs. print version 

S.No. Category Electronic Print Both 

1. Faculty (n=52) 16(08.7%) 15 (08.2%) 21(11.5%) 

2. Students (n=131) 44(24%) 38(20.8%) 49 (26.8%) 

Total 60(32.7%) 53 (29%) 70(38.3%) 

The Table 5 shows that most of the respondents 38.3% comfort with both form of 

journals, 32.7% preferred electronic version, and 29% preferred printed form of journals for 

reading purpose. 

Table 6 Need for Orientation / Training Programme 

Need for Orientation 

S.No. Category 

Yes No 

1. Faculty 

(n=52) 

11 (06%) 41(22.4%) 

2. Students 

(n=131) 

65(35.5%) 66(36.1%) 

Total 76(41.5%) 107(58.5%) 

The above table shows that most of the respondents 41.5% need orientation program 

for improving their knowledge in access to e-journals, and 58.5% of respondents their need 

not orientation/ any training program. 

Table 7 Satisfaction Level of e-journals 

S.No. Category Satisfied Moderate Unsatisfied 

1. Faculty 

(n=52) 

2. Students 

(n=131) 

29(15.8%) 15 (8.2%) 8 (04.4%) 

62 (33.9%) 48 (26.2%) 21 (11.5%) 

50


Total 91(49.7%) 63(34.3%) 29 (15.9%) 

This table reveals that almost half of the respondents 49.7% satisfied with the current 

available e-journals in their libraries, whereas 34.3% of users felt moderate. At the same time, 

15.9% are dissatisfied. 

Table 8 Problems faced to access the e-journals 

Faculty 

(n=52) 

Students 

(n=131) 

S.No. 

Category 

Total 

1. Slow speed of internet 22(12%) 34(18.6%) 56(30.6%) 

2. Power failure 8 (4.4%) 19(10.4%) 27(14.8%) 

3. Limited systems/ timings 14(7.7%) 26(14.2%) 40(21.8%) 

4. No assistance provide by library 3(1.6%) 35(19.1%) 38(20.8%) 

staff 

5. Limited coverage of e-journal titles 5(2.7%) 17(9.3%) 22 (12%) 

Table 8 shows that the main problem faced by the users (30.6%) in using e-journals is 

slow speed of the internet connection, 20.8% of respondents states that no assistance is 

provided by library staff, and 21.8% is limited number of systems and timing is not enough. 

7. CONCLUSION 

The study is aimed to awareness and use of e-journals in engineering colleges in Karur. The 

findings shows that a large number of users using e-journals. The decrease in the collection of 

print journals and increase in the e-journals indicates that the engineering college library is 

making all its efforts to provide the benefits of e-journals and services to its users. 

References 

1.TENOPIR, C. ''Towards electronic journals : realities for scientists, librarians, and 

publishers, Special libraries association, 2000, Washington D.C. pp.488. 

2.RAZA M.M. and ASHOK KUMAR UPADHYOY. “Usage of E-journals by researchers in 

Aligarh Muslim University: A Study”, The International Information and Library Review, 

2006, 38, pp.170-179. 

3.ROGERS, S.A. “Electronic Journals usage at Ohio State University”, College and Research 

Libraries, 2005, 62(1) pp. 25-34. 

4.BOYCE et al. “How electronic journals are changing patterns of use?” The serials 

Librarian, 2004, 46 (1-2) pp.121-141 

5.VISHALA, B.K. and BHANDI, M.K. “E-Resources : New Models for Content Delivery – 

Preference to forms of journals by the Academicians of the Universities of Karnataka: A 

Survey Report” Proceedings of the 7th International CALIBER 2009, 25 -27th February 

2009, Pondicherry University, Pudhucherry. 

51


6.DILLON, I.F. and HAHN, K.L. Are researchers ready for the electronic only journal 

collection? Results of a survey at the University of Maryland, Portal : Libraries and the 

Academy, 2002, 2 (3), pp.115-135. 

52


International Nuclear Information System (INIS) as 

Knowledge Repository: Discovery Tools and Retrieval 

Techniques 

C. Jayakumar*; E. Soundararajan*; V. Rajendran*; A. Amudhavalli# and M. Sai Baba* 

*Scientific Information Resource Division, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam – 603 102, India 

#Department of Library & Information Science, University of Madras, Chennai, India 

ABSTRACT 

The success story of world’s largest bibliographic database on Nuclear Information, INIS is 

highlighted for its decentralised model of data input and centralised quality information processing and 

hosting by IAEA. Retrieval techniques were discussed with field specific search and resource discovery 

tools. The benefits of INIS DB becoming open access to the research community and the common public 

were discussed. The availability of Non Conventional Literature (NCL) in full text form with related IAEA 

publications have added value to the database. Information about NUCLEUS which is acting as common 

access point to the IAEA’s scientific, technical and regulatory information resources is also discussed. 

Structured Information Awareness Programme to enhance the usage and to empower the researching 

scientists and practicing engineers is recommended. 

Keywords : INIS Database, Information Retrieval (IR) Techniques, Nuclear Knowledge Portal, Knowledge 

Discovery Tools. 


The development of International Information Systems like AGRIS (FAO) and 

INIS (IAEA) has proved to be a successful co-operative bibliographic database model 

over years. The agencies responsible for its growth and value has ensured the 

transformation of the database into a valuable resource in the respective fields. The 

International Nuclear Information System (INIS) developed by International Atomic 

Energy Agency (IAEA) has become open access on Internet for the benefit of users 

around the world. Free, open and unrestricted access to this domain specific resource will 

increase its reach and serve the purpose of rendering efficient information service to the 

human kind. The literature covered in the database is not only acting as a reference 

source for the development of Nuclear Science and Technology, but also empower the 

humanity with the peaceful uses of Nuclear Technology in food preservation in 

agriculture and medical diagnosis and treatment. 

INIS DATABASE 

It is a leading reference database for scientific literature published worldwide on 

the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology with international coverage. It has 

over three million bibliographic citations and abstracts of journal articles, scientific and 

technical reports, conference papers, books, patents, theses, laws, regulations and 

standards, and web documents, covering publications in 63 languages; all records include 

keywords and most have an abstract in English. It also includes a unique online collection 

of over 200,000 full-text documents: scientific and technical reports, conference 

proceedings, patents, theses, and preprints. This “grey” non-conventional literature 

53


(NCL) is not easily available from other sources. It adds around 100 000 records 

annually. During this year (April, 2009) INIS has become Open access to Internet users. 

INIS has been successfully fulfilling its mission to: 

 

 

 

create a reservoir of nuclear information for current and future generations 

provide quality nuclear information services to member states, and assist with the 

development of a culture of information and knowledge sharing 

INIS processes most of the world’s scientific and technical literature on a wide 

range of subjects from nuclear engineering, safeguards and non-proliferation to 

applications in agriculture and health 

The success of the growth and development of INIS is because of the policies and 

action plans of the INIS section under the Agency’s guidelines. The mantras of 

Cooperation and Decentralization with determined efforts of ensuring quality by INIS has 

empowered the researchers and policy makers in making use of the published literature 

from a single entry point or gateway. 

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION 

INIS is operated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 

collaboration with, at present, 121 Member States and 23 International Organizations. 

Active partnerships with other organizations in Member States are also developed 

(Nuclear Information and Knowledge No.7, June 2009). INIS' strength is based on 

international co-operation. Representation in the system is at governmental level. 

National INIS Centres are responsible for all related activities in a country. Bhabha 

Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai is the National INIS Centre for India. 

DECENTRALIZATION 

Decentralisation is an important element of INIS' success. Collecting relevant 

literature and disseminating INIS output products to end-users is decentralized to 

National INIS Centres in Member States. 

This trusted international mechanism allows INIS to 

achieve widest coverage of national nuclear-related literature 

overcome cultural and language barriers, and 

give every INIS Member the right to access nuclear information of all other INIS 

Members. 

54


SUBJECT COVERAGE 

The INIS Database covers a broad range of subjects in areas of the International 

Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) interests and activities in nuclear science and 

technology. 

(Source : INIS/IAEA) 

INIS updates the records continuously and present the statistics on the web page. 

Following is the statistics of the update issue 40 made on 17 December 2009 and includes 

1112 records, of which 599 are NCL documents and 428 contain PDF full-text 

documents available for download. 

The main subject distribution and number of records in INIS for a single update : 

152 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS 

79 MATERIALS SCIENCE 

76 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY 

69 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS 

60 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND 

TECHNOLOGY 

59 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND 

SUPERFLUIDITY 

59 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 

59 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON- 

RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES 

53 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS 

52 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS 

50 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY AND ECONOMY 

41 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY 

40 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS 

55


36 ENGINEERING 

32 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS …… contd. 

Newly added journal articles from following journals from the single update. 

25 Journal of Radiation Protection 

15 Applied Energy 

8 Physics Letters. Section B 

7 Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 

6 Energy (Oxford) 

6 Journal of Geophysical Research 

5 Physical Review. D, Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology 

4 Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering 

4 Fusion Science and Technology 

4 IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity (Print) 

4 Physics and Chemistry of the Earth (2002) 

3 Biomass and Bioenergy 

3 Journal of Physical Chemistry. B, Condensed Matter, Materials, 

Surfaces, Interfaces and Biophysical Chemistry 

3 Journal of Physical Chemistry. C 

3 Journal of Physics. Conference Series (Online) ……contd. 

INIS SEARCH INTERFACE 

The Search Interface appears with simple search page. By clicking on Advanced 

search link provide the user with the field specific search with limiting parameters. The 

results appears with title listing with an option to expand each record. The full text 

documents will have an indication with pdf symbol and displays the full text when 

clicking on the icon. The system provide options to store queries for further use and the 

result set can be printed or exported to HTML, Tab-delimited Text, Formatted Text, 

XML or MS Excel format, allowing the researcher to build his own reference listings. 

More Personalized features are available to the Registered users which is very simple and 

free. The INIS section takes the feedback from the users and it continuously improves the 

system. 

Information retrieval has two parameters viz., Recall and Precision. These two 

ratio are usually inverse has been addressed by INIS. Recall value is the percentage of 

relevant documents retrieved compared to the total number of relevant documents in the 

database. Search operators OR, ANY, WILD CHARACTERS increase recall and usually 

decrease relevance. The Precision or Relevance is the percentage of relevant documents 

retrieved compared to the total number of documents retrieved. Search operators AND, 

NOT, EQUALS, PHARSE and ALL increase Relevance and usually decrease Recall. 

56


SEARCHING INIS 

Searching INIS can be performed using the web search interface of the database 

which are user centric. Understanding the searchable fields and efficient query 

formulation will result in better result. The search term input is case insensitive. 

Limiting fields and the Results Display 

The Field/Operator Matrix of INIS shows all field names used in INIS and Search 

Operators and Boolean logic that can be used with each field along with fields which are 

having an Index file and Authority File is noted in the below table. 

Field/Operator Matrix (Source: INIS/IAEA) 

57


Subject Categories Names and Subject Category Codes are assigned to every 

record in the database which can be used for efficient retrieval. 

INIS SUBJECT CATEGORY CODES 

S01COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT 

S02 PETROLEUM 

S03 NATURAL GAS 

S04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS 

S07 ISOTOPES AND RADIATION SOURCES 

S08 HYDROGEN 

S09 BIOMASS FUELS 

S10 SYNTHETIC FUELS 

S11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS 

S12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM 

NUCLEAR FACILITIES 

S13 HYDRO ENERGY 

S14 SOLAR ENERGY 

S15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY 

S16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER 

S17 WIND ENERGY 

S20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS 

S21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS 

S22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS 

S24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION 

S25 ENERGY STORAGE 

S29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY AND ECONOMY 

S30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION 

S36 MATERIALS SCIENCE 

S37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY 

S38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY 

S42 ENGINEERING 

S43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS 

S46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 

S54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 

S58 GEOSCIENCES 

S60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES 

S61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY 

S62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE 

S63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTANT 

EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGANISMS AND BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS 

S70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY 

S71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS 

S72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS 

S73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS 

S74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS 

S75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY 

S98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION 

S99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS 

58


INIS RECORD 

The Search Interface allows the user to capture the results for future reference. 

The downloaded records can easily uploaded to any bibliographic management software 

which allows the researcher to build his/her own database for further use. Following is 

the complete details of a single record. 

Title : Closing the fuel cycle for Sodium Cooled Fast Reactors: challenges and directions 

Abstract : Closed fuel cycle is essential for sustainable development of nuclear energy. Effective 

utilization of limited uranium resources, in India, is possible through fast reactors with closed fuel cycle. 

Accordingly, the closure of fuel cycle through reprocessing of irradiated fuel and the recycling of the 

fissile material in reactors has been a crucial element of the Indian strategy for growth of nuclear energy. 

The important role of fast reactors with closed fuel cycle was recognized by Dr. Homi Bhabha who had 

enunciated the three stage development programme for the nuclear energy in India. While the first stage 

of the programme involves thermal reactors utilizing natural uranium and producing plutonium, fast 

reactors using plutonium as the fuel constitute the second stage of the programme. Thorium converted to 

233U in fast reactors would fuel the third stage of the nuclear power development. Thus, it can be seen 

that the fast reactor programme with good breeding characteristics would be an essential pre-requisite for 

large scale utilization of thorium in India. Obviously, a large fast reactor programme can only be 

sustained through a closed fuel cycle, wherein the fissile material is recovered and re-fabricated. 

Author Raj, Baldev (Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam (India)) 

Subject SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS | S11 | S21 

Source Reddy, A.V.R. (ed.) (Analytical Chemistry Div., Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 

(India)); Venugopal, V. (ed.) (Radiochemistry and Isotope Group, Bhabha Atomic Research 

Centre, Mumbai (India)); Sinha, R.K. (ed.) (Reactor Design and Development Group, 

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai (India)); Banerjee, S. (ed.) (Bhabha Atomic 

Research Centre, Mumbai (India)) Department of Atomic Energy, Mumbai (India); 

International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (International Atomic Energy Agency 

(IAEA)); Indian Nuclear Society, Mumbai (India) Proceedings of international conference 

on peaceful uses of atomic energy - 2009. V. 1 Mumbai (India) Bhabha Atomic Research 

Centre 2009 408 p. p. 18-19 

International conference on peaceful uses of atomic energy - 2009 New Delhi (India) 29 Sep 

- 1 Oct 2009 

Book 

Qualif Conference 

Place India 

DEC breeder reactors | energy sources | energy | epithermal reactors | fast reactors | fbr type 

reactors | fuels | liquid metal cooled reactors | lmfbr type reactors | management | materials | 

nuclear fuels | reactor materials | reactors | research and test reactors | separation processes | 

solid fuels | test facilities | test reactors 

DEI fuel cycle | kalpakkam lmfbr reactor | mixed carbide fuels | nuclear energy | reprocessing | 

waste management 

Lang English 

RelRec 40105580 

RefNum 40105592 

VolIss 4048 

Year 2009 

59


INIS NON-CONVENTIONAL LITERATURE 

The full text documents of the Non-conventional literature is available to the users 

as INIS NCL documents which includes scientific and technical reports, patent 

documents, conference papers and theses, which are not available usually from 

publishers. 

IAEA PUBLICATIONS 

Most of the IAEA publications are available full text from Agency’s website. The 

publications include Scientific & Technical Publications, International Standards, Guides 

& Codes which are authentic and relevant resources for the Researchers and Policy 

makers. 

IAEA Scientific & Technical Publications Page 

60


NUCLEUS – Gateway to Nuclear Databases 

NUCLEUS is the common access point to the IAEA’s scientific, technical and 

regulatory resources which includes IAEA databases, publications and safety standards. 

Following Information Systems are of interest to the human kind and nuclear 

professionals with web address. 

Food Irradiation Clearance Database (FICD) 

A database on country approvals of irradiated foods for human consumption. 

URL : http://nucleus.iaea.org/NUCLEUS/nucleus/apps/FICDB/DatabaseHome.html 

Radiation Protection of Patients (RPOP) 

Information to help health professionals achieve safer use of radiation in medicine 

for the benefit of patients. 

URL : http://rpop.iaea.org/RPoP/RPoP/Content/index.htm 

Marine Information System (MARIS) 

The IAEA's Marine Information System is a relational database, based on GIS 

(Geographical Information System), covering the distribution of radioactive and stable 

isotopes, and in the near future also other tracers (organic compounds, trace metals) in the 

marine environment. 

URL : http://maris.iaea.org/ 

Power Reactor Information System (PRIS) 

PRIS is a comprehensive data source of nuclear power reactors in the world. It 

includes specification and performance history data of operating reactors as well as 

reactors under construction and those being decommissioned. 

URL : http://www.iaea.or.at/programmes/a2/ 

The reactor specification data consist of basic information, such as location, 

operator, owner, suppliers, and milestone dates, and technical characteristics of design. 

The performance data include energy production and loss data as well as outage and 

operational event information. Since 1970, the monthly data on production and power 

losses have been recorded in PRIS. 

The electricity production data were complemented by information on energy 

provided by nuclear power plants to non-electrical applications, such as district heating, 

process heat supply or desalination. Information about the decommissioning process of 

shutdown units has been also incorporated into PRIS. Due to detailed classification of 

energy losses and comprehensive outage coding system, a set of internationally accepted 

performance indicators are calculated from the PRIS performance data. The indicators 

can be used for benchmarking, international comparison or analyses of nuclear power 

availability and reliability from reactor specific, national or worldwide perspectives. 

These analyses can be utilized in evaluating the competitive advantages of nuclear power 

compared with other power sources. 

61


Incident Reporting System for Research Reactors (IRSRR) 

The Incident Reporting System for Research Reactors (IRSRR) is an international 

system through which participating Member States exchange operational experiences to 

improve the safety of the research reactors. 

URL : http://irsrr.iaea.org/ 

USER ORIENTATION ACTIVITIES 

At Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam every effort 

has been made to provide access to the Nuclear related information to the patrons at their 

desktop using organisational networked infrastructure. The Scientific Information 

Resource Division is conducting periodical orientation programmes to the Researchers 

and members joining the Centre about various Information Resources which are relevant 

to the area of Fast Breeder Technology. A well formulated user awareness programme 

will empower the user to search and retrieve the highly relevant literature resource more 

efficiently. The user centric information systems like INIS will definitely play an 

important role in research environment where Science and Technology join hands and 

take the society forward. 

CONCLUSION 

The quality of the INIS content and its continued development over years built on 

international cooperation has proved to be a successful endeavour. The search interface 

and the faceted search tools are very much useful to search and retrieve highly relevant 

literature in various areas of Nuclear Technology and Applications. With the participation 

of the stake holders in adding value to the Information System has resulted in formation 

of International Nuclear Libraries Network (INLN) and its roadmap for a Nuclear 

Information Infrastructure. Technology, Content and Services with functions such as 

Taxonomy and Ontology, Retrieval across repositories, Data mining, Reuse of data and 

Visualization will definitely add strength to the robust information system like INIS. 

References 

1. Atieh, T., and R. Workman. 2005. INIS the world's nuclear knowledge reservoir. 

IAEA Bulletin 47, (1): 50-51. 

2. Balakrishnan, M. R. 1986. INIS: A Computer-Based International Nuclear Information 

System. Information Services and Use 6, (2-3): 51-73. 

3. Filippov, Alexander V. 1986. INIS: Nuclear Information For Development. 

International Atomic Energy Agency bulletin 28, (4): 11-13. 

4. INIS User manual – English 

URL : http://inisdb2.iaea.org/docs/english_manual.pdf 

5. Levine, E. 2009. Nuclear power: International nuclear information system on the 

internet. Online (Wilton, Connecticut) 33, (4): 31-34. 

6. Ley, H. 2004. Development of an international distributed web-based nuclear safety 

information system. Transactions of the American Nuclear Society 91, : 36. 

7.Lovincic, D., and P. Mekicar. 2003. INIS in slovenia. International Conference - 

Nuclear Energy for New Europe, Proceedings: 679-686. 

62


8. Muramatsu, Y., E. Cortes Toro, and R. M. Parr. 1989. Nuclear-related analytical 

techniques: Literature retrieval from the INIS database. Journal of Radioanalytical and 

Nuclear Chemistry 133, (2): 249-257. 

9. Nuclear Information and Knowledge, No. 7, June 2009 

10. Obata, Yukio. 1986. Overview of INIS operations. Journal of the Atomic Energy 

Society of Japan 28, (6): 508-523. 

11. Schmid, H., V. Dragulev, and A. Lebowitz. 1983. Present and future application Of 

Micro-Computers for the AGRIS and INIS Information Systems. Contemporary Topics 

in Information Transfer 3, : 275-279. 

12. Zamora, Pedro, and Octavio Ibarra. 1986. INIS and its impact on Nuclear Power 

Development. International Atomic Energy Agency bulletin 28, (4): 14-16. 

63


Session-II: 

Digital Library Infrastructure and Information Retrieval 

64


Semantic Interoperability of Electronic Health Records 

Pertaining to Diverse Standards Through Ontology 

Mapping – A Semantic Web Service Oriented Model 

P. Vidhya and Jany Shabu 

Department of Electronic Sciences, Sathyabama University, Chennai – 600119 

ABSTRACT 

Electronic Health Record is defined as digitally stored health care information about an individual’s lifetime with 

the purpose of supporting continuity of care, education and research, and ensuring confidentiality all the times. 

Most medical information systems store clinical information about patients in proprietary formats. To enable 

structured clinical content for the purpose of exchange several EHR standards have been proposed. Some notable 

EHR standards are HL7, CEN TC251, ISO TC251 and GHER. Medical information systems have a proliferation 

of standards to represent the same data. Data interchange between medical information systems pertaining to 

disparate standards raises an issue. In this paper we have proposed a Service oriented approach for handling 

EHR. The semantics of each EHR standard is reflected through ontologies. The semantic differences are bridged 

by ontology to ontology mapping using MAFRA. The ontologies are published using OWL generated using 

Protégé. The appropriate EHR component data is fetched through semantic location of appropriate service that 

consumes data as a result of a triggered event. This is a semantic web service oriented model to handle diversity 

of EHR standards. 

Keywords: Semantic Web Service, Service Discovery, Ontology, MAFRA, Protege, EHR standards, OWL 


Health information systems today are proprietary and often serve specific department in 

a healthcare institute. A patient's health information can be spread across several health 

institutes that conform to diverse standards. The prime target in this paper is to achieve 

interoperability between EHR standards. In this paper we propose a semantic web service 

oriented approach to handle interoperability. The semantics is captured in ontologies. There are 

two types of ontologies. EHRComponent ontology assists deriving the relevant data from EHR 

as a result of a triggered event. The functionality of these services must be reflected using 

WSDL and their semantics through ontology. There are several standards for EHR. Some of 

the standards are HL7, CEN TC251, ISO TC215 and GHER. Separate EHRSemantics 

ontologies are built for reflecting the semantics of the elements of the EHR standards. The 

elements with the same semantics from different standards are mediated through MAFRA 

ontology to ontology mapping. The ontologies are published in Ontology web Language. In 

this project EHR standards like HL7, CEN TC251 and ISO TC215 are considered. The 

following sections describe EHR definition, EHR history, EHR components, standards, 

proposed architecture, web service approach, semantic approach and enhancements. 

2. DEFINITION 

EHR is longitudinal electronic record of patient health information generated by one or more 

encounters in any care delivering setting. Included in this information are patient 

demographics, progress notes, problems, medications, vital signs, past medical history, 

immunizations, laboratory data and radiology result. The goal of HER is to provide 

functionality like interactive alerts to clinicians, interactive flow sheets, and tailored ordered 

sets. 

65


3. HISTORY OF EHR 

A medical record should reflect the course of the disease and the cause of the disease. EHR 

today are based on some works listed below. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COSTAR – Computer Stored Ambulatory Record 

HELP – Health Evaluation through Logical Processing 

TMR – The Medical Record 

THERESA – Direct physician data entry 

CHCS – Composite Health Care System 

DHCP – De-Centralized Hospital Computer Program 

TDS – Developed by Lockheed 

These projects lacked system interfaces and standard vocabularies. New standards are 

developed to handle these issues. 

4. COMPONENTS OF EHR 

An electronic health record must be created for each service a patient receives. EHR 

can be generated for services like administration, nursing, lab, clinical, radiology, etc. a clinical 

user will have to open a series of applications, login, find patient record within each 

application, and then get the complete record. These ancillary services form the key 

components of EHR. Some of the services are described here. 

Administrative system components – Registration, Admission, Discharge and Transfer 

(RADT) are the key components in administration. A medical record should reflect the course 

of the disease and the cause of the disease. 

Laboratory System Components – These are generally standalone systems that are 

interfaced with EHR. Laboratory Information System hubs integrate orders, results from 

laboratory instruments, schedules, billing and other information. 

Radiology System Components – Radiology department uses Radiology Information 

System that packs patient radiology data, interpretations, result reporting, image tracking etc. 

Pharmacy System Component – Large scale health institutes have pharmacies attached. 

Huge volumes are pharmacy oriented data are maintained in Pharmacy Information Systems. 

Pharmacy records are generated for in-patients and out-patients. 

5. EHR STANDARDS 

EHR uses both technical and clinical standards. 

CEN TC251 – The logical building blocks of this standard are listed below [9,10]. 

EHR 

Electronic health record for one person 

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Folders 

Compositions 

Sections 

Entries 

Clusters 

Elements 

Data Values 

High level organization of EHR – per episode 

A clinical care session – test result 

Clinical headings reflecting workflow and consultation 

Clinical statement about observation, evaluation, 

instruction, etc. 

Nested multi part data structures 

Leaf node with single node value – body weight 

Data types for instance values – coded terms, 

measurements with units 

Table 1: CEN TC251 

HL7 – There are HL7 Reference Information Model, Clinical Document Architecture and 

Messaging standard. There is no underlying reference model. CDA is a document markup 

standard developed by Health Level Seven. The document is encoded in XML. CDA 

distinguishes three levels of granularity. The documents derive their meaning from HL7 RIM. 

Level one focuses on content of narrative documents. Level two allows constraining the 

structure and content of the document using templates. Level three is for machine processing 

[11,12,13]. 

ISO TC215 – There are several working groups including work group for data structure, 

messaging and communication, health concept representation, security, health card, pharmacy 

and medication, devices and business requirements for electronic health records. 

6. WEB SERVICE 

A web service can be defined as a network accessible interface to application functionality, 

built using standard internet technologies [1]. Web service provides an interface between the 

application code and the user of the code. It behaves as an abstraction layer separating platform 

and program-language-specific details of how application code is actually invoked. The 

standardized layer permits any language that supports web service to access the application’s 

functionality. Interoperability is a key benefit from implementing web services. It does not 

matter if the application logic is written in Java and the browser in C++. The application 

services can be deployed on any platform and the browser can be deployed in some other 

platform say the former in UNIX and the later in Windows. Still web services layer between 

the client and the application can remove the friction. Web services can be assumed as a 

messaging framework. Using some combination of standard internet protocols web services 

sends and receives messages. 

67


APPLICATION 

CODE 

WEB 

SERVICE 

APPLICATION 

CLIENT 

PLATFORM AND 

LANGUAGE 

SPECIFIC 

COMMUNICATION 

PLATFORM AND 

LANGUAGE 

NEUTRAL 

COMMUNICATION 

Fig 1: Web Service – Abstraction layer 

Service 

Registry 

FIND 

PUBLISH 

Service 

Customer 

Service 

Provider 

BIND 

Fig 2: Web Service – Architecture 

Remote clients and applications (Service customer) uses XML for data transport and SOAP 

(Simple Object Access Protocol) for using the service. Web service can be thought of as 

component architecture over the web. Similar to the component development model, web 

services must support registration with lookup services and a public interface for the client to 

invoke the service. Each web service must register itself with a central repository and the 

clients can lookup the registry for a desired service. When a service is located the client has to 

obtain the reference to the service. The service provider must publish the public interface for 

the service so that the clients can invoke the various methods using the reference. A web 

service receives information from the client in the form of messages similar to method calls. 

On completion of the service the response message is encoded in XML. Public interfaces and 

the repositories are also implemented in XML. XML provides platform neutral data transport. 

Theoretically XML based web services can thus interoperate with another XML based web 

service provided both the services agree upon common protocols for communication. We now 

discuss on the most commonly used web service technologies. To create a web service the 

following technologies are used. SOAP – Simple Object Access Protocol is a lightweight and 

simple XML based protocol. It promotes exchange of structured and typed information on the 

web by describing messaging format for machine-to-machine communication. WSDL – Web 

Services Description Language is an XML format for describing the web service interface. It 

also covers information on the data types for all message requests and responses. Additionally 

68


it includes binding information about the transport protocol to be used and the address 

information for locating the particular service. The client would first get a copy of the WSDL 

file to understand the contract, create a SOAP request based on the contract and dispatches the 

request to the server using HTTP or any other transport layer protocols. UDDI – Universal 

Description, Discovery and Integration is a web-based business registry to publish information 

about the web service. UDDI has API for searching existing services and publishing new 

services. In UDDI data is stored in a specific XML format. So a web service should be self – 

describable and self-discoverable. The web service protocol stack can be summed up as 

follows. 

Discovery 

UDDI 

Description 

WSDL 

XML-Messaging SOAP, XML-RPC 

Transport HTTP, SMTP, FTP, BEEP 

Fig 3: Web Service Protocol Stack 

7. ONTOLOGY 

“Ontology is formal, explicit specification of a shared conceptualization.” [2] A computer can 

use ontologies to process data, annotated with references to ontologies, and through the 

knowledge captured in the ontologies, deduce facts from the original data. A computer can, for 

example deduce from the fact that Caroline is a girl, the fact that Caroline is a person, given 

that the ontology states that every girl is a person. If the ontology furthermore states that every 

person has a heart, it can be deduced that Caroline must have a heart. Ontologies come in 

different flavors; from flat lexicons with few relationships to very expressive ontologies. 

Ontologies interweave human and computer understanding of “symbols”[3]. These symbols are 

called as terms and can be interpreted by both human and computers. To a human the meaning 

is presented by the term itself as in natural language. The relationships between the terms are 

understandable to human beings. Ontologies represent the terms as set of classes interlinked 

with each other as subclasses (“is-a”) relationship. This relationship specifies that the superconcept 

is more generalized than the sub-concept. Classes can have “properties” called as 

“slots” or “attributes”. Properties can have “constraints” on their usage and other properties 

and are often called as “facets”. In reality machines does not gain real understanding of the 

domain but the understanding of humans is coded in such a way that machine can process it 

and draw the same conclusions a human can, through logical reasoning. 

69


Person 

Student 

Researcher 

Msc- 

Student 

PhD- 

Student 

Professo 

r 

Caroline 

Postdoc 

instance-of 

is-a 

Fig 4: Example – Ontology taxonomy 

Let us consider the following taxonomy to understand the ontology representation in details. 

The concepts considered are Person, Student, Researcher, Msc-Student, PhD-Student, 

Professor and Postdoc. From the below ontology we can draw many conclusions. We see that 

every PhD-Student (sub-concept) is also a Student and a Researcher (super-concept).Concepts 

describe set of objects in real world. For example, the concept PhD-Student aims to capture all 

PhD-Students. One such Ph-D student is Caroline. 

8. PROPOSED ARCHITECTURE 

The first step in the project involves developing mediator. The mediator is a component that 

has an ontology server and web services that expose the functionality of the hospital 

applications that adhere to any EHR standard [8]. 

Fig 5: P2P Architecture 

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Fig 6: Mediator Component 

The ontology server serves two ontologies EHRComponent and EHRSemantics. When an 

event is triggered some part of the EHR component needs to be consumed. The relevant EHR 

component is fetched through appropriate service that is semantically located through 

EHRComponent ontology. EHRSemantics ontology is developed for each standard. When 

applications of different standards interact runtime ontology to ontology mapping is done by 

MAFRA – ontology MApping FRAmework toolkit [4]. 

Fig 7: MAFRA 

In a typical scenario when an application compliant with HL7 requests EHR component from 

another application compliant with CEN certain elements of both the standards reflect the same 

meaning but use different identifiers. To map this difference MAFRA is used to provide 

ontology to ontology mapping. 

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Fig 8: MAFRA Architecture 

Fig 9: Protégé – CEN Ontology instance 

Fig 10: Protégé – HL7 Ontology instance 

The ontologies are developed using Protégé and published using OWL [6,7]. Some health 

standard ontologies are already available but we are to design new ontologies selectively 

published in OWL only. 

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Fig 11: Application and ontology interaction 

When medical institutions interact each institution must hold a mediator. Peer to peer 

communication is achieved through JXTA [5]. JuXTApose is a peer to peer protocol 

specification from Sun Microsystems. When two institutions communicate JXTA is used to 

locate the provider’s mediator. 

9. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE ENHANCEMENT 

This model is currently being implemented. The mediator based architecture is a semantic web 

service initiative to handle interoperability issues in proliferated and disparate EHR standards. 

The work is carried out for text based EHR data. The work can be furthur enhanced for image, 

audio and video based EHR data. 

REFERENCES 

1. G. Alonso, F. Casati, H. Kuno. Web Services- Concepts, Architecture and 

Applications. Springer, 2004. 

2. S. McIlraith, T. Son, and H. Zeng. Semantic Web Services. IEEE Intelligent 

Systems, 16(2):46-53, 2001. 

3. T. Berner Lee, J. Hendler, and O. Lassila. The Semantic Web. Scientific American, 

285(5):34-43, May 2001. 

4. http://mafra-toolkit.sourceforge.net/ 

5. http://java.sun.com/othertech/jxta/learning/tutorial/index.html 

6. http://protege.cim3.net/cgibin/wiki.pl?ProtegeOntologiesLibrary 

7. SAMS Teach Yourself XML in 21 days, Techmedia Publications. Author: Payne 

8. http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/J2EE/j2ee_ws/ 

9. http://www.openehr.org/standards/iso.html 

10. http://www.cen.eu/cenorm/homepage.htm 

11. http://www.hl7.com/ 

12. http://www.orionhealth.com/ 

13. http://www.hl7.com/interface_engine/ 

73


Comparative Study of BPEL Based Static Composition and 

OWLS - Xplan 2.0 Based Dynamic Composition of Web 

Services 

P. Sandhya # and M. Lakshmi * 

# Department of Information Technology and 

* Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Sathyabama University, Chennai - 600119 

ABSTRACT 

SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) is a collection of services which communicate with each other. A 

service is a function that is well-defined, self-contained and does not depend on the context or state of other 

services. Web services provide a standard means of interoperating between different software applications, 

running on a variety of platforms and frameworks. A web service is a software system designed to support 

interoperable machine to machine interaction over a network. It has an interface in a machine processable format 

(WSDL – Web Service Definition Language). Web services interact with SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) 

messages conveyed using HTTP with XML Serialization. A web service is an abstract notion implemented by a 

concrete agent. UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration) is a platform independent, XML based 

registry for publishing and discovering services. SOA promotes composition of coarse grained web services to 

build composite application. This paradigm supports modularity, reuse, language and platform independence, 

distribution and integration across disparate enterprise verticals. Service composition can be static or dynamic. In 

this paper we have compared the two composition approaches. Static composition was implemented using BPEL 

(Business Process Execution Language) a work flow technique to hard-code the process model. Dynamic 

composition was implemented to generate dynamic plan using HTN (Hierarchical Task Network) planning for 

Composite web service whose problem domain is represented in PDDXML (Problem Domain Description – XML) 

using OWLS – Xplan V2.0. To support dynamic composition semantics of the web services were annotated and 

published in OWL (Ontology Web Language). 

Keywords: SOA, Semantic Web Service, static composition, Dynamic composition, PDDXML, XAMPP 


Web services are the building blocks of Service Oriented Architecture. Web services should 

communicate with each other to create a composite application. Several companies and 

organizations implement their core business and outsource other application services over the 

internet. Applications must be assembled by selecting from a set the appropriate web services. 

Seamless composition of web services presents enormous potential in business to business or 

enterprise application integration. Web service composition can thus be defined as building 

composite service from atomic services that glue with a process model [1]. A business 

process model describes processing of persistent data objects in discrete process steps. XML 

based standards are developed to formalize the specification of web services, their flow 

composition and execution. This approach is syntactical where the web service interactions 

are manually hard-coded. The other is a semantic approach where the preconditions and 

effects of the web services are captured in ontologies to facilitate reasoning [2,3]. Thus 

dynamic composition becomes a goal oriented inferencing from planning. In this paper the 

second section explains a typical compositional scenario. 

The definitions and compositional issues are discussed in the third and fourth section. 

The fifth section is on composition approaches. The BPEL work flow 

approach for static composition was implemented and tested. OWLS-Xlan was used to 

implement dynamic composition which uses HTN planning an AI-planner. In the later the 

74 

1


web services reflect preconditions and effects through OWL ontologies. These comparative 

strategies are discussed in the sixth section. The seventh section concludes with future 

enhancements. 

2. EXAMPLE SCENARIO 

To understand service composition a web service scenario for booking in a travel 

package from a travel agency is considered. We can see that a closed-world travel example 

evolves into a dynamic integrated solution [4]. In a closed-world case the customer talk to the 

travel agent who notes the customer request and generates a trip request document that may 

contain several flight and hotel reservation. When done the agent puts the request in cancelled 

or completed request database. The completed document is sent to the customer as response. 

If cancelled the customer is intimated and the customer re-iterates. In the open-world variant 

let us imagine that the travel agent wants to cooperate with external specialized service 

providers that offer hotel and flight reservations. Upon receiving the customer’s request the 

agent will create a trip request and derive the required hotel and flight reservation. Processes 

can spawn off other processes at run-time. 

3. DEFINITION 

The process of creating composite services by composing web services is called 

service composition. Composition involves invoking several services and combining their 

functionality. The business logic of the client is implemented by composing several services. 

Service composition is performed by composing elementary or composite services. Service 

composition modeling can be done in six different dimensions. A component model is a basic 

assumption. An orchestration model uses process-modeling languages like UML activity 

diagram, Petri-nets, state-charts etc. Data and data access model define how data is specified 

and exchanged between components. The service selection model deals with static and 

dynamic binding. It deals with how a web service is selected as a component. A component 

can be statically selected at design-time or dynamically selected at run-time. Transactions 

model define which transactional semantics can be associated to the composition and how this 

is done. The composite service must work without aborting during execution. The exceptional 

states must be handled with an exceptional handling model. 

4. COMPOSITIONAL ISSUES 

Web service composition in itself poses as a complex and challenging. There are six 

major issues that have a huge impact on service composition. These issues are discussed 

below. 

Coordination – When web services are composed to build composite applications 

coordination of sequences of operations are needed to ensure correctness and consistency. 

Transaction – Over the coordination framework a transaction protocol should be added to 

ensure ACID properties of web service transactions in the long running business activities. 

Context – Context is the information utilized by the web service to adjust execution and 

output to provide the client with customized and personalized behavior. Context contains 

information like customer’s name, address, current location, the type of client device and 

preferences regarding communication. 

75 

2


Conversation Modeling – Developers must be supported in defining service models and richer 

web service abstractions. Completion abstractions contain compensating operations in case a 

forward operation has been cancelled. Activation abstractions describe implicit and explicit 

transitions between states. Conversation model facilitates service discovery, dynamic binding, 

service composition model validation and service composition skeleton generation. 

Execution Monitoring – There is centralized and distributed execution of composite web 

services. Centralized execution is like client-server paradigm. The server is like a central 

scheduler that controls execution of components of a composite web service. A distributed 

paradigm has participating web services share their execution context. To guarantee correct 

order of execution the each of the host running a web service has its own coordinator which 

collaborates with other coordinator. 

Infrastructure – 1.48% of UDDI entries are unusable [5]. They contain broken or inaccurate 

information and missing pointers. Service discovery in UDDI is limited to functional 

requirements. An extended service model adds another entity called ‘QOS certifier’. The 

service provider should provide QOS information apart from functional aspects. The certifier 

must approve the claim of the provider. The service consumer makes a finer search by adding 

QOS requirements. The user can also consider a trade-off by reducing the QOS constraints in 

case no services match the QOS constraints. This extension achieved by adding an element to 

the UDDI DTD called ‘qualityInformation’. The QOS aspects include availability, reliability, 

performance etc. 

5. COMPOSITIONAL APPROACHES 

Web service composition refers to the integration of more than one web service to realize 

business functionality. Compositional approaches are categorized into five categories. Based 

on web service composition time static or dynamic composition can be done. There are other 

compositional strategies like model driven service composition, business rule driven service 

composition, declarative service composition and automated / manual composition [6,7,8]. 

Static / dynamic service composition – The architecture and design of the software system is 

planned at design time. Static composition is done at design time. The components to be used 

are chosen, linked, compiled and deployed. The service selection is done priori and manually. 

When the business partners rarely changes in the composite application static composition 

holds good. There are possibilities when the business partners change or old services must be 

changed by new services. New services become available. Service processes should 

transparently adapt to environment changes or customer requirements. Components should 

automatically adapt to unpredictable changes. Thus dynamic service composition is needed 

for runtime composition of web services. 

Model driven service composition – Process flows are described using business rules. Service 

composition is like workflow. A business function is represented by a series of logically 

related activities performed together to produce a defined set of results. Service composition 

element is based on business process elements activity. Service composition is represented by 

a business function which is the condition. Pre and post conditions constrain the behavior of 

composition which is the event. Service composition is represented by flow. The flow 

describes 

block of activities as messages. The provider provides role as concrete services and abstract 

class. Process is the party participating in service composition. 

76 

3


Business rule driven service composition – This composition architecture contains four 

components. The components are a definer, scheduler, constructor and executor. 

Declarative service composition – An initial situation and desired goal is taken and generic 

plans are generated to reach the goal. The first phase is achieved using Planning Domain 

Definition Language. Then a single generic plan is chosen and appropriate services are 

discovered and a workflow is built from it. 

Automated Vs Manual service composition – BPEL4WS is a manual web service composition 

technique. An automated service composition description can be done with ontologies. To 

induce dynamicity in service composition ontology or artificial intelligence planners are used. 

6. COMPARATIVE STUDY OF STATIC AND DYNAMIC WEB 

SERVICE COMPOSITION IMPLEMENTATIONS 

Web service composition refers to the integration of more than one web service to realize 

business functionality. 

In this paper static composition using BPEL and dynamic composition using OWLS-Xplan is 

implemented and discussed. The motive of the paper is to learn the practices of static and 

dynamic composition to promote development of a dynamic service composition algorithm. 

This is a base study paper. 

Static Composition Approach – In this dissertation static composition is implemented using 

Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). Three web services are created and composed 

statically. The J2EE based web services are AccountManagerWS, StockManagerWS and 

OrderManagerWS 

Fig. 1: AccountManagerWS 

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4


Fig. 2: StockManagerWS 

The three services are created, built, deployed and tested seperately. The functions are 

checkCustomer, checkStock and processOrder provided by AccountManagerWS, 

StockManagerWS and OrderManagerWS respectively. The service invocations of the web 

services are given below. The next step is to build a composite SOA application from these 

services. 

Fig. 3: OrderManagerWS 

Fig. 4: AccountManagerWS – Service Invocation 

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5


Fig. 5: OrderManagerWS – Service Invocation 

The schema to be included in the WSDL is to be specified. 

Fig. 6: XSD designed to be included in WSDL 

The schema for simple and complex types is generated and will be included in the 

Types element of WSDL. The XSD file is given below. The elements processOrder and 

processResult are defined in the schema. Their complex types are defined as 

orderProcessInputType and orderProcessOutputType. 

Fig. 7: XSD file 

The next step is to set the WSDL to describe the services provided. WSDL stands for 

Web service Definition Language. WSDL defines the contact between the client and the 

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6


services. WSDL specifies what services are provided by the web service. It forms the 

description layer of the web service protocol stack. The stack consists of transport, messaging, 

description and discovery layers. 

Fig. 8: Abstract Configuration 

Fig. 9: Concrete Configuration 

The Web Service Description Language defines the interface contains the following 

elements like Types, Messages, PortTypes, Bindings and Services. The WSDL with schema 

specifications is given below. 

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7


Fig. 10: WSDL 

The workflow is designed in the design period for the application. 

Fig. 11: BPEL – Static service Composition 

Fig. 12: Mapping 

Then an InvalidAccountTestcase is created to test the composite application. An 

invalid customerID and stockID is given. The generated SOAPResponse quotes the invalid 

status. 

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Fig. 13: SOAPRequest – Invalid test case 

Fig. 14: SOAPResponse – Invalid test case 

Dynamic Composition Approach – In this dissertation dynamic composition is done with 

OWLS-Xplan where Xplan is the AI-planner. OWLS-Xplan provides fast and flexible 

composition of OWLS services. It converts services into problems and domain description 

that are defined in PDDL. Xplan the AI-planner will generate the service composition plan 

sequence that satisfies a given goal. 

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9


Fig. 15: XAMPP – Starting the web server 

OWLSXplan requires the initial state and goal state of the ontology and list of 

available services as the input. Ontology is an explicit formal specification of a domain. 

Fig. 16: Preparation phase 

By clicking convert and plan OWLS services are converted into PDDXML and then 

the planner is invoked automatically. 

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10


Fig. 17: Conversion to PDDXML 

Then an alert suggests that the plan is generated successfully. 

Fig. 18: Status on successful conversion 

Xplan now automatically generates the plan. The generated composition is displayed 

in the planning panel. 

Fig. 19: Generated plan 

The plan is an XML file saved in the initial ontology directory. 

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Fig. 20: Generated plan – XML file 

Dynamic planning provides possibility to trigger events during the planning process. 

Fig. 21: Replanning after fired event 

Fig. 22: Dynamic planning details 

Xplan is based on Hierarchical Task Planning (HTN) [9]. This is an automated 

planning approach in which the dependency among actions can be given in the form of 

networks. Tasks given can be simple, compound or goal tasks. A primitive task is a task to be 

executed. A complex task is made of a set of sequence of actions. A task satisfying a 

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condition is a goal task. Constraints among tasks are represented as network of tasks. A 

network is used as a precondition for another compound or goal task to be feasible. Xplan is 

the AI-planner developed as a HTN planner for automatic planning to generate a plan for web 

service composition. 

7. CONCLUSION 

Static composition using BPEL and dynamic composition using HTN planner were 

implemented successfully and a pre complete study of service composition issues and 

approaches were done. This is a base study for the approaches of service composition which 

will be taken as a motivation to implement dynamic composition approaches in the future. 

REFERENCES 

[1] http://www.rgoarchitects.com/files/SOADefined.pdf 

[2] http://www.springerlink.com/content/y40588162174172k/ 

[3] http://www.pluralsight.com/community/blogs/tewald/archive/2004/08/18/1933.aspx 

[4] http://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/Publications/CEUR-WS/Vol-1/hustadtlong.pdf 

[5] http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid26_gci916789,00.html 

[6] http://www.ibima.org/pub/journals/CIBIMA/volume2/v2n16.pdf 

[7] http://www.waset.org/journals/waset/v47/v47-57.pdf 

[8] http://sites.computer.org/debull/A08Sept/marconi.pdf 

[9] http://www-ags.dfki.unib.de/~klusch/i2s/owlsxplan-3.pdf 

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13


An Overview of Taxonomy Development in Library 

Information Management 

E. Suthanthira Devi*, E. Kayal Vizhi **and N. Thilagavathy*** 

* Tapes Library, EMMRC, Anna University, Chennai 

** Library, Tagore Arts and Science College, Chromepet, Chennai. 

*** Mother Teresa Women’s University. 

ABSTRACT 

In the information technology world we can observe a tremendous growth in the role and service of 

librarians and information professionals. As librarians and information professionals we have to update and 

upgrade with the latest technology available in this world. Library and information management has changed its 

role and service from traditional library to hybrid library. The needs of the users also have changed according to 

their environment. Information retrieval through internet which is known as folksonomy is commonly used by the 

library users. In order to fulfill the users need and also to render latest services to the users, the library and 

information management has to cope up with the latest technology. This paper mainly focuses on the development of 

the terms that are used technically in library and information management. 

Keywords: 

Library management; Knowledge management; Traditional library; Hybrid library; Taxonomy; Folksonomy. 

INTRODUCTION 

Information technology has changed the modern day libraries as compared to traditional 

libraries. The major reasons for this change are digital information explosion, need for space 

saving & time saving, availability of information in electronic form, cost effectiveness, data 

manipulation, exploitation of computer readable databases. These reasons lead to change in 

designation, change in role of library professionals, change in collections of library, change in 

services of library, change in functions of library, change in skill requirement of library 

professionals. All these changes have brought new terms in daily practice of the library 

functioning. This paper discusses the growth of new terms in library and information 

management. 

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY: 

To express the development of library profession. 

To generate awareness about new term development in profession among the library 

professionals. 

To motivate the library professionals to cope up with the latest technologies. 

To state that five laws of library science is achieved through the taxonomy. 

To express how knowledge management helps the library profession to achieve their 

goal. 

To promote the use of terms by the users and library professionals. 

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NEED FOR THE STUDY 

The primary objective of the library is to fulfill the information need of the users. The challenges 

met by the users, lead them to have a high quality of information. At this juncture library acts as 

a powerful medium which allows the users to find the existing information resources. The 

traditional library has changed either as a digital library / virtual library or a hybrid library. 

Thrust of users to acquire quality information, faster service reflects in library collections, 

functions, services, to be modernized. Nowadays there is a tremendous growth in collection, 

function, preservation, service, role of library professionals due to the information technological 

boom. Hence it is necessary to know about the new terms of use in library management function. 

LIBRARY AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT: 

Library management refers to the issues involved in managing a library. 

Basic tasks and long term issues in LIM is changed due to the development of e-resources. 

Basic tasks in library management such as planning the acquisition of materials; Classification 

of materials; preservation of materials; borrowing materials; developing and administering 

library computer system; classification and cataloguing; labeling ; preparation for circulation; 

jacketing ; final inspection; stacks maintaining. 

Long Term issues are planning of the construction of new libraries; extensions to existing ones; 

building maintenance. 

To perform these functions and also to adopt new technologies, the library management has to 

concentrate on the following: 

LIS Professional Training Initiatives; *Leadership skills in library management; 

Organizational behaviour; 

* Digital Challenges and users expectations; 

Resource sharing; 

* Internet technology.. 

Roland Persson who is a consultant education and development at Skåne County Library express 

his views in Scandinavian public library quarterly volume 36 No.1 2003 as “An analysis of the 

library system needs as its point of departure to fix the library’s present position seen from a 

number of parameters and to ask how this position relates to the tendencies and changes 

advancing on a wide front. It is about new demands of competence within education, trade and 

industry, the public’s demand for new services, new media and information resources, the range 

of possibilities offered by the Internet, digital services etc.” Hence it is essential that library and 

information management has to cope up with the changes in order to achieve its goal. This can 

be achieved through Knowledge management. 

This can be depicted through the following picture. 

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Objective / Goal of Library 

Knowledge Management 

Library Professionals 

Motivation 

Training Programmes 

Career Development 

Information Users 

Orientation Programme 

Invited lectures 

National library Week 

Invited lectures to update latest technology 

In house training programmers 

Promotional policy 

Seminars / Work shops / Training programmes to be 

organized 

Publicity –Brochure / 

exhibitions-booth or stalls 

Interactions and 

collaboration 

with users 

Collaborate with nearby institutions 

Health Awareness programme (Yoga, General Health 

tips) 

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: 

Knowledge management (KM) comprises a range of practices used in an organisation to 

identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such 

insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in 

organisational processes or practice. 

Knowledge management is an integrated systematic approach to identifying, managing and 

sharing all of an enterprise’s information assets, including databases, documents, policies, and 

procedures, as well as previously. Fundamentally it is about making the collective information 

and experience of an enterprise available to individual worker. 

Purpose of Knowledge management: 

Knowledge must be managed effectively to ensure that the basic objectives for existence are 

attained to the greatest extent possible. Knowledge management in organizations must be 

considered from three perspectives with different horizons and purposes: 

1. Business Perspective -- focusing on why, where, and to what extent the organization must 

invest in or exploit knowledge. Strategies, products and services, alliances, acquisitions, or 

divestments should be considered from knowledge-related points of view. 

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2. Management Perspective -- focusing on determining, organizing, directing, facilitating, and 

monitoring knowledge-related practices and activities required to achieve the desired business 

strategies and objectives. 

3. Hands-On Operational Perspective -- focusing on applying the expertise to conduct explicit 

knowledge-related work and tasks. 

TRAINING INITIATIVES FOR LIS PROFESSIONALS: 

Building competency models; career ladders, and career lattices for new and incumbent 

workers; 

Expanding postsecondary training alternatives including apprenticeships and community 

colleges’ workforce development programs; 

Accessing new technology; 

Transitioning workers from lower grade; 

Developing strategies for retaining incumbent workers and updating their skills; and 

Engaging small businesses. 

Increased integration of community and technical college efforts with business and the 

public workforce system activities to meet the skills training needs of high growth libraries. 

Hence the changes of previous have to be observed and the necessary changes have to be applied on 

traditional library to have a digital library or hybrid library. 

TRADITIONAL LIBRARY: 

The term ‘library’ was commonly known as storehouse of knowledge. Knowledge is gained 

through information in the form of print publications like books, journals, reports, etc and newer 

media such as films, filmstrips, video and audio cassettes. 

The traditional library is engaged with the following functions acquisition, classification, 

cataloguing, circulation, periodicals, Stack Maintenance where all the sections work are done 

manually. 

DIGITAL LIBRARY: 

A.Hariharan, CSIR, Chennai says that Digital Library is a collection of digital objects, including 

text, images, video and audio. Digital Library allows cataloguing, organizing, browsing, 

searching and maintaining the collection. 

SALIENT FEATURES OF DIGITAL LIBRARY: 

It is content specific; learner friendly; self evaluation methods and teacher friendly; highly 

descriptive metadata; keywords to describe the collection; produces more useful results; 

minimizes storage space; easy resource distribution; multiple access possibilities; for funding 

preservation activities by charging fees for online access, i.e. for profit organizations; 

Accessible as reference materials to students preparing for comprehensive exams, writing theses, 

or doing independent research; This objects stand as valuable reference materials; Easy access 

from anywhere; Multiple sharing at simultaneous time; Large numbers of users at particular 

time; On demand is possible through search- easy availability; Highly preserved. 

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HYBRID LIBRARY: 

Wikipedia defines “The hybrid library is a term used by librarians to describe libraries 

containing a mix of traditional print library resources and the growing number of electronic 

resources. Hybrid libraries are mixes of traditional print material such as books and magazines, 

as well as electronic based material such as downloadable audio books, electronic journals, e- 

books, etc. Hybrid libraries are the new norm in most public and academic libraries. 

The new terms usage in digital library and in hybrid library is discussed below. 

Definitions of vocabulary on the Web: 

 

 

 

 

a listing of the words used in some enterprise 

a language user's knowledge of words 

Refers to the words we must know to communicate effectively. 

A list of terms relating to a specific subject field, together with equivalents and definitions 

(or explanations) in two or more languages. cf. glossary, language dictionary. 

TAXONOMY: 

Taxonomy is a controlled vocabulary with each term having hierarchical (broader and narrower) 

and equivalent (synonymous) relationships. Because of its hierarchical nature, taxonomy 

imposes a topical structure on information. 

NEW TERMS DEVELOPMENT IN TRADITIONAL LIBRARY WHEN IT 

CHANGES INTO HYBRID LIBRARY: 

J.S. Mackenzie Owen, TICER says in his paper “The future role of libraries in the information 

age” that the dominant factor in the development of libraries is the ongoing move towards digital 

distribution of information through the global network infrastructure. This implies a shift from 

the traditional role of the library as a 'clearing house' and service centre for printed publications, 

towards a role as a supplier of networked services for digital information resources. 

Library 

sections 

/services 

Traditional 

Library 

Hybrid 

Library 

Examples 

Library 

Clearing 

house/ 

house 

store 

Digital library 

Digital knowledge centre; Digital Archives; 

Institutional Repositories; e-content 

Access Physically to 

be present 

inside the 

library 

building. 

Network. 

Web OPAC; website access with user login. 

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Books 

Acquisition 

Register 

Maintenance/ 

database 

Network Online ordering forms. Purchase of e- 

resources. 

Technical 

processing 

Classification 

/ Cataloguing 

Register 

Maintenance 

Meta data 

Online 

classification. 

Online 

catalogue. 

Web OPAC 

on-line catalogue will develop into a 

networked 'resource discovery mechanism' 

which acts as a pre selective reference 

mechanism. 

Example: Individual networked information 

resources (e.g. digital publications), 

networked services (e.g. search engines, 

WWW-sites, FTP-sites, delivery services, 

other libraries, institutions, and individuals 

acting as knowledge resources). 

Implications on the concepts of bibliographic 

data and bibliographic control. 

Online renewal & reference of catalogue. 

Circulation 

Register 

Maintenance 

Integrated 

Softwares. 

Self check-in system through RFID; 

Electronic book drop system for returns. 

Library 

Automation – 

Library 

Softwares 

(Database) 

Journals 

Acquisition 

& Processing 

Register 

Maintenance/ 

database 

Network 

E-journals 

Library 

sections 

/services 

Traditional Library Hybrid Library Examples 

Stacks 

Physically occupied with 

large volumes of same 

copies. 

e-contents. 

Using RFId scanner able to locate 

the book in a fast manner. 

Purchase of single e-content serves 

multiple access to the users. 

Inter library 

loan 

Physically searching. Website links 

through 

consortium. Online 

request for 

particular document 

Through e-mail 

Bindery and 

preservation 

Physically presented. Digital preservation In electronic form. 

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Photocopy In print form. Downloads and 

storage in 

CD/DVD/USB 

CD/DVD/Pen Drive. 

Document 

delivery 

service 

Request by post Website links 

through 

consortium. 

Online request for particular 

document 

Reference 

Encyclopedias; 

Abstracts; Maps, etc 

Electronic form Online encyclopedias; online 

maps, etc. 

User 

feedback 

Paper document Internet Connected through e-mail. 

ROLE OF LIBRARY PROFESSIONALS: 

The changing role of library has impact on the role of library professionals. Dr.Harish Chandra 

said in a seminar entitled “Migration to e-world: challenges and opportunities to library 

professionlas.8 th and 9 th Dec 2005, the role play of library professional. They are as follows. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Multi-Media User- comfortable with a wide range of formats 

Intermediary – with a good knowledge of sources and user requirements. 

Enabler – proactively connecting users with information they require 

Metadata Producer – creating records of information sources in a variety of schemes. 

Communicator – formally and informally connected with users 

Team Player – working with colleagues in library, IT services and academics. 

Trainer/ Educator- taking on a formal role to teach information skills 

Evaluator – for resources on behalf of users 

Negotiator – dealing with publishers and suppliers 

Project manager- leading on development projects to enhance the services 

Innovator- looking at improved ways to deliver the services. 

Fund –Raiser working for greater income for the institution 

Wikipedia says that library professional is a Curator. 

A.Hariharan says in his paper entitled his paper entitled “New Changes, Challenges, Roles and 

opportunities in the Digital Era” published in National Seminar on “Library & Information 

Management in Digital Era” held on 24 th Oct 2009 that role of library professionals are, 

Knowledge resource manager *Information manager 

Resource provider *Intermediary system manager 

Content creator * E-learning specialist 

Media specialist 

USER NEEDS: 

J.S. Mackenzie Owen, TICER says in his paper “The future role of libraries in the information 

age” that one way to approach this development is to re-define the role of the library in terms of 

knowledge mediation. The concept of knowledge mediation implies an intermediary role of 

libraries in matching user needs to available knowledge contained in information resources, 

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irrespective of where and in what form these resources are available. 

The user needs can be served by using web2.O technology. In order to serve the 

customers it is essential that we should have knowledge on those technologies. There is little user 

side development for their information retrieval and for social networking to express his views. 

The information sharing and retrieval is possible through ontology and folksonomy. 

ONTOLOGY: 

In computer science and information science, ontology is a formal representation of a set of 

concepts within a domain and the relationships between those concepts. It is used to reason about 

the properties of that domain, and may be used to define the domain. 

FOLKSONOMY: 

• A folksonomy is an Internet-based information retrieval methodology consisting of 

collaboratively generated, open-ended labels that categorize content such as Web pages, 

online photographs, and Web links. 

• A folksonomy is most notably contrasted from a taxonomy – done by users, not 

professionals, Example sites – Del.icio.us and Flickr (not really – no feedback); It is just 

metadata that users add; Key – social mechanism for seeing other tags. 

WEB1.O 

WEB 1.O concept as very simple; web pages linking to web pages; Web 2.O is a powerful 

movement from web pages to web applications. Web 3.O is something called semantic web, pcs 

and other tech machines that can read www (World wide web) as human do.tim berener lee is the 

person who invented the first www and he is the one who came up with the term web3.O 

WEB 2.O 

The term "Web 2.0" (pronounced "Web two point oh") is commonly associated with web 

applications which facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered 

design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Examples of Web 2.0 include web-based 

communities, hosted services, web applications, social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, 

wikis, blogs, mashups and folksonomies. A Web 2.0 site allows its users to interact with other 

users or to change website content, in contrast to non-interactive websites where users are 

limited to the passive viewing of information that is provided to them. 

LIBRARY 2.O 

Wikipedia defines that Library 2.0 is a loosely defined model for a modernized form of library 

service that reflects a transition within the library world in the way that services are delivered to 

users. The focus is on user-centered change and participation in the creation of content and 

community. The concept of Library 2.0 borrows from that of Business 2.0 and Web 2.0 and 

follows some of the same underlying philosophies. This includes online services like the use of 

OPAC systems and an increased flow of information from the user back to the library. 

With Library 2.0, library services are constantly updated and reevaluated to best serve library 

users. Library 2.0 also attempts to harness the library user in the design and implementation of 

library services by encouraging feedback and participation. Proponents of this concept, 

sometimes referred to as Radical Trust expect that the Library 2.0 model for service will 

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ultimately replace traditional, one-directional service offerings that have characterized libraries 

for centuries. 

APPLICATION OF WEB2.O TOOLS IN LIBRARY 2.O ; TOOLS AND 

SERVICES OF LIB2.O: 

Tools and service 

Areas of applications 

BLOGS 

DIGG 

Flickr 

INSTANT MESSAGING 

JUMPCUT 

LIBRARY THING 

MASHUPS 

an increasingly quick and popular way (weblog) to share thoughts with 

the world 

Interactive news sites where users can submit and decide what stories are 

shown 

A photo sharing service allowing users to upload, share, comment on 

and categorize photographs 

It allows real time text communication between individuals 

It enables users access to free editing tools that allow them to upload, 

edit, remix and publish video footage. 

It allows users to catalogue their books and share lists with each other. 

This application takes data from more than one online source and 

combines it to create new hybrid services 

MYSPACE 

FACEBOOK 

PAPER BACH SWAP 

PODCASTS 

RSS FEEDS 

SECOND LIFE 

AND 

It allows users to set up interactive and personalized web profiles 

detailing personal information 

It operates as a lending library 

It enables to make audio files available online so that users can 

download them to their desktop media player. 

Really simple syndication allows users to receive any new content added 

by a website 

It is a subscription based virtual world where registered users interact 

by building, playing, working, and flying alongside other virtual 

characters 

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING 

Allows users to store their book marks online 

TAGS 

FOLKSONOMIES 

TECHNORATI 

WIKIS 

AND 

Folksonomy is the name given to a collection of tags, effectively a 

“bottom-up” user generated taxonomy as opposed to an authoritative 

A site that provides searching facility and clearinghouse for all things 

blog. 

Allows collaborative creating, editing and storage of contents by a group 

of users. 

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WRITELY.COM 

YOUTUBE 

A free online word processor through which users can create, format, 

spell check, change fonts and also place images in documents 

It allows users to upload, tag, watch, rate, review, view and blog video 

footage and even creates play lists. 

SUGGESTIONS: 

SWOT analysis has to be practiced by every individual. Mr.A Hariharan suggests the following 

in his paper entitled “New Changes, Challenges, Roles and opportunities in the Digital Era” 

published in National Seminar on “Library & Information Management in Digital Era” held on 

24 th Oct 2009 that 

Rate Yourselves .. * Where Do you stand .. 

Find your Weakness and Strength .. * Update your knowledge and skills .. 

Take responsibility .. 

Participate, Cooperate and collaborate and 

Join professional bodies 

Read latest books and journals 

* Willing to work 

* Raise 

* Visit leading libraries 

*Attend Conference/Seminars/Workshops 

CONCLUSION: 

The technological development in library leads the library professionals to acquire new 

technological oriented skills and thereby development of new terms in collection, function, 

service, preservation, designation, role. The management has to arrange necessary training 

programme for their professionals and orientation to the users in order to achieve the goal. 

Knowledge management has to be practiced in effective manner to find out right person to the 

right job. 

References: 

1. A.Hariharan “Building Digital Library collections/ Institutional Repositories locally for the 

internally created Digital Resources”. 

2. J.S. Mackenzie Owen, TICER “The future role of libraries in the information age” 

International Summer School on the Digital Library, 10-22 August 1997, Tilburg University. 

3. Liz Burke “The future role of librarians in the virtual library environment” The Australian 

Library Journal , September 2001. 

4. Karl M. Wiig “On the Management of Knowledge “, February 6, 1996 

5. Paul Miller “Library 2.0 The challenge of disruptive innovation”A Talis white paper 

Technology Evangelist, [Version: 1.0], February 2006. 

6. Ambili K.R, Amrutha T.G, Kumaresan P published in International Conference “Knowledge 

Networking in ICT Era “Web 3.O the next generation of web” pg.731 vol.ii 

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7. A.Hariharan “New Changes, Challenges, Roles and Opportunities in the digital Era” October 

2009, National Seminar on “Library & Information Management in Digital Era”, Kancheepuram. 

8. Mary Whittaker, “Taxonomy Development for Knowledge Management” World Library and 

Information Congress.74 th IFLA General Conference & Council, August 2008. 

9. Tom Reamy “Folksonomies and Tagging: Libraries and the Hive mind” Knowledge 

Architecture Professional Services. 

WEB REFERENCE: 

1. www.google.com 

2. www.wikipedia.org 

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Semantic Search Engines: A brief analysis 

Rekha Rani Verghese 

Dept. of Library and Information Science, Pondicherry University 

E-mail: rekha_tcr@yahoo.com 

ABSTRACT 

The Semantic Search Engine or Third-Generation Search Engine is a search engine in which Semantic 

technologies and / or Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques are applied. The objective of these products is to 

take advantage of the existence of structural data (RDF, micro formats, and OWL) on the Web in order to process the 

information included and offer to the end user an intelligent response. This paper tries to analyze seven search engines, 

which are using semantics or NLP techniques for information retrieval. 

Keywords: semantic search, Natural Language Processing, Search Engines 


Knowledge is power. But too much information can make you feel powerless. We are living in an 

information society. There is so much information available that it is sometimes difficult to decide 

what to do with it. While information and knowledge have always been central to most human 

activity, there is a heightened perception now that information is the key to success in diverse 

spheres, ranging from commerce to science. The information revolution is, of course, powered by 

the advances in computer and communication technologies, most dramatically exemplified by the 

prodigious growth of the Internet. There is, however, a growing problem as the amount of 

information on diverse subjects increases. It is becoming difficult to filter the useful from the 

useless; the accurate from the inaccurate and the reliable from the unreliable. Here comes the 

importance of semantic search engines, based on semantics or NLP techniques for information 

retrieval. 

2. SEMANTIC SEARCH ENGINES 

Semantics is the branch of linguistics that deals with the study of meaning, changes in meaning, and 

the principles that govern the relationship between sentences or words and their meanings or the 

study of the relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent. The Semantic Web is 

an evolving development of the World Wide Web in which the meaning (semantics) of information 

and services on the web is defined, making it possible for the web to understand and satisfy the 

requests of people and machines to use the web content. Semantic search has the power to enhance 

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traditional web search, but it will not replace it. Semantic search is a process used to improve online 

searching by using data from semantic networks to disambiguate queries and web text in order to 

generate more relevant results. 

The Semantic Search Engine or Third-Generation Search Engine is a search engine in which 

Semantic technologies and / or Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques are applied. The 

semantic search engine informs its user using a rich framework for conceptual interpretation married 

with the best of modern indexing and search techniques. Differently from traditional search engines, 

a semantic search engine stores semantic information about Web resources and is able to solve 

complex queries, considering as well the context where the Web resource is targeted. The major 

semantic search engines are the following: 

2.1. HAKIA –WWW.HAKIA.COM 

Hakia is a semantic search engine that brings relevant results based on concept match rather than 

keyword match or popularity ranking. I.e. Hakia is an ontological semantic and natural language 

processing (NLP) based search engine. Hakia was founded by Riza Berkan, a nuclear scientist by 

training with a specialization in artificial intelligence and fuzzy logic, and Pentti Kouri, a New Yorkbased 

economist and venture capitalist. Hakia is a general purpose "semantic" search engine, 

dedicated to quality search experience. Hakia’s quality search results satisfy three criteria 

simultaneously: They (1) come from credible Web sites recommended by librarians, (2) represent 

the most recent information available, and (3) remain absolutely relevant to the query. Hakia 

semantic search is essentially built around three evolving technologies: 

1. OntoSem (sense repository) 

2. QDEX (Query indexing technique) 

3. Semantic Rank algorithm 

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Figure 1 

Hakia Home page 

2.2. SWOOGLE – WWW. SWOOGLE.UMBC.EDU 

Swoogle-the semantic web search engine and metadata service provider, searching over 10,000 

ontologies. Swoogle was developed at and is hosted by the University of Maryland, Baltimore 

County (UMBC) with funding from the US DARPA and National Science Foundation agencies. 

Swoogle employs a system of crawlers to discover RDF (Resource Description Framework) 

documents and HTML documents with embedded RDF content. Swoogle reasons about these 

documents and their constituent parts (e.g., terms and triples) and records and indexes meaningful 

metadata about them in its database. Swoogle provides web scale semantic web data access service, 

which helps human users and software systems to find relevant documents, terms and triples, via its 

search and navigation services. 

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Figure 2 

Swoogle Home page 

2.3. SENSEBOT - HTTP://WWW.SENSEBOT.NET/ 

SenseBot (Beta) is a semantic search engine that generates a text summary of multiple Web pages on 

the topic of search query. It uses text mining and multidocument summarization to extract sense 

from Web pages and present it to the user in a coherent manner. A "Semantic Cloud" of concepts is 

displayed above the summary, allowing to steer the focus of the results. 

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Figure 3 

SenseBot Search Page 

2.4. LEXXE - HTTP://WWW.LEXXE.COM/ 

Lexxe is a third generation Internet search engine featuring Natural Language Processing 

technologies. It is fully automatic without human editing involved. Most of its answers come from 

unstructured texts and web pages on the Internet. Lexxe uses computational linguistics to generate 

more relevant results than those from conventional search engines. Lexxe recognizes when a query 

is actually a question, and then seeks to find the answer from the web, extracting candidate answers 

from web pages as required. And if the query is not a question, then Lexxe will do a keyword search 

- but will also do some extra processing to return results that are more likely to relevant, and will 

also attempt to group results in to semantically-related clusters 

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Figure 4 

Lexxe Home page 

2.5. FACTBITES - HTTP://WWW.FACTBITES.COM/ 

Factbites is a new approach to web searching - the results make sense! Factbites offers users 

meaningful, relevant sentences from every site in the search results. Factbites was created by Rapid 

Intelligence, a content technology company based in Sydney, Australia. Rather than focusing on 

link-based technology like Google, Factbites delves into the tone and subject matter of the given 

topic. The engine "reads" the content of each page and determines how meaningful the text is. It 

seeks out authoritative and informative content, preferring encyclopedia-style fact-based descriptions 

to the chatty, spammy and inconsequential. 

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Figure 5 

Factbites Home page 

2.6. EXALEAD- WWW. EXALEAD.COM/SEARCH 

Exalead provides thumbnail previews of the target pages along with the results, and allows advanced 

refining on the results page (language, geographic location, file type, categories) but also further data 

refinement, such as rich content (audio, video, RSS) and related terms, allowing users to browse the 

web by serendipity. To date, Exalead is the only search engine that has announced plans to adopt the 

Automated Content Access Protocol 

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Figure 6 

Exalead Home page 

2.7. POWERSET - HTTP://WWW.POWERSET.COM 

Powerset's goal is to change the way people interact with technology by enabling computers to 

understand natural language. Powerset is applying its natural language processing to search, aiming 

to improve the way to find information by unlocking the meaning encoded in ordinary human 

language. It works best on smaller, relatively structured corpora. 

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Figure 7 

Powerset Home page 

3. CONCLUSION 

A web search engine is a tool designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The 

Semantic Search Engine or Third-Generation Search Engine is a search engine in which Semantic 

technologies and / or Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques are applied. Basically, the 

objective of these products is to take advantage of the existence of structural data (RDF, micro 

formats, and OWL) on the Web in order to process the information included and offer to the end 

user an intelligent response. Essentially, the Semantic Search Engine can understand the question 

and is able to provide an exact response, rather than just returning thousands of pages where all 

words included into the search field are found. The semantic search engines will help the scientists 

to do more productive searches and it will enhance the research activities in the country. 

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REFERENCE 

1. Semantic web.[Internet] Available from 

[Accessed on 26-10-2009] 

2. Semanti search engine. [Internet] Available from 

 

[Accessed on 26-10-2009] 

3. Hakia.[Internet] Available from [Accessed on 27-10-2009] 

4. Swoogle. [Internet] Available from [Accessed on 

27-10-2009] 

5. Swoogle .[Internet] Available from [Accessed on 27-10-2009] 

6. SenseBot. [Internet] Available from < http://www.sensebot.net/> [Accessed on 27-10-2009] 

7. Lexxe. [Internet] Available from < http://www.lexxe.com/> [Accessed on 27-10-2009] 

8. Exalead. [Internet] Available from [Accessed on 27-10-2009] 

9. Powerset .[Internet] Available from < http://www.powerset.com> [Accessed on 29-10-2009] 

107


ERRAND OF SEARCH ENGINES FOR EXPLORING 

INFORMATION IN DIGITAL EPOCH 

K.Tharani Devi *, Panner Selvam** & Vinitha Prabakaran*** 

* Librarian, St.Mary’s College- Tuticorin 

** Univeristy Librarian, Cresent University- Chennai 

*** Librarian, National Engineering College- Kovilpatti 

ABSTRACT 

The web explorers are developed to scavenge a simulated information system- the Internet for useful 

information. As Library and Information Science professional we ought to be aware of invisible web tools, which 

in turn help to save the time and access to quality of information in short time. Search engine is an information 

retrieval system designed to help find to find information stored on computer system, such as the World Wide 

Web. Search engines use regularly updated indexes to operate quickly and efficiently. The paper articulates on 

leading search engines such as E-books search engines, E-Journals search engines, ETD search engine, RSS 

Search Engines; web blogs search engines and Semantic Web Search engines. 

Keywords: Semantic web search engine, Subject search engine, ETD search engine, Blogs…. 

INTRODUCTION: 

Searching is one of the most used actions on the Internet. Search engines as an 

instrument of searching, are very popular and frequently used sites. This is the reason why 

webmasters and every ordinary user on the Internet, must have good knowledge about search 

engines and searching. Search engines are special tools that anyone can use. They are a 

database of web sites that contain information that is catalogued and indexed for easy 

reference. The secret of effective searching in knowing how to state what you want to search 

for. The latest arrivals of search engines are, E-books search engines, E-Journals search 

engines, ETD search engine, RSS Search Engines, web blogs search engines and Semantic 

Web Search engines. 

WEB DEFINITION OF SEARCH ENGINE: 

Internet search engines (e.g. Google, AltaVista) help users find web pages on a given 

subject. The search engines maintain databases of web sites and use programs (often referred to 

as "spiders" or "robots") to collect information, which is then indexed by the search engine. 

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“Directories,” which maintain ordered lists of websites provide e.g. Yahoo similar services! 

www.liv.ac.uk/webteam/glossary/ 

A tool or program, which allows keyword searching for relevant sites or information on 

the Internet. General and topic-specific search engines are prevalent today, for example, 

Education World, WebCrawler, Info seek, Lycos, and Yahoo are examples of search engines. 

www.education-world.com/help/glossary.shtml 

HOW DOES SEARCH ENGINES WORK? 

Search engine databases are selected and built by computer robot programs called 

spiders. Although it is said they "Crawl" the web in their hunt for pages to include, in truth 

they stay in one place. They find the pages for potential inclusion by following the links in the 

pages they already have in their database (i.e., already "know about"). They cannot think or 

type a URL or use judgment to "decide" to go look something up and see what's on the web 

about it. (Computers are getting more sophisticated all the time, but they are still brainless.) 

After spiders find pages, they pass them on to another computer program for 

"indexing." This program identifies the text, links, and other content in the page and stores it in 

the search engine database's files so that the database can be searched by keyword and 

whatever more advanced approaches are offered, and the page will be found if your search 

matches its content. 

SEMANTIC WEB SEARCH ENGINES: 

Unlike traditional search engines, which crawl the Web gathering Web pages, Semantic 

Web search engines index RDF data stored on the Web and provide an interface to search 

through the crawled data. Below is a list of Semantic Web search engines that are currently 

under development. Semantic Search engines are: 

1. SEMANTIC WEB SEARCH ENGINE (SWSE): is a search engine for the RDF Web 

on the Web, and provides the equivalent services a search engine currently provides for 

the HTML Web. The system explores and indexes the Semantic Web and provides an 

easy-to-use interface through which users can find the information they are looking for. 

Because of the inherent semantics of RDF and other Semantic Web languages, the 

search and information retrieval capabilities of SWSE are potentially much more 

powerful than those of current search engines. 

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2. SINDICE: is a lookup index for Semantic Web documents built on data intensive 

cluster computing techniques. Sindice indexes the Semantic Web and can tell which 

sources mention a resource URI, IFP, or keyword, but it does not answer triple queries. 

Sindice currently indexes over 20 million RDF documents. 

3. WATSON : Allows you to search through ontologies and semantic documents using 

keywords. At the moment, you can enter a set of keywords (e.g. "cat dog old_lady"), 

and obtain a list of URIs of semantic documents in which the keywords appear as 

identifiers or in literals of classes, properties, and individuals. You can also use 

wildcards in the keywords (e.g., "ca? dog*"). Developed by KMi, UK. 

4. YAHOO! MICROSEARCH : Microsearch is Yahoo!'s stab at Semantic Web search 

and provides a richer search experience by combining traditional search results with 

metadata extracted from Web pages. Indexes RDF, RDFa and Microformats crawled 

from the Web. Microsearch will soon be adding support for GRDDL. 

5. FALCONS : Falcons is a keyword-based search engine for the Semantic Web, 

equipped with browsing capability. Falcons provides keyword-based search for URIs 

identifying objects and concepts (classes and properties) on the Semantic Web. Falcons 

also provides a summarization for each entity (object, class, property) for rapid 

understanding. Falcons currently indexes 7 million RDF documents and allows you to 

search through 34,566,728 objects. Developed by IWS China. 

6. SEMANTIC WEB SEARCH : Powered by RDF Gateway, Intellidimension's 

proprietary platform for Semantic Web applications and agents. Developed by 

Intellidimension Inc. 

7. ZITGIST SEARCH : The Zitgist Query Service simplifies the Semantic Data Web 

Query construction process with an end-user friendly interface. The user need not 

conceive of all relevant characteristics - appropriate options are presented based on the 

current shape of the query. Search results are displayed through an interface that 

enables further discovery of additional related data, information, and knowledge. Users 

describe characteristics of their search target, instead of relying entirely on content 

keywords. 

1. SWOOGLE : Searches through over 10,000 ontologies. 2.3 million RDF documents 

indexed, currently including those written in RDF/XML, N-Triples, N3(RDF) and some 

documents that embed RDF/XML fragments. Currently, it allows you to search through 

ontologies, instance data, and terms (i.e., URIs that have been defined as classes and 

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properties). Not only that, it provides metadata for Semantic Web documents and supports 

browsing the Semantic Web. Swoogle also archives different versions of Semantic Web 

documents. Developed by the Ebiquity Group of UMBC. 

http://swoogle.umbc.edu/ 

2. HAKIA: Hakia, which is a "meaning-based" search engine startup getting a bit of buzz. It is 

a venture-backed, multi-national team company headquartered in New York - and curiously 

has former US senator Bill Bradley as a board member. It launched its beta in early November 

this year, but already ranks around 33K on Alexa - which is impressive. 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/hakia_meaning-based_search.php 

RSS SEARCH ENGINES 

RSS takes a look at the specialized search tools that help you locate content in blogs, 

feeds and other sources of information. Many people mistakenly refer to RSS search as "blog 

search." While it's true that many blogs offer RSS feeds (automatic feed creation is a feature of 

most blogging software), not all blogs have feeds. Furthermore, RSS can literally be used with 

just about any kind of web-based content. RSS fundamentally is a relatively simple 

specification that uses XML to organize and format web-based content in a standard way. 

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4


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bloglines: http://www.bloglines.com 

BlogPulse: http://www.blogpulse.com 

Daypop: http://www.daypop.com 

Feedster: http://www.feedster.com 

Findory Blogory: http://findory.com/blogs/ 

Gigablast Blog Search: http://blogs.gigablast.com/ 

IceRocket Blog Search: http://www.icerocket.com/?tab=blog 

PubSub: http://www.pubsub.com 

Technorati: http://www.technorati.com 

BLOGS SEARCH ENGINES 

Blog Search is search technology focused on blogs. It is a strong believer in the selfpublishing 

phenomenon represented by blogging, and we hope Blog Search will help our users 

to explore the blogging universe more effectively, and perhaps inspire many to join the 

revolution themselves. Blog Search enables you to find out what people are saying on any 

subject of your choice. List of blog search engines to help you find blogs. 

 

 

 

 

 

GOOGLE BLOG SEARCH: Search function is an excellent way to find blogs. 

Search using keywords just as would for a standard Google search, and can sort the 

results by date. 

TECHNORATI: Technorati tracks over 100 million blogs and over 250 million pieces 

of tagged social media. That means Technorati provides extremely comprehensive blog 

search results. 

SPHERE: Sphere is a great blog search engine that provides users the opportunity to 

sort results by time and relevance and also provides links to see related content to your 

search. One of the best features is one that allows users to view their search history. 

ICE ROCKET: Ice Rocket offers some very unique and helpful features. First, can 

enter your keywords then search within blogs, the web, My Space, news or images. 

Second, can view the popularity of your keyword search using the Ice Rocket Blog 

Trends Tool. 

BLOGLINES: Bloglines is a blog search engine and a feed reader. It provides features 

that allow users to search and subscribe to news feeds and blogs. Users can search for 

posts, feeds or citations. 

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BLOGPULSE: Blogpulse offers a wide variety of tools to help users find blogs and 

information including Buzz-tracker, trends search, blogger profiles, conversation 

tracker and more. 

BLOGCATALOG: BlogCatalog is a social blog directory where anyone can search 

for information from blogs that have been submitted to the catalog. 

MYBLOGLOG: MyBlogLog is another social blog directory where registered users 

can search for information from blogs that have been submitted to the directory. 

MyBlogLog is owned by Yahoo. 

BLOGHER: BlogHer is an example of a blog directory where users can find a variety 

of blogs on specific topics or with something in common. For BlogHer, all of the blogs 

in the blog directory are written by women. 

E-BOOKS SEARCH ENGINES 

E-books Engines - http://www.ebook-engine.com/ 

EBdb – Search Engine - http://www.ebdb.net/ 

Elibrary - http://e-library.net/ 

PDF e-Book search engine – http://www.pdf-search-engine.com/ 

Ebooksbayt - http://www.ebooksbay.org/ 

Esnips E-books search engine - http://www.esnips.com/web/ebooksearchengine 

Fizziebooks - http://www.fizziebooks.com/ 

1. E-BOOKS ENGINE 

E-book-engine was established to make finding an free e-book on the internet allot 

easier by providing visitors with the best quality free e-book sites and pages on the web in one 

small search engine making finding free e-books allot less stressful and 100% more effective 

for everyone including the websites that provide a great service can get the visitors they 

deserve. There are a couple of big free e-book site's that are full of low quality e-book and are 

still getting all the market on the web which we at e-book-engine think is unfair so the larger 

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sites are being excluded from our search's making easier for the smaller free e-book websites 

more accessible for the general public. 

2. THE PDF SEARCH ENGINE 

It looks in multiple online e-Book collections to find you your PDF options. Some 

PDF are great, while others stink to holy heck. This is useful for people looking for e-Books to 

read on devices, in particular e-Book readers like the Sony e-Book Reader. Reading in PDF is 

a lot better than in straight HTML, which is how many free online e-Books are available 

unfortunately. I've met people who prefer HTML too, though, so who have to say? It is adsupported, 

so watch for those. I had a little trouble today with the page not actually loading the 

search results, but sometimes it did work. Not annoying enough to make me not mention it, 

though. 

E-JOURNALS SEARCH ENGINES 

EEVL E-Journal Search Engine (EESE) 

http://www.intute.ac.uk/sciences/ejournals.html 

Scirus - http://www.scirus.com/ 

OJOSE -http://www.ojose.com/ 

1. EEVL E-JOUNAL SEARCH ENGINE (EESE) 

Search the content of over 350 freely available full-text science, engineering and 

technology ejournals, selected for relevance and quality. Academic journals, trade publications, 

newsletters, and society journals are covered. All sites are also listed in the Intuits: Science, 

Engineering and Technology catalogue of Internet resources. 

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2. SCIRUS E-JOURNALS SEARCH ENGINE 

Scirus is the most comprehensive scientific research tool on the web. With over 450 

million scientific items indexed at last count, it allows researchers to search for not only 

journal content but also scientists' homepages, courseware, pre-print server material, patents 

and institutional repository and website information 

http://www.scirus.com/ 

3. OJOSE 

Online Journal Search Engine is a free powerful scientific search engine enabling you 

to make search-queries in different databases by using only 1 search field. With OJOSE you 

can find, download or buy scientific publications (journals, articles, research reports, books, 

etc.) in up to 60 different databases. 

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http://www.ojose.com/ 

ETD SEARCH ENGINE: 

Elsevier, world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information 

products and services, is proud to announce the winners of the first awards for Electronic 

Theses and Dissertations (ETD) with the NDLTD-ETD Awards Powered by Scirus. Elsevier 

Journals Publishing and Scirus, the most comprehensive science-specific search engine, 

conducted the awards competition in partnership with the NDLTD (Networked Digital Library 

of Theses and Dissertations), the international organization dedicated to promoting the 

dissemination and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations, to sponsor this year's 

first-ever NDLTD-ETD Awards, which seek to recognize outstanding contributions to the 

body of electronically available ETD research. 

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http://www.ndltd.org/serviceproviders/scirus-etd-search 

CONCLUSION: 

Why search engines are so popular? If you are ordinary user and you want to find some 

texts or pictures about certain theme, first thing you will do is to visit search engine to get some 

good URLs about certain theme. This will happen every time you need some information or 

data about any theme. Traditional search engines lack the ability to search through data, which 

is hidden behind web-based forms. Consequently, a large amount of possibly relevant data 

cannot be easily accessed through traditional search engines. What is needed is a method and 

an apparatus that facilitates efficiently searching through information which is hidden behind 

web-based forms. How times have changed. Although other discipline-specific search engines 

exist, particularly in the areas of e-journals, e-books, blogs, semantic web etc., Elsevier has 

placed a Scirus link on its Science Direct system, and it is clear that the strategy is to keep 

science researchers completely within the domain of the Scirus interface, and more often than 

not, tied to Elsevier’s proprietary content. 

The vast amount of information available on the Internet can make searching a long, 

Complicated process. The millennium search engines provide a more productive search by: 

• Focusing only on sites with subject-specific data. 

• Searching the “deep” web. 

• Filtering out irrelevant data. 

Library and Information Science professional should aware of invisible web tools and it 

helps to save the time and access to quality of information in short time. 

REFERENCE: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/raja/is213/topic-4.html 

http://www.ndltd.org/serviceproviders/scirus 


http://www.eevl.ac.uk/index.html 

http://www.semanticfocus.com/blog/entry/title/semantic-web-search-engine-roundup/ 

http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3531191 

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Ranganathan’s Facet Analysis and the Semantic Web in the 

age of e-Science (Extended Abstracts) 

M.Ratnasamy 

Central Library, Indian Institute of Technology 

Kharagpur – 721 302, West Bengal 

WEB AND LIBRARY 

The development of Web and the proliferation of Web resources have taken place largely outside 

the sphere of Library and Information Science profession or practice. There is no comprehensive 

framework which guides the organization of the Web and there is lack of control over the 

creation of Web resources. The problems of indexing the Web resources for the unknown users 

have to make many assumptions as the core of indexing foundations. While Search Engines 

have used automatic word indexing, it may not fit well with the reality of Information Retrieval 

on a widely distributed and disparate information source such as WWW [1] Both Ranganathan 

and Berners-Lee anticipated the tremendous growth and diversification of human knowledge as 

well as the need to link divergent notions together into a semantic whole [2 ] 

SEMANTIC WEB 

Semantic Web has been proposed by T.Berners-Lee, J.Hendler and O.Lassila. They describe the 

Semantic Web as being: “not a separate web, but an extension of the current one, in which 

information is given well-defined meaning better enabling computers and people to work in 

cooperation” [ 3] . For the problem of content heterogeneity, Berners-Lee sees a solution in 

creative use of metadata and ontologies. [ 4] 

FACET ANALYSIS, POSTULATES AND SYNTAX 

Facet Analysis is a procedure for recognizing the Basic Subject and each of the Isolates of a 

subject and analyzing them in a preferred sequence in accordance with prescribed rules. The 

Postulates for Facet Analysis and the Principles of Facet Sequence are of as much help in finding 

out the names of the Specific Subject of a document and in rendering it in the Subject Heading as 

they are in establishing its Class Number. Also, the Postulates of Facet Analysis and the 

principles of Facet Sequence yield one possible syntax – that is, for the arrangement of the words 

in a heading and the meaning depending on such arrangement. [5]. 

Using faceted analysis, it is not necessary to have a completely comprehensive understanding of 

the entities housed in a digital repository or the relationships between the ontological terms used 

to describe the entities [8]. Facet Analysis provides a conceptual framework for effectively 

describing and syndicating digital repository content. Application of Facet Analysis will allow 

libraries to anticipate the development of the Semantic Web and become key players in this 

environment. [2] 

MULTI-WORDED TERM AND MULTIPLE HEADING 

Generally in most of the documents, a subject has to be denoted by a multi-worded term. And 

this multi-worded term becomes a multiple heading. For example let us take the following 

titles published by University Press: 

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i) Perspectives in Materials Characterization (2009) by G.Amarendra, Baldev 

Raj and M.H. Manghnani(Eds); and 

ii) Advances in Materials Characterization (2007). 

Though the two titles are similar approximately, they cover different topics and each one of 

the above two books provide many unique concepts covering the techniques of Materials 

Characterization which need appropriate methods of indexing. [9] 

WEB SEMANTICS 

Semantic Web is more a social rather than a technological problem. We need to help the process 

of adding semantics by: 

i) by extracting appropriate concepts from the web content; 

ii) by extracting relevant terms from the link structure; and 

iii) by identifying relevant and related concepts from the users’ queries [6]. 

WEB INFORMATION INTERACTION 

Current web technology comes up short when it comes to supporting the needs of the 

collaborative and interdisciplinary “e-Science”. The web of links between documents, databases 

and programs, along with definitions for the concepts/terms can provide a new level of 

interaction among scientific communities [7]. Facet analysis, hence, can be used to effectively 

facilitate the information retrieval interaction rather than maximizing the matching process for 

the identification of “relevant” document which cannot work in the WWW environment in the 

same way as it might in the test collection environment. 

REFERENCES 

1. Ellis, D. and Vasconcelos, A. Ranganathan and the Net: using facet analysis to search and 

organize the World Wide Web. Aslib Proceedings, Vol.51, No.1, Jan.1999, pp.3-10. 

2. Fox, R. Cataloging our information architecture. OCLC Systems & Services, Vol.21, No.1, 

2005, pp.23-29. 

3. Berners-Lee, T., Hendler, J. and Lassila, O. The Semantic Web. Scientific American, May 

2001. 

4. Gilchrist, A. Thesauri, taxonomies and ontologies – an etymological note. Journal of 

Documentation, Vol.59, No.1, 2003, pp.7-18. 

5. Ranganathan, S.R. Subject heading and facet analysis. Journal of Documentation, Vol.20, 

No.3, Sep.1964, pp.109-119. 

6. Baeza-Yates, R. From capturing semantics to semantic search: a virtuous cycle. In: 

Bechhofer, S. et.al. (Eds): ESWC 2008, LNCS 5021, pp.1-2, Springer-Verlag, 2008. 

7. Hendler, J. Science and the Semantic Web. Science, Vol.299, 24 Jan.2003, pp.520-521. 

8. Kwasnik,B.H. The role of classification in knowledge representation and discovery. Library 

Trends, Vol.48, No. 1, pp. 40. 

9. Ranjan, R. Book Review for the book “ Perspectives in materials characterization by G. 

Amarendra, Baldev Raj and M.H. Manghnani (Eds), University Press, 2009”. Current 

Science, Vol.97, No.10, 25 Nov.2009, pp.1489-1490. 

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Session-III: 

Open Source Solutions and Federated Search 

42


FEDERATED SEARCH: A SINGLE INTERFACE 

FOR MULTIPLE ACCESS 

N.Ashok Kumar 

Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University 

Chennai – 600 006. E-mail: salaiashok@gmail.com 

ABSTRACT 

In general academic community is searching more number of articles on a research topic of their own in 

the Internet. Due to the Information explosion, identifying and locating a piece of information in the Internet seems 

to be a difficult task. Though search engines are available to retrieve the information from the Internet, its retrieving 

result is not upto the expected level, because, most of the search engines are Boolean operations based. Navigating 

and searching databases, full text articles, and abstract in a single interface is the need of the hour. The Federated 

Searching is a latest technique, which is being promoted by the vendors to have one stop access for databases, 

abstracts and full text articles in a single interface. This paper discuss about the concept of Federated Searching, its 

features, architecture, advantages and disadvantages, organizations developing federated searching engines and its 

future use in academic libraries. 

Key Words: Federated Search, Search Engines, Single-Interface, Search Tools. 

INTRODUCTION: 

In an academic environment quality research output is dependent on the research 

infrastructure provided and the researchers’ talent. As such researchers expect the appropriate 

knowledge source or material and the technical guidance from the institution with which they are 

attached to. Among these infrastructures providing the processed information or knowledge is 

the duty of the academic libraries. Most of the libraries are doing it so, but searching and 

utilizing the concise knowledge to a researcher’s domain topic is found to be difficult. Even 

though the researchers show preference for using the search engines namely Google, Yahoo, 

AltaVista and other search engines to find information. In real practice Google and other search 

engines retrieving results show that they list the contents, which has low impact for the 

researchers. Usually the search engines cannot index content inside databases, which are only 

accessible by filling out search forms on web pages. The large amount of high-quality scientific, 

technical and business information is available in the deep web, which was not accessible 

through the popular search engines. 

In this context for a researcher to expect to search 1,000 databases simultaneously for 

critical information is not unreasonable, while parallel searching is the domain of federated 

search. Thus the new tool emerging to overcome all the difficulties is the one stop interface 

called federated searching, which is the alternate solution. This paper discusses the concept of 

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federated searching, its mechanism, features, advantages and disadvantages, 

vendors/organization promoting the system. 

BACKGROUND: 

Belliston et al. in his study compared searching of articles through federated searching 

and from databases. It’s found that 70% of students were preferred federated searching to the 

alternative. The following factors are compared namely time, preference, results obtained, and 

quality of results. 

Tang et al, performed testing of ExLibrs’ MetaLib federated search tool involving both 

students and librarian user groups. This study found that users viewed federated searching more 

positively than librarians. 

Christopher Cox, in his study pointed that federated search tools will impact library 

instruction strategies and initiatives, purporting that federated searching will alter the structure of 

the typical 50minute instruction session by changing how students discover appropriate 

databases; a shift facilitating increased focus on effective search strategies and evaluation. 

competition have been there to create to 

Verne W Newton summarize that 89% of students were going to a search engine to 

search for information and only 2% were starting that search with the Library’s web site. Ant it is 

found from the research that students and faculties are using Google screens on the Library’s 

public computers. 

Ed Tallent sums the situation that students do not know what resources we have, have 

little interest in learning about alternative titles, do not search resources effectively, feel 

overwhelmed by the amount of information available, lack the time and inclination to learn 

more, and assume we do not have titles and formats that we have collected for years. 

DEFINITION: 

Federated searching is a single interface that has the ability to simultaneously search 

multiple data sources. The data sources may be subscribed e-resources, databases, library 

catalogs, internet resources and user-specific digital storage. Using federated search software is 

an attempt to improve the accuracy and relevance of individual searches while reducing the 

amount of time required to search specific resources one by one. In addition, by being able to 

search many sources simultaneously, more content will become visible to the user quickly. 

Federated Search, also known as distributed information retrieval searches information 

that cannot be accessed by conventional search engines such as Google or AltaVista by linking 

search engines of resources that contain this type of information. Federated search software sits 

between the user and information sources as a discovery tool that allows the user to find 

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information quickly from multiple sources. At its core, federated search is a single interface that 

has the ability to simultaneously search multiple data sources. 

Federated searching, also known as metasearching, broadcast searching, cross searching, 

and a variety of other names, is the ability to search multiple information resources from a single 

interface and return an integrated set of results. Although aspects of this kind of shared searching 

has existed for some time (especially with Z39.50 catalogue searching), the explosion of online 

content and the rise of Google as the dominant web-based search tool has made the development 

of this kind of searching more important than ever. 

FEATURES: 

Federated search posses the following features, 

Ability to search multiple database concurrently 

Search databases in real time 

Unlimited simultaneous users 

Ability to link into interlibrary loan system 

Display databases by categories 

Simple and advance search capabilities 

Faceted, topically clustered search result 

Sorting of records 

Ability to search local and remote collections as well as Internet resources and search 

engines using three modes http; Z39.50 and XML protocol. 

Ability to access electronic contents without further authentication. 

ARCHITECTURE: 

Figure-1 illustrates the execution flow of the federated search. A client enters a query the 

query is submitted to multiple search engines in parallel, the results are aggregated and relevance 

ranked and then finally the results are displayed to the user. Federated search tool utilize custombuild 

pieces of software called “connectors” that know how to interact with the search format of 

deep web databases to submit queries, retrieve results and extract the relevant fields from the 

results (e.g, title, author and abstract). Federated search tool utilizes different databases. 

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Figure-1 

Execution of Federated Search 

The Federated Search tool kit provides step-by-step guidance in: 

• Conducting a needs assessment 

• Understanding staff requirements 

• Identifying appropriate federated search solutions 

• Engaging in research on solutions and completing due diligence 

• Measuring results. 

ADVANTAGES: 

The advantages of Federated search are: 

One-stop shopping – a feature users have proven 

Enhanced information retrieval 

Ability to search multiple repositories without knowing the specific search options of 

each repository. Repositories include library catalogues, full-text databases, abstract and 

index databases, e-books, etc. 

Ability to create one portal for all library content 

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Searching library and non-library content simultaneously 

DISADVANTAGES: 

‣ Federated search does not emulate native search searching a content source through its 

native search function will always offer more sophisticated options. 

‣ It is harder to enter deeper into a collection with a federated search product 

‣ Complete removing of duplicates may be difficult 

‣ Configuring a federated search system for a new or unknown database takes time and 

may require money to compensate the vendor 

‣ Searching for a known item is not what federated search does well. 

‣ Change in a database configuration will render it unsearchable by the federated search 

engine until the “connector” is fixed. 

VENDORS: 

The federated search tool or software is being promoted by both commercial 

organizations and Institutions. Hence federated searching is classified as Commercial and Open 

source, which is listed in the table. 

Sl.No. Organization / Institute City Commercial / 

Open Source 

1 Auto-Graphics, Inc Pomona Commercial 

2 CARE Affiliates, Inc Blacksburg Commercial 

3 Comcepta AG Switzerland Commercial 

4 Deep Web Technologies, Inc Santa Commercial 

5 Ex Libris Illinois Commercial 

6 Groxis, Inc San Francisco Commercial 

7 Index Data, Inc West Martford Commercial 

8 MuseGlobal, Inc San Fransciso Commercial 

9 Serials Solutions Seattle Commercial 

10 TDNet West Chester Commercial 

11 WebFeat Old Brookville Commercial 

12 WebLib Hungary Commercial 

13 DBWiz Simon Frazer 

University 

Open Source 

It is inferred from the Table 1 that, 13 organizations are listed in providing federated 

searching software’s of which 12 organizations are found to be commercial and only one is open 

source. Its interesting to note from this table that developing countries can make use of this open 

source software to search different resources in a single interface. 

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FUTURE USE: 

Scaling the number of sources will require the support of the international science 

community in several ways. The first role the community can play is to assist in the 

identification of sources. No single individual or organization will be able to keep up with the 

introduction of new sources; thus, those who have the most to gain from a comprehensive 

science portal, the researchers, will benefit by identifying new resources for inclusion. A second 

way the science community can support creation of a comprehensive science portal is to assess 

sources already included in the portal as well as candidate sources. In order to facilitate the rating 

of and commenting on sources, a social network framework is being planned. The third value 

that the science community can provide is to create connectors for new sources. 

CONCLUSION: 

It’s said that only Librarians search and other find the information in Internet. Thus even 

to find an article, document in the huge information traffic will help one to locate in a single 

interface. As every librarian knows, the information marketplace is very volatile and dynamic. 

We have witnessed an immediate impact in enhanced library services and increased the use of 

subscribed and open access resources. Federated searching tool will effectively offer the 

researchers to enter into numerous electronic sources in a single interface. 

REFERENCES: 

1. Arant, Wendi and Payne, Leila.(2001). Common user interface in Academic Libraries: 

myth or reality?. Library Hi-Tech, 19(1), 63-76. 

2. Cox, Christopher.(2006). Analysis of the impact of federated search products on library 

instruction using the ACRL standards. Libraries and the Academy, 6(3), 253-267. 

3. Luther, Jude.(2003). Trumping Google: Metasearching’s promise. Library Journal, 

128(16), 36-39. 

4. Tallent, Ed.(2004). Metasearching in Boston college Libraries: A case study of user 

reactions, New Library World, 105(1/2), 69-75. 

5. Wilder, Stanley.(2005). Information literacy makes all the wrong assumptions. Chronicle 

of Higher Education, Jan-7, B15. 

6. Newton, Verne W. Out-googling Google: Federated searching and the single search box. 

http:// www.aip.cz/download/Out_googling_Google.pdf 

Website accessed on 13.11.2009 

7. Lederman, Ade. Science Research: journal to ten thousand sources. 

http://deepwebtech.com/talks/science research-journeytotenthousand%20sources.pdf 


8. Hurst-Wahl, Jill. Introduction to frederated search, October 2008. 

http://web.fumsi.com/go/article/use/3345 


9. Vendors Information http://federatedsearcblog.com/vendor-information/feb. 


10. Next-generation federated search: critical for intellectual property research: A whitepaper 

by Deep web technologies, Inc. 

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http://www.deeowebtech.com. 


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Information Seeking Through Digital Resources 

P.Balasubramanian # and G.Ramasamy * 

# Infant Jesus Engineering College, Keelavallanadu, Tuticorin (Dt) – 628 851 

* Sri Ramanujar Engineering College, Kolappakkam, Vandalur, Chennai-600 048 

Email: bala_phd2000@yahoo.co.in and ramasamylibrary@yahoo.co.in 

ABSTRACT 

Now the information sources are entering in new digital world. All the information source becoming 

in digital format. Now we can access textbooks , reference books in ebook format, the journals can be get as 

ejournal. Audios-videos,and multimedia information also available in digital format. The entire collection of 

all the digitalized information available in world wide web. The digitalized information can be accessed and 

shared easily anywhere in the world. Now, majority of information seekers preferred digitalized information 

sources for getting information than the printed sources. 

Key words: Digital information sources, information sources,electronic information sources. 


Now libraries are undergoing tremendous changes due to the revaluation of digitalized 

information sources. Information seeking styles have changed over the past few years with 

the evaluation of the internet and online resources 

Now all the publications are publishing their information source in the digital format. The 

users also believing that the digital sources are better than any others type of sources in 

other aspects that carrying, can store more, and can be chares easily via internet. 

Basic digital library task such as searching were comparable in ease-of-use with the same 

feature in a web based library. 

The digital information sources can be accessed with the help of the computer which have 

internet facility and it should be networked with the supporting devices. All the types of 

information in the form of texts, pictures, audios, videos are available in digital forms. 

Now all the institutional libraries becoming digitalized and having more resources in digital 

farms. World Wide Web is the main sources for having a lot of digital information. The 

information seekers can get all the type of digitalized information by a single click in the 

computer with help of internet. Selected information can be stored in the storage media like 

compact disc (CD) or Digital Video Disc (DVD). 

Information resources like book, article, theses, manuals, research reports also now being 

made available in digital format in this information era. 

Digital information literacy can be define as the ability to understand and use information 

in multiple formats from a wide variety of networked computer sources and it involves the 

skill of deciphering multimedia images sound and text.(Gilster,1997) 

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2. INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOR 

Human develops the ability to seek and use information from their child hood. It is a 

human process which will help for their personal and social development. Through these 

processes they can develop their interaction skills to retrieve information what they need. 

Wilson (2000), Information seeking is a term describing the ways individuals seek, 

evaluate, select, and use information. In the course of seeking new information, the 

individual may interact with different people, analog tools and computer based information 

system. 

Singh (K P) and Satija(M P), information seeking behavior refers to locate scattered 

knowledge elements. Actively the user undergoes the information seeking process to 

satisfy the information needs. 

Academicians of all institutions use a variety of widely different approaches to fulfill their 

information needs. The information seeking behavior depends on a particular requirement 

of an individual user. information seeking behavior includes the purpose of seeking 

information , using tools , information sources, approaches during the seeking information 

and facilities and services used in various library and information center, 

3. DIGITAL INFORMATION RESOURCES 

E-Book 

Access reliable, authorized, published contents on wide varieties to subject, in the form of 

e-books. Text books and reference books are also available in e-book format. The 

comprehensive collections of ebook are offered by various publications which will be more 

useful to the students, academicians, researchers, scholars and the learned society. 

The term e-book is defined broadly to include electronic reference works, monograph and 

textbooks, which might be delivered via web or storage devices like CD,DVD or pen drive. 

Reference books like Dictionary, articles, encyclopedia, handbooks, reports, manuals, 

tables, and databases are also available in the digital format. The potential advantages of e- 

books have been described in comprehensive: portability, instant access, search-ability, 

annotation, linking, multimedia long-term preservation of the material, reduction of papers 

and physical space. 

E-Journal 

The e-journals are published by various scientific and technical publication represents new 

standard in scholarly publishing, variety of subjects and ease of access. All the publication 

offer in various disciplines that million of article from different industries from globally 

renowned sources. 

E-database 

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The collection of e-database covers theoretical and immediate applicable information in all 

the field or subjects. Immediate access to information is an urgent need for students, 

academician, researchers, and corporate learners. 

E-news paper 

User's favorite news papers also available in digital format in the concern web site of the 

publisher. So, the user can read the news paper on the date of publication. International 

recognized news paper also available in their web site with original layout. 

E-Report 

This is mainly for an academician, research or business practitioner. The collection of 

online analytical reports will enable to compare, contrast, and summarize the view of 

multiple analyst firms on industries, markets, and technology topics. 

4. ADVANTAGES OF CD-ROM 

Basically there are two type of discs; namely Compact disc (CD) and digital video 

disc (DVD) . All the information seekers are using these types of storage media for storing 

data. 

1. The collected data can be stored permanently; can not be erased, scratched or mutilated 

2. Having high density storage capacity, more than 2, 50,000 text Pages can be stored 

3. The CDs are physically portable and it can be mailed to anywhere by post also. 

4. Containing Data can easily be transferred to any others storage devices with the help of a 

computer. 

5. It is cost very low, so number of CD can be used for storing more information. 

5. DIGITAL LIBRARY 

Digital library is a collection of digitalized information sources, the services and 

information objects that are available digitally. The digital age bring changes to 

information retrieval system, users, information, and the environment in which user interact 

with system(Hong(Iris)Xie,2007). The development of the internet allows millions of users 

to access various types and format of digital information regardless of their physical 

location. 

A digital library is a automated or electronic library, where activities like accessing 

,retrieval processing, automatic indexing and textual analysis, are carried with the help of a 

computer(Kesava and Manjunath G Lamani ,2008) 

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The new digital environment not only forces people to apply more than one type of 

information seeking strategy, but also requires people to change from one information 

seeking strategy to another in the information seeking process (Hong(Iris)Xie,2007) 

Goals of a digital library are to improve access for the user. The digital library is the widely 

accepted term describing the use of digital technology to acquire, store, preserve, and 

provide access to information and material originally publish in the digital farm or digitized 

from existing print, audio-visual and others forms. 

While seeking information, user's personal information infra structure are also developed. 

When users got knowledge and skills in order to adapt to different situation and solve 

problems. 

6. FEATURES AND FUNCTION OF DIGITAL LIBRARY 

Digital library not only a place for having digitalized information sources for providing to 

the information seeker also providing services, required hardware and software. Making 

more availability for latest resources to fulfills the information requirements of the users in 

various fields. Information can be found easily and quickly. The user can get a information 

what he needs by a single click on the computer. The search engine will help to search 

particular information from immeasurable collection of information. The index of the 

collection in the digital library will help to get or recognize a particular information source 

immediately. A digital library should be able to access all other digitized book related to 

the same subjects. If, print the image of a book, in front cover of digital source, which can 

be easily identified by the users. If any latest addition added in digital source, which would 

be kept new arrival display rack to become aware of the user. Digital library can be 

networked with any others library for sharing the sources for the benefit of the user. 

7. CONCLUSION 

In the present age of information technology, academic and other libraries have no 

option but to resort to digital resources as most of the scientific, technical and general 

information sources are now switching over to digital forms. All these factors make in 

unavoidable for a present day all institutions libraries and public libraries to obtain digital 

resources. Therefore as per the necessity of the user, every institution and organizations 

should take proposal in this regard otherwise library will have no role in the domain of IT 

and its role will be restricted to a store house of books, journal and others type of printed 

information sources. 

REFERENCE 

1).Alagappa University,Karaikudi, M.Phil. Course material "Emerging thrust areas in 

Library and Information science". Page 63-79. 

2).Gilster.P(1997) Digital literacy ,New Yark,Wiley. 

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3)Hong(Iris)Xie(2007)"Shifts in information seeking strategies in information retrieval in 

the digital age. A planned – situation model, Information research,Vol 12,No.4,2007. 

4).http://www.edutech.com/VI/corporate/digital/digital_information_resources.html 

5).Kesava and Manjunath G Lamani(2008) "collection development and management 

issues in digital libraries. SRM Proceeding of the national conference on changing 

dimension in library resources and service in digital era, Page 59. 

6).Singh(K P) and Satija(M P).,Review of research on information seeking behaviour of 

agricultural scientist:international perspectives., DESIDOC Bullatine of information 

technology,26(2) 2006,pp25-36. 

7).SRM University"Library resources and service in the digital era" 2008. 

8).Wilson.T.D.,Human information behavior, special issue on information science 

research,3(2),2000.,49-55 

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IMPACT OF OPEN SOURCE SOLUTIONS TO LIBRARIES 

M. Natarajan 

NISCAIR,14, Satsang Vihar Marg, New Delhi -110067. 

Email: m_natarajan@hotmail.com 

ABSTRACT 

The changing environment of libraries and the Web due to the information communication 

technologies enhances the service availability and the users interaction towards the services are enhancing 

gradually. This article deals with the open source software and solutions towards library activities. Defining the 

open source and emphasizing the need for open source are discussed in detail. It explains the concept of Library 

2.0 and the open source movement along with Web 2.0 developments in the world. It mainly discusses the open 

source solutions to library activities like library automation, digital library creation, OPAC, content 

management activities. Unesco developed the open source solutions for educational purposes are also discussed 

the major areas of activities like the development tools, provision of open course content and the development of 

standards and licensing tools. As the technology enables new activities, the library professionals are supposed 

to develop professional skills. Concluded with the open source usability problems and professionals are advised 

to take the changing environment and satisfy the user community. 


Libraries are changing. Funding limits and customer demands are transforming 

staffing levels, service models, access to resources, and services to the public. Open source is 

a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and 

transparency of process. The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation formed 

to educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source and to build bridges among 

different constituencies in the open-source community. Traditionally, a program is defined as 

a set of instructions which tells a computer what to do. For most proprietary, or closed 

source, programs (such as Windows, WordPerfect, Oracle, Quicken, etc.), the source code is 

not available for users or programmers to alter. This means that if a user encounters a bug in 

the closed source program, they will not be able to fix it themselves, but must rely on the 

software vendor to fix the error. 

The open source movement has its roots in the 1970s, and is continuing to grow in 

popularity (Raymond, 1999). Closed source programs continue to suffer security and 

performance vulnerabilities and skyrocket in prices. Most open source programs, however, 

can be downloaded and run for free, although many companies, such as Red Hat and SuSE, 

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have developed businesses selling pre-packaged versions of open source software (OSS). 

However, even vendor-supplied OSS tends to be significantly less expensive than most 

proprietary software. In addition, most OSS can be run on relatively old computers, while 

most proprietary software programs require much more modern (and much more expensive) 

hardware to operate effectively. The promise of open source is better quality, higher 

reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in. 

2.0 DEFINITIONS 

Open source software, by contrast, is software for which the source code is freely 

available. For example, the web server Apache, is a program which runs as many as twothirds 

of the web servers on the Internet (Netcraft, 2003) is an open source. The distribution 

terms of open-source software must comply with the following criteria: 

1. Free redistribution - The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away 

the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from 

several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale. 

2. Source Code - The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in 

source code as well as compiled form. It must be the preferred form in which a programmer 

would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate 

forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed. 

3. Derived Works - The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must 

allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software. 

4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code - The license may restrict source-code from 

being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of "patch files" 

with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license 

must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license 

may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original 

software. 

5. No Discrimination against Persons or Groups - The license must not discriminate 

against any person or group of persons. 

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6. No Discrimination against Fields of Endeavor - The license must not restrict anyone 

from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. 

7. Distribution of License - The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom 

the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those 

parties. 

8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product - The rights attached to the program must 

not depend on the program's being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is 

extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program's 

license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those 

that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution. 

9. LICENSE MUST NOT RESTRICT OTHER SOFTWARE - The license must not 

place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. 

10. LICENSE MUST BE TECHNOLOGY-NEUTRAL - No provision of the license may 

be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface. 

WHY OPEN SOURCE? 

One of the Keystone Principles of the U.S. Association of Research Libraries states, 

"Libraries will create interoperability in the systems they develop and create open source 

software for the access, dissemination, and management of information." (Keystone 

Principles, 2003, section 2.4). Many have argued that because of the principles of code 

availability and universal open standards, libraries and library projects are almost ethically 

required to use and develop OSS. Also many libraries, faced with budgetary crunches and the 

resultant lack of technological resources, have opted for open source solutions to some of 

their information technology problems. It is frequently very inexpensive, if not free, and can 

operate perfectly well on older computers -- which libraries often have in abundance. Besides 

cost and flexibility, there are many other compelling reasons for libraries to make the switch 

from closed source to open source software, including software licensing (most open source 

programs are subject to much more lenient licenses than closed source programs, and may 

provide less legal hassles for the library), and open standards, which is an issue that many 

open source advocates and developers also grapple with. 

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Open Source is attractive for many reasons – it results in a wider range of software options 

available to us, it can contribute to the economy in that intellectual property and skills are 

built locally, and in some cases, it is of much better quality. Open source is free; however a 

good deal of programming is required to tailor the software to your environment. The 

application is released under a recognized OSS license; the development processes are public; 

and the system has a track record of adoption in libraries. There are already over 20 open 

source library management systems projects of varying sizes visible through Source Forge 

(http://sourceforge.net) 

Open source means several things: 

‣ Open source software is typically created and maintained by developers crossing 

institutional and national boundaries, collaborating by using internet-based 

communications and development tools; 

‣ Products are typically a certain kind of "free", often through a license that 

specifies that applications and source code (the programming instructions written 

to create the applications) are free to use, modify, and redistribute as long as all 

uses, modifications, and redistributions are similarly licensed; 

‣ Successful applications tend to be developed more quickly and with better 

responsiveness to the needs of users who can readily use and evaluate open source 

applications because they are free; 

‣ Quality, not profit, drives open source developers who take personal pride in 

seeing their working solutions adopted; 

‣ Intellectual property rights to open source software belong to everyone who helps 

build it or simply uses it, not just the vendor or institution that created or sold the 

software. (http://oss4lib.org/readings/oss4lib-getting-started.php) 

LIBRARY 2.0 

The term library 2.0 follows the principles of Web 2.0, in that it promotes the 

evaluation and adoption of software and tools which were originally created outside of the 

library environment. These are over laid on traditional library services, such as the library 

OPAC in order to create a more dynamic, interactive and personalisable user experience. 

Some of the core concepts of library 2.0 are: 

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‣ Make services available at the point of need rather than making the users come to the 

services. Embed library services in a wide variety of services beyond the library. Such 

as portal, virtual learning environments and e-commerce systems. 

‣ Allow date to be exposed, discovered and manipulated in a variety of ways distinct 

from perhaps the original reason the data were created or the application that 

originally created or accessed it. 

‣ Build applications that be drawn from a number of different sources, build 

applications that can be deployed and are lightweight, flexible, intelligent and 

responsive to user needs. 

‣ Facilitate communication, community and user participation. Focus on the user and 

user’s needs. 

‣ Enrich data and expose hidden collection. 

The "open source" movement emerged as a systematic method of distributing 

software in full source code in a manner that ensured its ongoing availability in open source. 

The success of this movement has hinged on the ease of collaborative programming in an 

Internet environment, and service-based and reputation-based business models for software 

development. The first comprehensive suite of software released in open source for libraries 

was the Koha Library Management system. It has an active developer community 

internationally and has been translated for a variety of languages. The first experiments in 

open source library management systems have also helped evolve the sophisticated database 

schemas supporting current open source library management systems such as Greenstone, 

Evergreen and Koha. 

Michael Casey defines in his blog, “Born in the Biblioblogspere (Casey, 2006): 

“Library 2.0 is a service philosophy – a theory, if you will – that attempts to guide libraries in 

their effort to win new users while, at the same time, acknowledging that our current service 

offerings are insufficient and inflexible.” Library 2.0 means to provide library services in a 

more user-driven, interactive and collaborative way. It is a model for library services that 

invites user participation, attempts to reach new users while trying to better serve current 

ones, and to deliver library services to users where they are. The heart of Library 2.0 is usercentered 

change. It is a model for library service that encourages constant and purposeful 

change, inviting user participation in the creation of both the physical and the virtual services 

they want, supported by consistently evaluating services. It also attempts to reach new users 

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and better serve current ones through improved customer-driven offerings. Each component 

by itself is a step toward better serving our users; however, it is through the combined 

implementation of all of these that we can reach Library 2.0. Technology can help libraries 

create a customer-driven, 2.0 environment. 

Web 2.0 technologies have played a significant role in our ability to keep up with the 

changing needs of library users. Technological advances in the past several years have 

enabled libraries to create new services that before were not possible, such as virtual 

reference, personalized OPAC interfaces, or downloadable media that library customers can 

use in the comfort of their own homes. This increase in available technologies gives libraries 

the ability to offer improved, customer-driven service opportunities (12). 

OPEN SOURCE SOLUTIONS TO LIBRARIES 

Open Source library management systems have been available for nearly a decade 

now. Reviews of open source systems have moved from cautious to optimistic. During this 

time they have gradually evolved in both functionality and stability to the point where they 

are credible alternatives to commercial systems and in some cases provide a framework for 

earlier adoption of Web 2.0 features than might be otherwise available through commercial 

products (Breeding, 2008). The evolution of open source Library Management has been 

energized by the Library 2.0 era. Other software that facilitates communication between 

librarians and their clients has emerged with the second generation of internet software - the 

Web 2.0 and Library 2.0. Web 2.0 capitalises on the internet framework to provide means for 

online collaboration, networking and communication. This communication is facilitated by 

the availability of tools which make sharing and distribution of content and information 

easier, including community and tagging systems, and mashups using web services. 

Being the oldest multi-branch open source LMS, the latest version of Koha (version 

3) has a rich set of features the architecture, based on PERL, MYSQL and Apache is stable in 

a Linux environment, and the recent release of Koha3 brings a more stable framework for 

Windows also. The opening of the catalogue to library client participation is a phenomenon 

of Web 2.0 more specific to the library environment. The ability for end users to create 

"virtual shelves" in Koha, and the extension to enable features such as tagging and to create 

user-generated RSS feeds based on library catalogue data is part of a general trend to "open 

up" the catalogue to end user participation. 

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OPEN SOURCE SOLUTIONS 

Library 2.0 is an umbrella term for innovations in library the library interface with 

library clients through the new Web 2.0 mediums of social networking, social media and 

mash-ups. Where large library institutions face considerable inertia in implementing such 

innovations in the context of their existing proprietary systems, OSS developers can move 

quickly to integrate such innovations in their own systems. There are many open source 

digital library softwares, which are now becoming user interactive. 

OPEN SOURCE DIGITAL LIBRARY SOFTWARES 

DSpace – Dspace is a tool designed to allow institutions, such a libraries to collect, archive, 

index and disseminate the scholarly and intellectual efforts of a community. Written by MIT, 

it is primarily used to capture bibliographic information describing articles, papers, theses, 

and dissertations. DSpace indexed the content and provide a way to link to the originals. It 

plays well with open standards such as XML and OAI-PMH. (ww.dpace.org) 

GREENSTONE – Greenstone is a tool for creating and managing digital library collections. 

It provides the means to easily create searchable and browsable interfaces to digital library 

(DL) collections via the Web. It enables implementers to save their collection in CDs. Thus 

the DL collections are distributed to people with poor internet access. Greenstone creates 

collections from “standard” file formats such as HTML files, email messages, PDF 

documents, JPED and GIF images, Word documents as well as plain text files. 

(www.greenstone.org) 

EPRINTS ARCHIVE SOFTWARE (EAS) – Eprints is generic archive software under 

development by the University of Southampton. It is intended to create a highly configurable 

web-based archive. EPrints primary goal is to be set up an open archive for research papers, 

but is could be easily used for other things such as images, research data and audio archives – 

anything that can be stored digitally by making changes in configuration. 

MARC:RECORD – The Perl module is the tool to use when reading and writing MARC 

records. It is very well supported on the Perl4Lib mailing list and a testament to the module’s 

abilities is its incorporation into things like Koha and Net:Z39.50. 

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MYLIBRARY – MyLibrary is a user-driven, customizable interface to sets of library 

resources. Technically, MyLibrary is a database-driven website application written in Perl. It 

requires a relational database application as a foundation and it currently supports MySQL 

and PostgreSQL. MyLibrary takes three essential components of librarianship (resources, 

users and librarians) and tries to create relationships between them through the use of 

common controlled vocabularies. It provides the means to create collections of resources and 

classify them. Unlike a library catalog, the system also allows librarians as well as patrons to 

be classified in the same manner, by sharing a common set of controlled vocabulary terms 

relationships between resources, patrons and librarians. 

(http://dewey.library.nd.edu/mylibrary/) 

OPEN SOURCE CONTENT MANAGEMENT SERVERS 

A further enabling technology now available to libraries is open source content 

management systems. Some of these, such as Joomla (http://www.joomla.org/), come with a 

variety of example modules that make implementation of a library "framework" relatively 

easy. Joomla exemplifies the new generation of content management systems that allow 

relatively easy "plug-in" of additional modules for specific functions, some of which may be 

open source, some shareware and some licensed (but in all cases with source code provided). 

Canberra hospital has implemented Joomla to achieve a range of goals in providing access to 

library services, open up discussion groups, tagging and other social networking functions 

(http://tchdev.anu.edu.au/). Special Libraries have in the past been captive to wider 

Information Technology department control of web-based resources. The availability of open 

source content management systems provides a framework for libraries to extend their 

capabilities without being entirely reliant of an Information Technology section for their 

service delivery. 

OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES 

Higher education institutions worldwide face significant challenges related to 

providing increased access, while containing or reducing costs. Meeting increasing and 

increasingly varied demand for quality higher education is an important consideration in the 

policy debate and institutional development in many countries. New developments in higher 

education – from virtual universities and e-learning to open source initiatives – speak to the 

efforts on the part of the traditional higher education community, as well as new providers, to 

address this increasing demand. The open source movement can be seen as reflecting the 

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philosophy of academe, which is based upon a collegial sharing of information and new 

discoveries through the peer-reviewed academic publication process to share knowledge. 

“Perhaps the cultural disposition for open review and exchange among peers might support 

the current open-source courseware and knowledgeware movement in higher education and 

might encourage a greater volume of work in an open-source environment…” (Moore, 2002). 

Open initiatives in higher education have crystallized around three major areas of activity: 

1. the creation of open source software and development tools; 

2. the creation and provision of open course content; and 

3. the development of standards and licensing tools. 

The outputs of all three may be grouped together under the term Open Educational 

Resources (OER). This term has been adopted by UNESCO to refer to the open provision of 

educational resources, enabled by information and communication technologies, for 

consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes. The 

OER movement is breaking down barriers that have blocked access to academic content. 

Until recently, most electronic course content was locked up behind passwords within 

proprietary systems, noted the forum’s initial moderator, Sally Johnstone. OER represents a 

major step toward sharing teaching materials, methods and tools, just as academics have 

shared their work in scholarly papers for a long time. 

The result is to augment teaching resources while expanding knowledge opportunities 

for learners and faculty members. 

Participants stressed the importance of providing open, accessible and superior higher 

education content for a global community of teachers and scholars, students and lifelong 

learners. Whether OERs are categorized as ‘open access’ or ‘free content’, they collectively 

promote autonomy and self-reliance within the learning community. Without the constraints 

of time or geography, the power of education is released to combat economic, social and 

cultural obstacles. Through independent, self-determined learning and open academic 

content, the individual is able to grow intellectually beyond previous personal, institutional or 

local boundaries. Other benefits range from developing valuable work skills to engaging in 

life-enriching, lifelong learning (13). 

LIBRARY 2.0 AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

9 

141


The internet phenomenon has changed many jobs. The role of librarians as 

information brokers in the organisation presents a professional development challenge to the 

library profession as a whole. Libraries face impatience from their organisations for transition 

to new and open methods for information service delivery, while facing the need to meet the 

challenge of professional development of library staff to familiarise with these new 

technologies. In rural areas, the information technology infrastructure and expertise of 

computer support staff to implement new technology is often inadequate to keep up with the 

pace of new developments. Professional development for library staff is necessary to 

implement change, although meetings are often difficult to arrange for logistical reasons. 

Teleconferencing and videoconferencing are used to enhance professional development. 

Nevertheless, change can be successfully achieved through the networking of resources and a 

willingness to confront the challenges of serving clients spread over a vast area. 

OPEN SOURCE USABILITY PROBLEMS 

Open source software has gained a reputation for reliability, efficiency, functionality 

that has surprised many people in the software engineering world. The Internet has facilitated 

the coordination of volunteer developers around the world to produce open source solutions 

that are market leaders in their sector (e.g. the Apache webserver). Usability is typically 

described in terms of five characteristics: ease of learning, efficiency of use, memorability, 

error frequency and severity, and subjective satisfaction (Nielsen, 1993). Improvements in the 

usability of OSS do not necessarily mean that such software will displace proprietary 

software from the desktop; there are many other factors involved, e.g. inertia, support, 

legislation, legacy systems etc. However improved usability is a necessary condition for such 

a spread. 

142 

10


CONCLUSION 

Web 2.0 and open source systems are providing the opportunity for the libraries to 

transform the ways in which it reaches a diverse and geographically spread client base. The 

Koha installation has enabled the library service to provide a greatly enhanced library service, 

especially to the many staff in isolated locations that are rarely in a situation to visit the 

library personally. The functionality of the system is comparable to many of the better-known 

commercial systems, while the system’s flexibility allows much greater local adaptability of 

the various modules. As a cost-effective method of enabling small libraries to establish a web 

presence it is a system with enormous potential. Web 2.0 technologies are very essential for 

libraries. These technologies change the library environment. Libraries can apply Web 2.0 

tactics to provide better services and relevant information as visible and accessible providers 

of valuable content and context. 

REFERENCES 

1. Balnaves E. and Keast, Don. Open source systems bring Web 2.0 to special libraries. 

Accessed on 16 Nov 2009 from espace.library.uq.edu.au 

2. Breeding, M (2008). Open Source Library Automation: Overview and Perspective. 

Library Technology Reports. 44(8):5-10. 

3. Casey, M. (2006a). Born in the biblioblogosphere. LibraryCrunch, January 3, 2006. 

Accessed on 10 Nov 2009 from http://www.librarycrunch.com/2006/01/post_1.html 

4. Nielsen, Jacob (1993). Usability Engineering. Boston, MA: Academic Press. 

5. The Keystone Principles. Accessed on Nov 13, 2009, from 

http://www.arl.org/training/keystone.html. 

6. Koha - Open Source Library System. Accessed from http://www.koha.org. 

7. Moore, Anne (2002). Lens of the future: Open-source learning. Educause Review, 

Sep/Oct 2002. 

8. Netcraft: November 2003 Web Server Survey. Accessed on Nov 1, 2009 from 

http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2003/11/03/november_2003_web_server_survey.html 

9. Raymond, E. S. (1999). The Cathedral & The Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open 

Source by an Accidental Revolutionary. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 

10. http://sourceforge.net 

11. http://www.joomla.org 

12. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6365200.html 

13. http://www.unesco.org/iiep/virtualuniversity/forumsfiche.php?queryforumspages_id=23#chap 

ter3 

143 

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Session-IV: 

Knowledge Management Practices in 

Library & Information Centers 

144

Knowledge Management Knowledge Sharing and 

Co-operation - A Case Study 

K.K.Kuriakose, R. Malathi, V.Parameswaran, S.A.V.Satya Murty and P.Swaminathan 

Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, 603102 

Email: kuriakose@igcar.gov.in 

ABSTRACT 

Knowledge Management is the process of capturing and preserving, individual and collective 

knowledge and making it available wherever and whenever it finds utility. The source of knowledge could 

be paper, computers or minds of people. The boundary of Knowledge Management can be family, group, 

department , organization, nation or the whole world. However the origin of Knowledge Management 

practices can be traced to early civilizations, though the term “Knowledge Management” was not in 

existence at that time. Currently the term is used mostly in the context of organizations, to represent formal, 

systematic and deliberate activities to manage and exploit organizational knowledge. 

Knowledge Management in the context of Organizations can be traced to various concepts and 

practices in pursuit of productivity improvement and organizational effectiveness, efficiency and 

excellence. These concepts can be traced to F.W.Taylor’s Scientific Management Principles , and the 

resultant ‘time and motion study’ and other industrial engineering practices. Later the concept of ‘human 

relations’ emerged out of the famous Hawthrone Experiments of George Elton Mayo. Other concepts like 

‘total quality management’, ‘systems thinking’, ‘balanced score card ’, ‘business process re-engineering’, 

‘management information system’ and ‘knowledge management’ were marketed as ‘magic’ solutions to 

productivity improvement and other organizational problems. 

The question asked in the first generation Knowledge Management was “How do we 

make people share?”; the question in the second generation Knowledge Management was “How do we 

better share learn and work together”; the question in the third generation Knowledge Management is 

“How do we more intelligently share, learn, work together and improve our productivity” . The concept of 

Knowledge Management can be extended beyond organizational boundaries to ‘Organizational Clusters’ 

to Nations and further to the Global Scenario, with exponentially increasing complexity and benefits. 

The paper reviews the progress of Knowledge Management from ‘People Centric’ to ‘Information 

Technology Centric’ and again to ‘People Centric’ and further to Intelligent Technology Centric’ 

approaches. The paper concludes that the practices of knowledge management was in existence since time 

immemorial and will continue for ever. With new advancements in technology and better understanding of 

human behavior, knowledge management will progress to hitherto unexplored and uncharted territories of 

collective intelligence, collaboration, team work, excellence, harmony and happiness. 

Keywords: Knowledge Management, Productivity, Information Technology 


Knowledge is classified into two types. They are explicit knowledge and tacit 

knowledge. According to Nonaka “explicit knowledge is the knowledge that is easily 

expressed, captured stored and reused. In contrast, tacit knowledge is highly personal. It 

is hard to formalize and therefore difficult to communicate to others.” (Nonaka, 1991). 

For Nonaka tacit and explicit knowledge are not separate but mutually complimentary 

entities. They interact with each other in the creative activities of human beings. Explicit 

knowledge is the articulated form of knowledge, knowledge expressed in words, 

drawings, paintings, audio, video etc. According to Polanyi(1966), tacit knowledge is 

that component of knowledge which resides in living beings, which is implicit, 

unconscious, personal, subjective, unstructured and inexpressible, but it can be acted

upon by indwelling and is the basis for the formation of explicit knowledge. It is 

connected to values, perceptions and beliefs. The statement “We can know more than we 

can tell” of Polanyi underscores the inexpressible nature of tacit knowledge. However 

we use the term ‘explicit knowledge’ where the knowledge is already available explicitly 

in the form of documents , audio/ video recordings etc in electronic or non-electronic 

form and the term ‘tacit knowledge’ where the knowledge still resides in the minds of 

people in the form of experience, feelings, opinions, intuition etc. We feel that certain 

percentage of the tacit knowledge can be converted into explicit by suitable knowledge 

elicitation methods. Some authors use the term ‘implicit knowledge’ to refer to this 

component of tacit knowledge which can be converted into explicit form. From the 

context of organization, knowledge can also be classified into core, advanced and 

innovative(Zack,1999). According to Zack, core knowledge is that minimum scope and 

level of knowledge required just to “play the game”. Advanced knowledge enables an 

organization to be competitively viable. Innovative knowledge enables an organization to 

lead its industry and competitors and to significantly differentiate itself from its 

competitors. 

One of the definitions of Knowledge Management(KM) is that “Knowledge 

Management is the process of capturing a Company’s collective expertise, wherever, it 

resides, in databases, in paper or in people’s heads and distributing it wherever it can 

produce maximum pay off” (Hibbard,1997). Here expertise is used as synonym for 

knowledge. Also the definition considers explicit knowledge which is available in paper 

or in computers and tacit knowledge which resides in the minds of the people. The main 

concept is to make available the collective or individual expert’s knowledge wherever it 

improves the performance. In this definition the context of KM is the organization. 

However the essence of the definition is ‘make available the collective knowledge to 

improve performance’. Collective knowledge can be created by combining knowledge 

from various sources, for which different sources of knowledge should be made 

available. It essentially means individual knowledge needs to be shared. In order to make 

the collective knowledge, individual knowledge needs to be shared. The purpose of 

making collective knowledge available is to improve performance. Hence the ultimate 

goal is to improve performance, leveraging on the collective knowledge. The two 

important concepts which can be distilled from the above discussions are “knowledge 

sharing” and “performance improvement”. Knowlege is possessed by people, and hence 

it is one of the important sub-systems of KM. Similarly certain processes are required to 

implement the concepts of KM. Also Technology enables the implementation. And 

finally it is the ‘knowledge’ that is shared and enables the performance improvement. 

Hence we can identify ‘People’, ‘Process’, ‘Technology’ and ‘Knowledge’ as the 

important sub-systems of KM. Tracing the practice of the concepts of KM, since the 

early civilization we can identify four different era in the history of KM. The first era can 

be called as KM0.0, which is characterized by informal and unsystematic practices of 

KM, though the term KM was not in existence at that time. The second era called KM1.0 

is characterized by formal, disciplined and systematic practices of KM, after the 

introduction of the term KM. The third era called KM2.0 is characterized by agile 

practices and ‘wisdom of the crowd’. The fourth era called KM3.0 is characterized by 

adoption of Knowledge Engineering practices with higher thrust on Return On

Investment(ROI), which is the future KM. The remaining parts of this paper analyses the 

characteristics of this journey of KM. 

2. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 0.0 

Knowledge Management practices in this era is not much dealt in the literature of 

Knowledge Management, since the term was not in existence. However some authors do 

mention about it as implicit KM. For example Wiig mention that knowledge has been 

implicitly managed as long as people seriously thought about their work and gives 

examples of early hunters transferring their expertise to their team mates and succession 

planning of wise men (Wiig, 1997). It can be observed from history that codification of 

knowledge and sharing of the codified knowledge was practiced when the technology for 

writing and documenting was available. Also, sharing of knowledge in face-to-face 

communications, discussions and demonstrations were practiced since early civilizations 

and the knowledge was transferred from generations to generations. Even today there are 

secretly held knowledge that is shared only among close family members and transferred 

to successive generations of the same family. In the context of organizations also, the 

knowledge used to be shared among like minded people informally and among formal 

groups and teams through formal training and discussions. However the reach of 

knowledge was limited and consequently the benefits also. The KM0.0 activities can be 

portrayed through the following sub-systems: 

o People: People acquire the knowledge through experience and share 

among the peers. Peer to peer knowledge transfer was more common, 

though informal communities do exist. Both the source and recipient of 

knowledge see the value and benefit in the knowledge sharing. 

o Process: The process is informal and semi formal. For example a hunter 

may transfer the basic knowledge of hunting to his son in a semi formal 

way. But the same hunter may share his unique experience on a particular 

occasion to his fellow hunters in an informal way. In the organizational 

context the employees will share the knowledge with their trustworthy 

friends informally. Formal sharing takes place through official discussions 

and formal training. 

o Technology: Initially the simple technology for writing only was used to 

preserve and transfer the knowledge, in addition to face-to-face 

communication. With the availability of Information and Communication 

Technology, knowledge preservation, knowledge access, knowledge 

sharing and knowledge transfer have become much easy, though 

unsystematic. 

o Knowledge: Both explicit and tacit knowledge used to be shared. However 

the knowledge pertained to only the core activities. 


There are different opinions on how the term “Knowledge Management” has 

originated. Some feel that consultants have developed it to increase their revenue. Others 

feel that, it is just renaming of earlier data and information management. Prusak argues 

that “ knowledge management like any system of thought, that has value, is both old and

new, and its combination of new ideas with ideas that every one has known all along, 

should reassure practitioners rather than unnerve them(Prusak,2001). We have already 

seen that the ideas and practices of knowledge management are as old as human 

civilization. 

Individuals, groups and organizations were always in search of ways and means 

to improve the productivity. Data, Information and Knowledge Management in the 

context of organizations can be traced to various concepts and practices in pursuit of 

productivity improvement and organizational effectiveness, efficiency and excellence. 

These concepts can be traced to F.W.Taylor’s Scientific Management Principles, and the 

resultant ‘time and motion study’ and other industrial engineering practices 

The introduction of data and information management systems in the 

organizations was another attempt to improve the productivity. Some of the concepts of 

KM, which we have discussed earlier like ‘collective’, ‘sharing’, ‘preservation’, ‘make 

available’, ‘ improve performance’ etc are equally applicable to data and information 

management. The only difference is that in the context KM we talked about ‘knowledge’ 

and in the context of data and information management, we talk about ‘Data’ and 

‘Information’. 

According to Ackoff (1989), data is raw. It simply exists and has no significance 

beyond its existence. It can exist in any form, usable or not. It does not have meaning by 

itself. Information is data that has been given meaning by way of relational connection. In 

other words information is processed data. This "meaning" that information gives may or 

may not be useful. Knowledge is the appropriate collection of information, such that it's 

intent is to be useful. According to this, data is a pre-requisite for information and 

information is a pre-requisite for knowledge. Hence information includes data. Also 

knowledge includes information and data. In other words, data and information are 

subsets of knowledge. According to Davenport and Prusak (1998), when experience and 

insight are added to information, it becomes knowledge. Knowledge is broader, deeper 

and richer than data or information. Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, 

values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for 

evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. Knowledge originates 

and is applied in the minds of people. It is embedded in people, tasks, routines and 

networks. 

We can see that data and information are relatively easier to manage, because they 

are structured. Managing knowledge is more complex because it is highly unstructured 

and mostly exists in tacit form. 

The term “Knowledge Management” was first introduced in 1986 by Wiig in a 

keynote address “Management of Knowledge :Perspectives of a new opportunity” at 

European Management Conference; “ KM is to understand , focus on and manage 

systematic, explicit, and deliberate knowledge building, renewal, and application- that is 

manage effective knowledge processes(EKP)”, (Wiig,1997). The key concepts that 

differentiate the KM as visualized by Wiig from that of earlier times are ‘systematic, 

explicit, and deliberate’. Also the technology, particularly Information and 

Communication Technology(ICT) and Knowledge Engineering(KE) that is used to 

achieve the effectiveness in KM, is and it will continue to be an important differentiator 

with respect to time. The KM1.0 activities can be portrayed through the following subsystems:

o People: All people(employees) are expected to participate in organization 

wide KM practices. Formal KM roles and responsibilities are expected. 

o Process: Formal process for knowledge creation, approval, sharing and 

utilization is expected. Formal process for assessment of the benefits of 

knowledge management practices is expected. Formal process for reward 

and recognition scheme for participation in knowledge management 

activities is expected. 

o Technology: Information and Communication Technology plays a very 

vital role. Integrated information system and knowledge portal with 

collaboration technologies, and basic knowledge discovery process, with 

necessary security features inbuilt and centralized control is expected to be 

in operation. The system is accessible from anywhere including mobile 

devices, with necessary security features inbuilt. 

o Knowledge: Both explicit and tacit knowledge are shared. However more 

concentration on explicit knowledge. The knowledge mainly pertained to 

the core activities, though some amount of advanced knowledge required 

for future activities is also created and shared. 


Web2.0 tools and approaches, also known as social computing, which is 

dominated by social tools like blogs, wikis etc. is converting the web from a publishing 

medium to a collaboration medium- a medium for communication, collaboration and 

knowledge sharing by every one for every one- a true democratic and participatory web 

dictated by the ‘wisdom of the crowd’! Social computing has the potential to make 

organizations more agile and efficient by enhancing communications and improving the 

way knowledge is shared. Application of web2.0 technologies as tool for knowledge 

management results in KM2.0. Application of KM2.0 within and between organizations, 

their customers and partners results in Enterprise2.0. While Enterprise1.0 is a traditional 

hierarchical organization, built around top down command and control, with traditional 

centralized IT solutions, Enterprise2.0 is a flatter networked organization centered on 

participatory approach with social tools. As Gurteen (2007) puts “if the central question 

asked by managers in the KM1.0 was ‘How do we make people share?’ the question of 

KM2.0 era is ‘How do we better share, learn and work together?’ and is asked by 

everyone!” The KM2.0 activities can be portrayed through the following sub-systems: 

o People: All people(employees) are voluntarily participating in 

organization wide KM practices. Formal KM roles and responsibilities are 

vanishing. 

o Process: Formal processes for knowledge creation, approval, sharing and 

utilization are getting replaced by informal collaboration processes. 

Formal processes for reward and recognition scheme and assessment of 

the benefits of knowledge management are slowly disappearing. 

o Technology: The technology platform utilizes the emergent social 

software tools represented by Web 2.0 technologies, such as blog, wiki, 

folksonomy, collaborative filtering etc. as a knowledge management tool.

o Knowledge: Both explicit and tacit knowledge are shared, with more 

concentration tacit knowledge. Both core and advanced knowledge are 

created and shared. 


Extending the definition of KM2.0, we can define KM3.0 as the application of 

web3.0 technologies as a tool for knowledge management. Different concepts of web3.0 

are ‘Semantic Web’, ‘Data Web’, ‘Intelligent Web’ and ‘3D Web’. Hence we can expect 

that KM3.0 will be much more user friendly, where the users can communicate in natural 

language; much more intelligent, where the users can get the knowledge required as 

though, it comes directly from a human expert, in a real-time environment. The KM3.0 

activities can be portrayed through the following sub-systems: 

o People: All people(employees) are voluntarily participating in 

organization wide KM practices. Formal KM roles and responsibilities 

have vanished. 

o Process: Formal processes for knowledge creation, approval, sharing and 

utilization are coexisting seamlessly with informal collaboration 

processes. Formal processes for reward and recognition scheme and 

assessment of the benefits of knowledge management have merged with 

organizational performance measurements. 

o Technology: The technology platform utilizes the emergent web 3.0 tools 

like Semantic Web, Data Web, Intelligent Web and 3D Web etc. as a 

knowledge management tool. 

o Knowledge: Both explicit and tacit knowledge are shared, with more 

concentration tacit knowledge. Both core, advanced and innovative 

knowledge are created and shared. 

6. CONCLUSION 

The value of knowledge and the necessity & benefits of knowledge management 

were recognized since early human civilization and the concepts were practiced from 

time immemorial. With advancement in time, more and more formal practices started 

evolving. From the organizational context, it is another practice to improve the 

productivity. Information Technology enabled knowledge management is a natural 

extension of early Electronic Data Processing Systems and subsequent Information 

Management Systems, with exponentially increasing complexity and benefits. According 

to Prusak, globalization, ubiquitous computing and knowledge centric view of the firm 

are the major factors which have brought knowledge management to the central stage in 

many organizations (Prusak, 2001). The thinking among people during KM0.0 was “I 

share knowledge with whom so ever I feel it is required”; during KM1.0 is “sharing 

knowledge has organizational benefits, but it is an extra work for me”; during KM2.0 is 

“sharing knowledge is my responsibility an it is a part of my work”; during KM3.0 will 

be “ I enjoy sharing knowledge and it is helping me to do my work and that of others”. It 

is clear that any progressive and proactive organization keen to survive and succeed in 

the globalized economy need to have organization-wide systematic, explicit and formal,

data, information and knowledge management system in place and must transform itself 

into an organization of the future, one that continually learns and innovates. The future of 

KM is bright and it will continue for ever. With new advancement in technology and 

better understanding of human behavior, knowledge management will progress to 

hitherto unexplored and uncharted territories of collective intelligence, collaboration, 

team work, excellence, harmony and happiness 

REFERENCES 

1. Ackoff, R. L.(1989), "From Data to Wisdom", Journal of Applied Systems 

Analysis, Vol. 16, pp. 3-9. 

2. Davenport,T. and Prusak.L. (1998), Working Knowledge – How 

Organizations manage what they know, Harvard Business School Press, 

Boston, MA. 

3. Gurteen,D.,(2007), “Social KM- A brief history of KM” Gurteen 

Knowledge 

4. Hibbard, J.(1997), “Knowing what one know” Information week, Vol.653, 

pp.46-64. 

5. Nonaka, I. (1991), “The knowledge creating company” Harward Business 

Review.November-December. pp. 96-104 

6. Polanyi, M.(1966), The Tacit Dimension, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 

London 

7. Prusak,L (2001), “Where did Knowledge Management come from?” IBM 

Systems journal, Vol. 40 No.4, pp.1002-1007 

8. Wiig,K.M.,(1997), “Knowledge Management : An Introduction and 

perspective” The Journal of Knowledge Management Vol. 1 No.1 pp. 6-14 

9. Zack, M.H.(1999), “Developing a Knowledge Strategy” California 

Management Review. Vol.41.No.3. pp. 125-145

Knowledge Management Practices in Library & 

Information Centres in Digital Era 

Dhanalakshmi.K 

Dravidian University 

ABSTRACT 

Libraries are undergoing the new technologies of ICT in digital era, which provides quality and timely 

information to its knowledge community. In this tremendous increasing competitive world of today, knowledge 

of Institutions is also participating in competitive advance. So, Knowledge is the key driven force of current 

world digital era. To adopt knowledge sharing among LIS professionals it is must to have the informations in 

their figure tips. Knowledge portals are implemented for adapting this fast track of dissemination of 

informations. Library services extents till e-learning with IR initiatives. To increase this capacity, knowledge 

management, contribution of ICT enables the initiatives with the aim of achieving the competitive advantages 

for research community. The knowledge based paradigm results in effective application of ICT to its users & 

resources. This paper explores concept knowledge management, issues, development, ICT applications, and 

future scope in portals along with a case study on rural community. 

Library 

Keywords: Knowledge Management & Sharing, KM EDU, Knowledge Portal, Case Study, Virtual 


To understand the value of knowledge in broader term, Knowledge Management has 

been implemented for library & information services. Knowledge Management helps in 

deriving new business rules & business models. The professional value of connecting with 

regional Internet communities has never been greater. Knowledge Management services are 

always recognized by the skills of LIS professionals & Business management professionals in 

managing their library resources & business products in terms of development of networks. 

Knowledge Management stands with codified & documented knowledge concepts such as 

Databases, manuals, whitepapers, patents etc which constitutes Knowledge Management in 

the broadest context. Knowledge Management describes the way in which the universities or 

education institutions are attempting to enhance necessary knowledge informations. 

Individual’s ideas are framing in the form of knowledge. This knowledge is converted into 

information then observed as communicable & recordable knowledgeable informations. 

Knowledge management is the process through which an organization or Educational 

institution generates the value from their intellectual knowledge based assets. In General 

Knowledge Management has structural basis of the information management. The experience 

of the experts explores the experiences of super capabilities, superior performance and 

information assets of the organization. The information dissemination has boundaries with 

Knowledge Management and integrates the service network. For the effective result of 

research among research community of the organization & development of knowledge the 

library & information centers has to focus their attention towards knowledge management. 

The term itself sounds the concepts of intellectual acquaintance, fact or condition or a kind of 

expressions of current trend in digital era. Commonly, depends on the ICT & technology 

developments. This paper explains knowledge management concepts in connection with ICT 

developments.

2. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT & SHARING 

Knowledge management involves with range of practices used in an educational 

institutions to identify, distribute, and represent the informations. Knowledge sharing 

requires a different kind of opportunities like different global professional views exchange, 

unique combination of human & information system, different kind of environment, different 

mind set with uniqueness tec., In General “Thinking” is basic tool to develop knowledge & 

Sharing is up above , dynamic communities shares in many ways. Knowledge management 

holds the informations either from individual or institutional practices. The purpose of the 

knowledge management is to gain relevant informations from large quantity of data and 

producing the output with collection of new ideas. The effective utilization of knowledge is 

carried out by exchanging of knowledge between library professionals, library staffs, global 

users etc., The output of Knowledge management contents may include, Mutual trust, open 

exchange, studying sharing, updated research activities, mechanisms of knowledge operations 

etc., The entire developments may stands in all sides of improvement of library operations. 

The knowledge management database can be access in the process of input data, indexing 

data, searching data and retrieving the data. The delivery of the information is the output to 

the end user with data correction. 

2.1 Characteristics of Knowledge Management 

Awad and Bhaziri outline the following characteristics of Knowledge Management. 

Knowledge management deals with knowledge from external as well as 

internal source including documents & databases. 

Knowledge management system embeds and stores knowledge in business 

process, products and services. 

Knowledge management systems’ objective is to promote growth, transfer and 

share of knowledge within the organization. 

Knowledge management systems aim to assess on a regular basis the 

knowledge assets of the organization and its impact 

The key elements of knowledge management may be defined in the broad terms of 

people management, information management & business process management. To manage 

these knowledge information resources, the following is required for knowledge management 

implementation. 

Human resources of organization 

Understanding the subordinates 

Effective work flow process 

Commitment to explore information 

2.2 Need of the Knowledge Management 

For the following reasons knowledge management need increases. 

1. Competitive pressure in working atmosphere holds valuable business knowledge 

2. Sharing views among department staffs 

3. The amount of time required to experience and acquire knowledge 

4. Best practices of effective research 

5. Increasing mobility of the work force. 

6. Increasing complexity of the organization from sourcing operations 

7. Associated developments between ICT & technology 

8. Rate of innovations in market places.

To these paraphrases of Macintosh’s observations we would add: 

Most of our work is information based. 

Organizations compete on the basis of knowledge. 

Products and services are increasingly complex, endowing them with a 

significant information component. 

The need for life-long learning is an inescapable reality. 

2.3 Knowledge Management Initiatives in India 

Depends on Indian Economy & different sectors, Knowledge management Initiatives 

may be divided as follows:- 

(i) Knowledge Management Initiatives for Research & development for research 

community 

(ii) Knowledge Management Initiatives for Corporate level 

(iii) Knowledge Management Initiatives for Educational Institutions & universities 

(iv) Knowledge Management Initiatives for NGO level. 

(v) Knowledge Management Initiatives for Financial & Management Business 

consultants. 

2.4 Developments with ICT –Technology in digital era 

To co-ordinate with global exchange of knowledge, to provide collaboration tools 

building e-mail id, planning work flows, access of internet & intranet helps the research 

community to share their documents. It helps to store the research informations to protect for 

future generations. Knowledge Centre is the place where research community can get helps 

from knowledge managers for searching, storing, and queries. Knowledge Managers are 

subject experts, cybrarians, system librarians to help Facilities, Scientists, Research scholars 

which have useful informations for their research. 

2.5 Types of Knowledge Management initiatives 

For the global exchange of knowledge, the organizations support & values are major 

assets. There are three types of Knowledge Management initiatives such as 

(i) 

(ii) 

(iii) 

External Structure Initiatives 

Internal Structure Initiatives 

Competence Initiatives 

3. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN EDUCATION 

To enhance and develop quality of education curriculum the best approachable 

practices is knowledge management in education industry. To enhance faculty development 

effort, to improve the speed of curriculum & syllabus framing, to have effective 

administrative services, to incorporated experiences of senior colleagues, proper student 

evaluations and for other corporate input activities KM involvement in education industry is 

very helpful. Knowledge Management application benefits students, Faculties & research 

communities in the following ways:- 

(i) To design effective curriculum to enhance quality of the subject 

(ii) Effective content management for the best practices of lesions 

(iii) Quality measures of informative teaching 

(iv) High tech portal information in learning & teaching process

(v) Best tracing facility for overview of the process 

(vi) Effective applicable research tasks 

(vii) Institute repository connections for immediate references 

(viii) Proper assessment techniques 

(ix) Implementing new effective teaching styles 

(x) Monitoring & supervising Ph.D students 

(xi) Relationship with guest speakers, VIP’s, advisory boards etc., 

(xii) Protecting online resources such as Thesis, Case studies & Research materials. 

4. KNOWLEDGE PORTAL 

Knowledge portals are collection of relevant information by page by page. 

Knowledge portal aims the entry point to the World Wide Web offering links to different 

knowledge pages to connect to the relevant news and services. Some knowledge portals 

provide complete business views into IT with a unified reporting platform. These portals are 

designed by knowledge experts for extracting relevant informations in need like customizable 

reports, views and distribution. Even the portals are logged in with secure and granular access 

with associated data that have been assigned to access rights. These types of portals are 

enhanced with web based applications to generate corresponding report management, which 

has relevant data, configure data sources and for searching informations. Knowledge portals 

of customized to the role of the use of who connects the portal. For example, a student can be 

prevented to work in faculties work space; similarly faculties are prevented to work in 

Director’s work space. This shows the ability to change the page or to create the personal 

profile for current awareness services. The knowledge portals are very useful in sharing 

knowledge, chatting with global professionals, sharing the experiences through forums, any 

time any where shopping, instant calendar and schedules. The companies sharing the 

knowledge through business process by having bulk orders and bundled services through 

knowledge portals. It is one stop destination for advertisers, marketers, business people and 

it has lot of variety of choices. Especially, knowledge portals are able to attract the large 

audiences in the field of sensex. The major general portals include Yahoo, Lycos, and 

Netscape & Microsoft Network. Some of the examples of Knowledge Portals are listed 

below:- 

1. www. unesco.org – a unesco apublic domain portal 

2. www.portal.unesco.org/ci/forum - a unesco portal discussion forum 

3. http://portal.unesco.org/webworld/portalarchives - a unesco archives portal 

4.1 Knowledge Portal Navigation 

Web page has link from one page to another, so that pulling informations from one 

place to another is quite easy. The Portal page has collection of relevant informations. Users 

can navigate from one place to another. Personalized portals are better and safer. Setting 

alerts & information messages gives instant access to portal users globally. Knowledge 

Portals are integrated with different kinds of modules such as Administrator module, control 

module, knowledge module etc., The major features available in knowledge portals are listed 

below:- 

4.1.1 Expert Database 

Facilitates the identification of experts in the particular organization for exchange of 

knowledge. 

(i) To avoid unknown developments 

(ii) To reduce communication gap

(iii) 

Healthy interactions among professionals & experts 

4.1.2 Knowledge Base 

It is very essential to know the documents about the people, websites, FAQ, rules & 

regulations, procedures, glossary to generate in the portal. Both users & administrators can 

upload relevant useful knowledge informations. It is advisable to set up news updates & 

notifications, for the best practices. Ratings, common articles, conference alerts, tutorials for 

the subjects are the various resources that can be associated with Knowledge portals. 

4.1.3 Search Engine 

To access various kinds of databases & platforms it is must to maintain a portal. The 

relevant search can be carried out through web based search engine to extract corresponding 

informations. 

4.1.4 E-Mail 

In maintaining E-Mail, there should be a option for sending and receiving mails 

between users and administrators thro’ knowledge portals. 

4.1.5 Discussion Groups 

Discussion groups are invited to exchange their views, encouraging professional 

interactions, developing online communities, discussion about useful topics etc., 

4.1.6 Official links 

There should be one more option for dealing official things such as permissions, 

approvals etc., 

4.1.7 Opinion Polls 

Users & views should have the freedom to express their opinions on knowledge 

portals. 

5. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE 

Maintaining knowledge management software’s is highly appreciable. There are 

several software are available in the market for knowledge management . Among them 

Demino discussion databases, Lotus notes, Domino team rooms, Total KM , Ferret software 

suite are easily available . Knowledge experts are also framing own database software’s for 

knowledge exchanges & for the virtual needs. 

6. CASE ANALYSIS ON EXCHANGE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 

PRACTICES AMONG RURAL SECTORS OF KRISHNAGIRI DISTRICT 

Knowledge Management practices in rural areas of Krishnagiri district serves as a 

venue of careful presentation in exchange of knowledge among rural community. The basic 

knowledge reality of the development are explored through tremendous growth in the city 

and increment of development of knowledge power among rural community. The knowledge 

hub is a bridge platform available for the fundamental requirements of the rural community. 

To focus on the Socio-Techno Economic problems of the rural area and to explores the 

knowledge exchange to improve their quality of reading habit. 

The methodology may empower the knowledge exchange between the rural 

community without barrier of cost and gender. It may focus knowledge development and

skill for youth in different trades. The methodology focuses the developing rural community 

based structures for the empowerment of women, children and rural youth. Already there are 

some research projects adopted in state level like Periyar PURA, POWER, Rural Business 

Hub. These projects implemented for the knowledge exchange as a gateway agency to 

implement rural business hub in Krishnagiri. The workshops on rural business hub were 

periodically conducted in district level for the development of rural women knowledge 

exchange. In the area of horticulture the practical demo sessions were carried out in 

feasibility of cultivation of Cutflowers in Thally Block of Krishnagiri for growing various 

cutflowers like Bud Rose, Gerbera and Mary Gold Flowers cultivated in Poly houses / Green 

houses at Poonapalli and Saragapalli villages. Lot of women are engaged in cultivation of 

cutflowers in Polyhouses / Green houses. These knowledge addresses of basic knowledge 

needs of rural community leads to group discussions approach, selection of enterprise, 

technology development and adoption, capacity of building knowledge for the success of 

their programmes produces developing nations across the globe leads to rural community to 

virtual community. 

7. VIRTUAL LIBRARY 

The purpose of virtual library is to support educational services for students, faculties 

and scientists to access online informations for research and learning. The objectives of 

Virtual Library are to cater the needs of a particular group of people to explore their 

knowledge boundaries. To develop & deliver this knowledge through internet the 

customized informations are collected and disseminated to the different parts of the world to 

develop the particular group of peoples’ culture. For example, Tamil Virtual Library was 

established in 2001 which has a large collection of culture, art, language, values, treasures 

and ancient traditions. The service extends world wide in each & every corner globally. The 

purpose of virtual library is, 

1. To maintain research materials within the various departments of the university 

2. Ease in budget reporting 

3. Service to faculties for managing their personal resources. 

4. Automating research materials in digital form. 

5. Reduce the workload of non-academic staffs 

6. Eliminates duplication of the work 

To meet virtual community needs, central library IIT Bombay organized first 

consortium meeting at 1998. Similarly, IIT Delhi organized a seminar on “Knowledge 

networking in Engineering & Technology education & research” under MHRD. Based on 

these results, the MHRD set up a “Consortia based subscription to E-Resources for Technical 

Education system in India”, which is named as INDEST consortium (Indian National Digital 

Library in Science & Technology) 

8. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ROLES 

Library & Information professionals role’s responsibility is converted into very hightech, 

cross-functional, coordinated with organizational developments, knowledge exchange, 

knowledge creation & sharing, responsible for knowledge centers, have to act as subject 

experts, knowledge experts, championing KM in educational institutions & universities, 

Knowledge mapping, integrating technological resources through ICT, Based on this vast 

responsibilities librarians role is also converted into knowledge managers, to manage this 

powerful tool.

9. CONCLUSION 

Knowledge management deals with multidisciplinary approach to the management, 

it’s a group activity. It is an evolution of proper management by the process of understanding 

concepts Knowledge management is organizing the dimensions knowledge process through 

internet and circulating the informations between global professionals through online. The 

activity is not like traditional method of managing books and journals. It enhances through 

sound practices of ICT development with knowledge portals. Knowledge management is the 

combination of information management, communication management and knowledge 

resources and very helpful source for rural community. The emerging knowledge 

phenomenon has multiple perspectives for the creation of the knowledge innovation system 

of a country. Also, KM is a powerful tool to access the knowledge society in rural 

community. Such powerful tool is in the hands of Librarians, Information Professionals & 

Knowledge managers, in delivering value to the users through knowledge repositories. So, 

Librarians role are converted into knowledge managers to give effective service to their 

readers or users or customers. 

REFERENCES 

1. http://www.iaea.org 

2. http://www.isoc.org 

3. http://www.brint.com 

4. http://www.libsuite.com 

5. Binwal, J.C – Knowledge Management –IASLIC Bulletin 46 (2), 2001

Knowledge Management and Ontology Representation 

For Fast Breeder Test Reactor 

N.Madurai Meenachi , M.Sai Baba, B.Babu, B.Anandapadmanaban and V.Ramanathan 

Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, FBTR, Kalpakkam 

meenachi@igcar.gov.in,msb@igcar.gov.in 

ABSTRACT 

The Knowledge Management (KM) technology is required to be developed to optimize the 

everchanging environment. KM comprises a range of practices used in an organisation to identify, create, 

represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise 

knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organisational processes or practice. It employs the 

suitable mechanism for obtaining and integrating the collective wisdom from all members in an organization 

leading to enhance the ability of adaptation and innovation. It facilitates in preserving both tacit and explicit 

knowledge. It is all about converting the available raw data into a reusable repository for any future service 

being offered which needs similar experiences. The Fast Breeder reactor is characterized by information that is 

available on a need-to-know basis, with a mix of security structures and protocols to determine who can see 

what. Trust in management increases knowledge sharing through reducing fear of losing one's unique value and 

improving willingness to document knowledge. These results have important implications at both a managerial 

and theoretical level. In this paper the knowledge management system and ontology representation using 

Protégé in fast breeder test reactor are discussed. Ontologies are at the heart of semantic web. They define 

concepts and relationship that make global interoperability. CDPS (central Data processing system) is taken as 

case study and discussed about the representation of knowledge ontology using Protégé 4.0.1. 


Knowledge Management involves knowledge base to store knowledge inventories 

and values among the accessible knowledge items. Knowledge base is the absolute collection 

of all expertise, experience and knowledge available within an organization [1]. Knowledge 

base development starts with the knowledge acquisition stage, in which knowledge engineers 

have to acquire the data and information from domain experts and other sources. Knowledge 

is not same as information. Knowledge is dynamic. It can be owned, processed and used can 

used only by people. However, Information is static which can also exists without application 

and exchange by people. 

Knowledge Management is classified as Explicit and Implicit knowledge. Explicit 

knowledge includes reports, which can be easily described and codified for storage and 

dissemination. Whereas tacit knowledge is highly personal, context specific, and can only be 

manifested through its application and practice. This cannot be easily codified. This is vital 

knowledge for any organizational growth because it will save time and efforts in solving the 

various types of issues and problems. Leonard-Barton and Sensiper [2] state that tacit 

knowledge is mainly developed through a process of trial and error encounter in practice. 

Tacit and Explicit knowledge interact and interchange with each other in the creative 

activities of human beings. Knowledge is created through social interaction of the two types 

of knowledge. 

A knowledge management activity consists of knowledge creation, acquisition, 

representation, disposal, application, estimate and update. Proper utilization of knowledge 

asset is the foremost goal of any organization. In any organization, knowledge will be 

continually generated and used. KM is not to manage all knowledge, but to manage the 

knowledge that is most important to the organization. It involves getting the right information 

to the right people at the right time, and helping people create and share knowledge and act in 

way that will measurably improve individual and organizational performance [3].

Ontologies define a common vocabulary for researchers who need to share 

information in a domain. It includes machine interpretable definition of basic concepts in the 

domain and relationship among them. The CDPS in Fast breeder Test Reactor consists of two 

embedded system namely SS-I (sub system – I) & SS-II (sub system –II) connected in fault 

tolerant configuration. Protégé 4.0.1 is an open source development environment for 

ontologies and knowledge based system [4]. 

This paper also deals with various aspects of ontology as follows: we discuss why ontology 

(Section II), the role of ontology in multi agent (Section III), An example of semantic concept 

representation in the World Wide Web domain (Section IV), Ontology Environment in an 

organization (Section V). Ontology Development (Section VI) , Knowledge Management 

Architecture for Fast Breeder Reactor (Section VII), a view of related work is in Central Data 

Processing System (CDPS) as Case Study (Section VIII), finally conclusion and future work 

are presented (Section IX ). 

2. WHY ONTOLOGY? 

Managing knowledge on the web is an important issue for the given the large 

volume of information available through internet at all times. Being internet is dynamic 

nature; it is a tough assignment to handle the knowledge. As the volume of information on 

the web grows, the time required to locate and digest information also increases squarely. 

Sharing common understanding of the structure of information among people or software 

agents is more common goals in developing ontologies. Knowledge contained in ontology is 

relatively easier to extract by analyzing the schema files in the structure of web document. In 

the scope of semantic web, ontologies are represented using family of description logics 

based languages which includes the language RDF (Resource Description Framework), 

DAML (DARPA Modeling language) and more recently W3C (World Wide Web 

Consortium) recommendation ontology web language. 

Ontologies facilitate the interoperability between heterogeneous systems involved in 

commonly interested domain application by providing a shared understanding of domain 

problem and a formalization that makes ontologies machine processable. The ultimate vision 

for a semantic web is to create an internet, which can be understood by the computers for 

proper navigation [5]. 

3. ONTOLOGY IN MULTI AGENT SYSTEM 

Ontology should be machine readable. In a Multi agent system where more than one 

agent is present and where the agents can interact and communicate using ontology and a 

content language. Knowledge acquisition is very important part in the ontology process and it 

applies different operations like knowledge creation, knowledge translation and knowledge 

retrieval. 

It is easier for agents to communicate and share knowledge applying a common 

ontology. In the real world this does not always happen, people and agents may use different 

words that have the same meaning or refer to the same concrete or abstract object or they 

may use the same word to refer to different meaning [6]. An Agents’ ontology consists of the 

specifications of a conceptualization which includes the terms used to name objects, 

functions and relation in the agent’s world [7]. An object is anything that we can describe 

something. An object can be concrete or abstract, primitive or composite, fictional or nonfictional. 

A set object can be grouped to form an abstract object called a class. Figure-1 

shows the relationship between world, agent, conceptualization and ontology.

World 

Abstract Objects 

Concrete Objects 

Conceptualization 

I Ai 

Ontology 

Interpretation 

Function 

Agent 

Figure -2 

Figure -1 

An example of semantic concept representation in the World Wide Web domain 

In the World Wide Web domain, web pages contain semantic content related to 

variety of subjects. The web page contains text formatted using hyper Text Markup Language 

(HTML). The HTML may also be used to place images and sound recordings in the web 

page. A web page is located using a web browser by a unique Internet address specified by its 

Universal Resource Locator (URL). For this example, a web page may be thought as a 

semantic object, which can be grouped with similar web pages to fit under a generalized class 

category or semantic concept. For example igcims web page, http:// www.igcims.in , contains 

variety of nuclear reactor related knowledge but can be classified by a user as a “KM”. 

Another user may label it, “Information Management System”. A user can store or bookmark 

the location of this web page by placing the URL location in her bookmark list under the 

class category as she defines it. These bookmark lists are graphical hierarchies, which group 

similar web pages under categories. This can be viewed as a taxonomy representing how an 

user views various web pages on the internet and become her representation of 

conceptualization for her agent’s ontology. In essence, an agent representing the user can find 

a semantic object, interpret it according to its existing ontology and store its location under 

the same semantic concept of other similar semantic objects. How two or more agents 

interpret and store their same semantic objects will depend upon their individual ontologies. 

This multi agent architecture is applied to fast breeder reactor as discussed below. 

V. Ontology Environment in an organization 

When choosing to use or build an ontology environment there are number of issues need to 

be considered including the following 

Collaboration And Distributed Workforce Support 

Some ontology environments allow user to share a session that is see each other’s 

work environments. Additionally when works are distributed in location it becomes important

to have an environment that allows access from multi places. This is similar to Server/Client 

architecture. 

Platform Interconnectivity 

When applications become embedded in more complex platforms, it becomes 

important for environments to enable to read and write in compatible formats and to integrate 

with multiple hardware and software environments etc. Java based application provide a 

convenient approach to this problem 

Security 

Some applications will have needs for differing access to portions of ontology. Thus it 

is important to have an environment that can expose portions of ontology. Thus it is 

important to have an environment that can expose portions of the ontology based on a 

security model. 

4. ONTOLOGY DEVELOPMENT 

Classes are the focus of most ontologies. Classes describe concepts in the domain. A 

class can have subclasses that represent concepts that are most specific than the super-class. 

Developing ontology includes the following 1) Defining classes in the ontology.2) Arranging 

the classes in a taxonomic (subclass- super-class) hierarchy.3) Defining slots and describing 

allowed values for these slots.4) Filling in the values for slots for instances. 

Then create a knowledge base by defining individual instances of these classes filling 

in specific slot value information and additional slot restrictions. There is no one “correct” 

way or methodology for developing ontologies [8]. Ontology development is necessarily an 

iterative process. 

5. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ARCHITECTURE FOR FAST 

BREEDER THE REACTOR 

System consists of different agent like Electronics & Instrumentation Group (EIG), 

Reactor Physics Group (RPG), Fast Reactor Technology Group (FRTG), Reactor 

Engineering Group (REG), Plan Group (PG), Reactor Operation and Maintenance Group 

(ROMG). Each system consists of tacit and explicit knowledge and that are shared through 

their network. Information is different from knowledge [9]. By converting the information as 

knowledge ontology and there by employing case based reasoning to optimize the search. 

When a query commences from a user comprising of knowledge required from two groups 

then it will be processed by a common agent system called as coordinate agent to parse the 

knowledge, thereby giving relevant feedback to the user. This is shown in figure-2. 

REG 

Agent 

FRTG Agent 

ROMG 

Agent 

Coordinate 

Agent 

EIG 

Agent 

RPG Agent 

Figure -2

ROMG Agent 

Operation 

Agent 

Maintenance 

Agent 

Instrument 

Maintenance Agent 

Electrical 

maintenance 

Agent 

Mechanical 

Maintenance Agent 

CDPS 

Agent 

Neutronic 

Instrumentation Agent 

Figure -3 

Figure -3 shows the hierarchy of ROMG agent. CDPS (Central Data Processing 

System) which is a part of ROMG Agent. Its knowledge was converted to ontology using 

Protégé 4.0.1. Protégé is an open source development environment for ontologies and 

knowledge based system. Protégé contains large number of plugins that enabled the user to 

extend the editor’s core functionality. 

6. CENTRAL DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM (CDPS) AS CASE STUDY 

The CDPS in Fast breeder Test Reactor consists of two embedded system namely SS- 

I (sub system – I) & SS-II (sub system–II) connected in fault tolerant configuration. Class 

hierarchy of CDPS is shown in figure-4. SS-I system consists of three embedded based 

system named as Safety critical system, safety related system and non safety system. CDPS 

also consists of PC based system like RAAMS data logger, Data server for SS-I, Data server 

for SS-II, Message Serve for SS-I, Message Server for SS-II, Steam Generator and Turbine 

Data logger system etc. using Protégé ,CDPS system class entities are described as shown in 

figure -5.

CDPS 

PC 

System 

Based 

SS-I 

SS-II 

RAAMS 

Datalogger 

SGT 

Datalogger 

Hardware Software Hardware Software 

Hardware 

Software 

Hardware 

Software 

Figure-4 

7. CONCLUSION 

Figure-5 

This paper introduced the term ontology along with spectrum of properties that ontologies 

may exhibit. For Ontology development there is no correct way to model a domain and it 

always depends on the application. It identified ways that ontologies are being used in CDPS 

and also addressed the ontology environment issues. This paper developed a framework that 

identifies and characterizes the classes of CDPS. In future, extend the work to implement this 

architecture using JAVA Agent Development frame work (JADE) which includes a 

proficient support for content language and ontologies.

REFERENCES 

1] Aegis corporation , Introduction to knowledge management and knowledge base. 1995 

2] D.Leonard-Barton, S.Sensiper, The role of tacit knowledge in group innovation, California 

management review 40(3) (1998) 

3] Bose.R, Customer Relationship management: key components for IT success, Industrial 

Management & data system, 102 (2), 89-97. (2002). 

4] The Protégé project. http://protege.standard.edu 

5] Julian Seiden berg, Alan Rector, Web Ontology Segmentation: Analysis, Classification 

and use. 

6] Andrew J.williams, Learning to share meaning in a Multi Agent System ,Autonomous 

Agents and Multi Agent system,8,165-193,2004 . 

7] T.Gruber, J.A.Allen, R.Fiker and E. Sandewall(eds),” the role of common ontology in 

achieving shareable, reuseable knowledge bases” 

8] Natalya F. Noy and Deborah L. McGuniness,”ontology Development 101: A guide to 

creating your first ontology. 

9] N.Madurai Meenachi , M.Sai baba, B.Babu, B.Anandapadmanaban and V.Ramanathan, 

Knowledge Management Security For Nuclear Reactor, 5 th eIndia conference 2009, 

Hyderabad.

Preservation of Manuscripts with Special 

Reference to Digitization : An Attempt 

K. Ramakrishna Reddy 

Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi International Library,Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidhyalaya, 

(SCSVMV University) Enathur, Kanchipuram – 631 561.Tamilnadu 

ABSTRACT 

Gives various meanings of Manuscripts. Mentions factors responsible for deterioration of 

Manuscripts, such as, environmental, biological, chemical, human and disasters. Briefs on preventive 

measures for those factors which are responsible for deterioration. Attempts on the work being carried-out 

at the International Library of the SCSVMV University, to preserve the Manuscripts, through digital 

process. 

Keywords: Manuscripts; Definitions / Meanings; Deterioration factors – Environmental, 

Biological, Chemical, Human and Disasters; Preservation and Methods; Importance; Digital preservation; 

Manuscripts Section; Digitization and Processes. 

1.0 INTRODUCTION 

Holdings of the Libraries, Documentation Centres, Information Centres, Archives, 

Museums, etc., are the priceless repositories of wisdom and heritage of mankind 

representing the past and present. Manuscripts are considered as most important source of 

information with authenticity in the context of medieval and modern age. They form 

pieces of recorded knowledge representing the Country’s precious literary, linguistic, 

artistic and cultural heritage. Hence, the Government and all the responsible people 

under the umbrella of the Country are responsible to preserve the cultural heritage gifted 

by our predecessors. There is a huge and daunting challenge in front of all the 

Custodians, Librarians, Documentation Specialists, Information Scientists, Archivists, 

Curators, Scholars, etc., to preserve and conserve Manuscripts. The problem of 

preservation and conservation of Manuscripts has continued ever since human being 

acquired knowledge of writing. 

2. DEFINITIONS / MEANINGS OF MANUSCRIPTS 

Although there are various definitions to represent the meaning of Manuscripts, all of 

them are converging towards a compromising single meaning. 

2.1 Definitions 

Some of the definitions are given below: 

a. A book, document, or other composition written by hand. 

b. A typewritten or handwritten version of a book, an article, a document, or other 

work, especially the author’s own copy, prepared and submitted for publication in 

print. 

c. A literary or musical composition written with hand, as distinguished from a 

printed copy. 

d. Writing, as opposed to print; as the book exists only in manuscript. 

e. The form of a literary work submitted for publication. 

f. A handwritten book or document.

2.2 Consolidated Definition 

A Manuscript is a typewritten or handwritten version of a book, an article, a 

document, literary or musical composition, or other work, especially the author’s own 

copy, prepared and submitted for publication in print. 

3. DETERIORATION OF MANUSCRIPTS 

Deterioration is a change of original state of any material by interaction between the 

object and the factors of destruction. 

3.1 Types of Deterioration 

Different types of deterioration of Manuscripts are reflected in: 

a. Wear and tear, 

b. Shrinkage, 

c. Cracks, 

d. Brittleness, 

e. Warping, 

f. Bio-infestation, 

g. Discoloration, 

h. Abrasion, 

i. Hole, 

j. Dust and Dirt accumulation, etc. 

3.2 Factors for Deterioration 

The factors responsible for deterioration of Manuscripts, especially, on paper media, 

are highlighted below: 

S.N. Factors Examples 

1 Environmental / Climate 

Factors 

a. Light 

- Intensity of Light 

- Duration of Exposure 

- Distance from the Source of Light 

b. Heat 

c. Humidity 

d. Moisture 

e. Dust and Dirt 

f. Water 

2 Biological Factors a. Microorganisms 

- Fungus or Moulds 

- Bacteria 

b. Insects 

- Silverfish 

- Cockroaches 

- Book Worms or Book Beetles 

- Book Lice 

- Termites or White Ants 

c. Rodents 

- Mice 

- Rats 

- Squirrels

- (Many more) 

3 Chemical Factors a. Sulphur Dioxides 

b. Oxides of Nitrogen 

c. Ozone 

4 Human Factors a. Improper storage 

b. Faulty repairment 

c. Rough handling 

d. Deliberate abuse 

e. Folding the fore-edges of pages as a mark 

of reading 

f. Marking by Ball pen 

g. Mutilation 

h. Vandalism 

5 Disasters a. Fire 

b. Floods 

c. High winds 

d. Cyclones 

e. Earth Quakes 

4. IMPORTANCE OF PRESERVATION AND CONSERVATION 

The process of preservation, conservation and restoration are applied to safeguard the 

Manuscripts from further decay and deterioration. In the context of the above, 

representation of following terminologies are to be understood thoroughly. 

S.N. Terminology Meaning 

1 Preservation It is a process in which all actions are taken to check and retard 

deterioration 

2 Conservation Proper diagnosis of the decayed material timely curative 

treatment and appropriate prevention from further decay 

3 Preventive 

Measures 

4 Curative 

Measures 

Includes all forms of indirect actions aimed at increasing the 

life expectancy of undamaged or damaged elements of cultural 

property. It includes methods of good house-keeping, care 

taking, dusting, periodical supervision and prevention of any 

possibility of damage by physical, chemical, biological and 

other factors 

Consists of all forms of direct actions aimed at increasing the 

life expectancy of undamaged or damaged elements of cultural 

property. It includes repairing, mending, fumigation, deacidification, 

lamination and other jobs which are required 

considering the physical condition of the individual document

5. PRESERVATION METHODS 

At present, there are no dearth of modern chemical pesticides and repellants for the 

safe upkeep of Manuscripts. Advent of technology has also given rise to greater concerns 

of preservation of Manuscripts by adopting them. Hence, preservation of Manuscripts can 

be studied both under Traditional and Modern / Advanced methods. But in this paper, 

only one of the Modern / Advanced preservation methods called “Digital Preservation” 

has been considered. 

6. DIGITAL PRESERVATION 

Digitization is nothing but acquiring, converting, storing and providing information in 

a computer format that is standardized, organized and available from a common system. 

With specialized scanners, Manuscripts are converted in to compressed digital formats 

and stored systematically for future reference. In terms of preservation, digital conversion 

can certainly extend life of a particular artifact. Use of the original can be restricted and a 

high quality surrogate can be provided. Digitization enhances access to the artifact, as its 

image can be seen on the web by users all over the world. 

6.1 Factors Responsible for Digitization 

Becker has provided 7 technological advances or factors creating an environment for 

digitization. They are: 

a. PCs are much more cost effective and powerful in comparison to a few years ago. 

b. Scanning technologies have become cheaper and better, allowing computers to 

convert manuscripts, pictures and color photos into digital files. 

c. Storage technologies have improved in terms of price and physical space required. 

d. Rapid growth of Internet, which provides ever widening access to the digitized 

information. 

e. Emergence of more widely accepted standard protocols. 

f. Increased use of standards like SGML and HTML. 

g. Emergence of standard image formats and compression technologies making it 

possible to share images on computers. 

6.2 Tools for Digitization 

The Hardware and Software tools required for digitization are briefed below. 

6.2.1 Hardware 

a. Computer - The Computer should have minimum of following configuration: 

- Pentium 4 processor with 2.0 GHz or higher. 

- 512 MB RAM. 

- 160 GB HD. 

- 18” or larger Monitor. 

- 128 MB Video Card. 

- CD-RW and/or DVD-R Optical Drive. 

b. Scanners - Although Scanners are of various types, Flat Bed Scanners are 

preferred. 

c. Digital Camera - High capacity Digital Camera to capture the images and store 

temporarily on a Memory Chip.

6.2.2 Software 

The Softwares required for the purpose are mentioned below. 

a. HTML Editor. 

b. XML Editor. 

c. OCR Software. 

d. Image Editor. Ex: Photoshop. 

e. Page Layout and Design Software. Ex: Adobe Page Maker. 

f. PDF Software. 

7. DIGITISATION WORK BEING CARRIED-OUT AT SCSVMV UNIVERSITY 

The Library at Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidhyalaya (SCSVMV 

University), Enathur, Kanchipuram, Tamilnadu was established during the year 1995, 

housed in the Jayendra Saraswathi Diamond Jubilee Mahal, nominated as Sri 

Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi International Library, in short “International Library”. 

Front view of the Library 

Inner view of the Library 

The International Library building is a fusion of ancient temple architecture and 

modern technology with an attempt to revive the tradition of “Ghatikasthanam”. The 

building has 3 floors with 4 wings, around an extensive Central Hall, with a huge canopy 

in the form of “Sri Chakra”. The 4 wings in each of the floors, symbolizes spreading of 

knowledge in all 4 directions. In the terrace, there are 64 small Vimanas representing the 

64 traditional arts of Bharat, where the scholars can study or meditate. 

7.1 Manuscripts Section 

With in the International Library, the Manuscripts section was established by the 

Mahaswamy of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam that Ghatikasthanams were the Centre of 

learning. As one of the objectives of establishment of Kanchi Ghatikasthanam, is to 

preserve our ancient wisdom contained in age-old Manuscripts. Nearly 5,000 

Manuscripts were collected during the Vijayam of Their Holiness across the country. The

so collected Manuscripts were protected in Kumbhakonam Mutt and later shifted to 

Kanchi Mutt. During 1994, Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidhyalaya, 

a Deemed University was formed and the Manuscripts already procured and protected in 

the Mutt were transferred to the University Library. The Manuscripts Section of the 

Mahavidhyalaya was officially inaugurated by the Hon’ble Former Prime Minister of 

India, Shri. P. V. Narasimha Rao during the year 2000. 

Storage System for Manuscripts 

Some Rare Manuscripts 

The Manuscripts collected by Their Holiness, are on various subjects, such as, Sahitya, 

Vyakarana, Vedanta, Vaidya, Agama, Tantra, Nyaya and Mantra Sastra. Most of the 

Manuscripts are in Sanskrit language and the scripts are in Grantha, Telugu, Tamil, 

Nandinagari, Devanagari, Malayalam and Kannadam. 

There are about 5,000 Manuscripts, out of which, 3,000 are on Palm Leaves and rest of 

2,000 are on Paper. 

7.1.1 Earlier Projects 

Earlier, couple of attempts have been made for digitizing the Manuscripts and were 

not successful due to various reasons. Attempts made are given below: 

a. Microfilming: Microfilming project was commenced with funding from 

Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts during 1994. Around 2,850 

Manuscripts were micro-filmed. 

b. NIAS Project: National Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bangalore, 

had sponsored a project on digitizing the Manuscripts from April 2000. The 

preservation process was started by applying a special oil designed and 

developed by the Library. About 459 manuscripts were digitized under this 

project. 

7.1.2 Current Project: 

The National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM), set up by the Ministry of Culture, 

Government of India, seeks to develop a holistic approach through the process of 

surveying, documenting, and providing access to the significant information contained in 

the Manuscripts. 

An MOU was signed between Mahavidhyalaya and NMM in November 2004. The main 

objective of this project consists of surveying and cataloguing the Manuscripts available 

throughout Tamilnadu.

7.1.3 Current Work 

As the above projects not yielded positive results, mainly due to financial constraints, 

started Digitization of Manuscripts from 13 th July 2009 seriously. Three Assistants have 

been groomed for this work and the work is in progress satisfactorily. 

7.2 Digitization Process 

Digitization work involves following processes. 

7.2.1 Selection 

It was decided that following type of documents are to be digitized. 

a. Palm Leaf Manuscripts. 

b. Paper Manuscripts. 

c. Rare Books. 

First, started the work with Palm Leaf Manuscripts and later on, switched on to Paper 

Manuscripts, due to various operational reasons. 

Palm Leaf Manuscript 

Paper Manuscript 

7.2.2 Accession Number 

The Manuscripts selected for digitization are provided with an Accession Number or 

Digitization Number or Bundle Number. It will be written on the wooden board which 

will be covering on both sides of the Palm Leaf bundle. If the Manuscripts are on paper 

media, it will be written on the Cover page. 

7.2.3 Numbering 

All the pages of the Manuscripts selected for digitization are being serially numbered 

using a soft marking pen if page numbers are not available. This activity will avoid filing 

of leaves or pages wrongly.

Numbering 

7.2.4 Cleaning 

After numbering, the thread used for combining the leaves sequentially will be 

removed gently facilitating cleaning. Before scanning the Manuscripts, they are to be 

mechanically cleaned properly using soft brushes. Hard brushes are avoided as they may 

damage the Manuscripts. Cleaning process eliminates the dust deposited on them. 

Cleaning process 

7.2.5 Treatment 

After numbering and cleaning the Manuscripts, composition of preservatives such as, 

Citronella oil, Camphor and Neem oil are applied on the Manuscripts. As a general 

practice, the composition will be as mentioned below. 

Neem Oil = 200 ml 

Camphor = 500 gm 

Citronella Oil = 300-500 ml

Treatment process 

7.2.6 Drying 

After applying the preservatives, they are dried by exposing them to the mild light. As 

high intensity light is prone to damage the Manuscripts, it should be avoided. Both the 

above mentioned processes help in getting clear image of the contents of the Manuscript. 

Drying process

7.2.7 Scanning 

After the Manuscripts are dried, they are scanned serially page by page or combination 

of pages using a SONY Cyber-Shot [DSC-W300] Digital Camera with 13 Mega Pixel 

capacity. 

Scanning process 

The Camera is fixed to a Tripod focused with Bulbs of 100 watts each on the image to 

be digitized. The Manuscripts are arranged on the platform kept on the floor and size of 

the images is fixed in the Camera. Then the images are captured. 

7.2.8 Storing 

Captured images are limited to the size of the memory card of the Camera. The 

memory card being used is of 8GB capacity. When the memory card is full, the images 

are being transferred to HP Compaq Computer with 45 GB Hard Disk using USB data 

cable. 

7.2.9 Naming 

After storing the images, the Manuscripts are suitably named. Example is given 

below. 

Naming 

7.2.10 Editing and Cropping 

There are possibilities of getting unwanted marks, lines, etc., on and off the scanned 

images. Hence, editing and cropping of the images are 2 important tasks. This activity 

gives clear image of the Manuscript.

Before Editing & Cropping 

After Editing & Cropping 

7.2.11 Merging 

After the above work, merging and sequencing of the images will be done. Once, Hard 

Drive of the Computer is full, the files are transferred on to an External Hard Disk having 

the capacity of 500 GB and merged with the Master file. 

7.2.12 Back-up 

For safety of the Scanned Manuscripts, it is required to Back-up the files on to CD- 

ROMs or DVDs in addition to storing on the External Hard Disk of the Computer. 

7.2.13 Retrieval 

Stored Manuscripts will be retrieved by the Title or Accession Number or Bundle 

Number or Digitization Number, given to each of the Manuscripts. 

7.3 Results of the Digitization Attempt 

Due to seriousness of the Digitization work being carried-out, yielding positive 

results. To substantiate this, total quantity of Manuscripts digitized using a Digital 

Camera is mentioned below: 

Only Title Pages Scanned using a Digital Camera: 

Month & Year 

No of 

Pages 

No of 

Bundles 

No of 

Working Days 

Average 

Bundles 

Scanned/Day 

14 July 2009 -- -- -- -- 

August 2009 556 556 7 79 

September 2009 -- -- -- -- 

October 2009 -- -- -- -- 

Total: 556 556 7 11

Year & Month 

All Pages Scanned using a Digital Camera: 

No of 

Pages 

No of 

Bundles 

No of 

Working Days 

Average 

Pages 

Scanned / Day 

14 July 2009 4,516 26 12 376 

August 2009 6,649 22 9 739 

September 2009 17,777 51 18 988 

October 2009 16,342 49 16 1,021 

November 2009 15,419 127 15 1,028 

Total: 60,703 275 70 867 

8. CONCLUSION 

Information generation is not only the present phenomenon, but also existed in the 

ancient days. But, the medium of storage of data / information was not exclusively on 

Paper media but also on Palm Leaves. This was true because of non-availability of 

suitable printing media and technology. Due to this, during those days, Palm Leaves and 

at a later date crude Paper was the main media of data / information recording by hand 

and communication. The recorded media are prone for deterioration due to various 

factors and may not be possible to preserve for ever. Hence, it is the responsibility of the 

modern generation to preserve such media to be used for research of the present and 

future generations. In this direction, it has been found that preservation of Manuscripts 

through digitization is one of the effective methods but found to be time consuming and 

costly exercise. The SCSVMV University has taken a bold step to digitize its collection 

of 5,000 Manuscripts which were collected earlier. 

REFERENCES 

ACCURATE & RELIABLE Dictionary : A Free English Online Dictionary. 

AGRWAL, OP : Care and Preservation of Museum Objects, New Delhi: National 

Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Property, 1977. 

NATIONAL MISSION for Manuscripts : Annual Reports. February 2007. 

NATIONAL MISSION for Manuscripts : Krithi Rakshana. Vol 1, No 2; October 2005. 

SAHOO, JYOTSHNA : Preservation of Library Materials : Some Preventive Measures. 

CHRJ, Vol XLVII, No 1. 

THIRUMALAI, S and Dr. K RAMAKRISHNA REDDY : Digital Restoration of 

Manuscripts. (National Seminar on Manuscripts & Books, Conservation and 

Management. 4 – 6 Apr 2009, The Tanjavur Maharaja Serfoji’s Sarasvati Mahal Library 

and Research Centre, Thanjavur). 

UNIYAL, CP : Preventive Conservation of Archival Materials: Some Rather Ignored but 

Vital Aspects-CCPI, Vol 28, 1995; New Delhi: p50-55.

Knowledge Management – An Organization’s 

Perspective 

R. Malathi, R. Parameswaran, K.K.Kuriakose, S. A. V. Satya Murty and P. Swaminathan 


malathi@igcar.gov.in 

ABSTRACT 

Knowledge is derived from thinking and is a combination of information, experiences, and insight. 

Deriving knowledge from information requires human judgment and is based on context and experiences. 

Knowledge categories – tacit and explicit - can be found in different forms. While explicit knowledge can 

be found in articulated and documented forms, tacit knowledge, which is personal and specific to a social, 

organizational or interpersonal context does not always acquire physical form and can be found in 

people’s actions and interpersonal communications. Much of the tacit knowledge – a greater component of 

organizational knowledge – is found in social interactions (3). 

It should be understood that the primary focus of KM is to utilize information technology and 

tools, business process, best practices and culture to develop and share knowledge within an organization 

and to connect those who possess knowledge to those who need the knowledge. Ultimately, leveraging 

knowledge assets to improve organizational performance is what Knowledge Management is all about (3). 

This paper presents the concept of Knowledge Management in the context of Organizational 

learning. It also discusses the conceptual frame work of Knowledge Management in a Research and 

Development Organization. 

Key words: Knowledge, Knowledge Management, Organizational Performance 


Knowledge is considered as a key economic resource, and obviously, 

organizations must process the right knowledge in the desired form and context under all 

circumstances in order to be successful. Specifically, knowledge creation and resultant 

knowledge sharing are critical in order for organizations to gain competitiveness and to 

remain competitive. Knowledge is considered important for sustaining competitive 

advantage. 

The continuous progression of civilization is a testimony to its ability to develop, 

learn and share Knowledge. Recent advances in information and communication 

technologies have made it easy to develop, store and transfer knowledge. Globalization, 

increasing international competition and a free market philosophy are driving forces for 

these advances in technology and many organizations have realized that the creation, 

transfer and management of knowledge are critical for success today (3). 

IGCAR being a frontline R & D organization working in various advanced and 

challenging areas has fully realized the importance of Knowledge Management and has 

taken many steps to use KM to improve the performance. In this paper IGCAR’s 

activities in the Knowledge Management domain and a prototype KM implementation at 

Computer Division is presented. 

2. WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT? 

Knowledge Management is the process of capturing a company’s collective 

expertise wherever it resides - in databases, on paper or in peoples’ heads - and 

distributing it to wherever it can help produce the biggest pay off ( Hibbard ).

3. WHY IT IS NEEDED IN AN ORGANIZATION? 

Companies are realizing that their competitive edge is mostly the brainpower or 

intellectual capital of their employees and management. Many organizations are 

overloaded with information but starving for knowledge. The following can be 

considered as KM drivers 

• Reductions in staffing create a need to replace informal knowledge with formal 

methods. 

• Competitive pressures reduce the size of the work force that holds valuable business 

knowledge. 

• The amount of time available to experience and acquire knowledge has diminished. 

• Early retirements and increasing mobility of the work force lead to loss of 

knowledge. 

• There is a need to manage increasing complexity as small operating companies are 

trans-national sourcing operations. 

• Changes in strategic direction may result in the loss of knowledge in a specific area. 

• Most of our work is information based. 

• Organizations compete on the basis of knowledge. 

• Products and services are increasingly complex, endowing them with a significant 

information component. 

• The need for life-long learning is an inescapable reality. 

In order to stay ahead of the pack, companies must leverage their knowledge 

internally and externally to survive. With web-based and intranet technologies, the 

connectivity and possible sharing of knowledge are greatly enabled to build the 

knowledge infrastructure of the firm. Knowledge management is believed to be the 

current savior of the organization and it deals with the conceptualization, review, 

consolidation, and action phases of creating, securing combing coordinating and 

retrieving knowledge. 

4. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT POLICY OF IGCAR 

“IGCAR will consistently endeavor through concreted efforts of all it’s 

employees to generate, achieve, manage and disseminate the valuable Knowledge for 

improving it’s productivity and achieve & sustain world class leadership in all it’s 

Scientific & Technological R & D activities”.

5. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES AT IGCAR 

Knowledge Management is a concept behind organizational learning. Knowledge 

is classified into two types. They are explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. 

According to Nonanka, explicit knowledge is the knowledge that is easily 

expressed, captured stored and reused. 

At IGCAR, the requirement for a robust Knowledge Management strategy 

is felt years back and the Knowledge Management System is put in place. 

The Knowledge Management Portal http://igcims contains the Explicit 

Knowledge in the form of Design Reports, internal reports, journal 

Publications, training Manuals etc. 

In contrast, tacit knowledge is highly personal. It is hard to formalize and 

therefore difficult to communicate to others. For Nonanka tacit and 

explicit knowledge are not separate but mutually complimentary entities. 

They interact with each other in the creative activities of human beings. 

Nonanka calls this as the knowledge conversion process. This conversion 

process consists of socialization, externalization, combination and 

internalization. Socialization refers to tacit knowledge between individuals 

through observation, discussion, demonstration etc. Externalization 

converts the tacit knowledge in to explicit knowledge in the form of 

documents, video recordings etc. Combination also includes making 

available the explicit knowledge to others. Internalization translates 

explicit knowledge in to tacit knowledge by absorbing the explicit 

knowledge by individuals. 

The generation of tacit knowledge is considered as a critical part of 

organizational knowledge. With its roots in the experience of individuals, 

tacit knowledge is difficult to process and hard to transfer (4). However, 

having fully realized the importance of it, IGCAR has taken various steps 

to elicit the tacit knowledge of senior officers in the form of video 

recordings, or in the form of ex-tampered speech and made available in 

http://igcims server. The fig. 1 shows the tacit knowledge elicited from 

senior officers. The details regarding the type and title of tacit knowledge, 

contact details of the knowledge contributor are also made available.

Fig. 1 tacit knowledge elicited from senior officers, http://igcaims/tacit knowledge 

6. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES IN COMPUTER DIVISION 

Sharing Knowledge, networking to become acquainted with what others know 

etc., are examples of investment activities to build intellectual capital for further use. In 

this regard an Improved Knowledge Management server using Microsoft Share point 

Services 2.0 has been configured and commissioned at Computer Division. It is planned 

to extend its functionality at organizational level. Fig. 2 below shows the home page of 

Knowledge Management portal of Computer Division 

Windows Share Point Services 2.0 allows teams to create Web sites for 

information sharing and document collaboration, benefits that help increase individual 

and team productivity. Windows Share Point Services enables users to locate distributed 

information quickly and efficiently, as well as connect to and work with others more 

productively. 

The knowledge is generated from internal operations. Once created, knowledge is 

accessed when needed by the individuals throughout the Division. Then the knowledge is 

represented in a formal manner like printed or displayed forms, reports, graphs, charts or 

documents and uploaded to the server. While uploading the user is asked to enter the 

metadata based on which the document can be searched Validity of the knowledge has 

been established in the server and hence it is validated and then approved by the 

respective domain expert. Then it is published by the Administrator of Knowledge

Management System and is made available to all the users of the system. The server 

facilitates the users to view, edit and upload their knowledge assets, as per the privilege 

level of the user. 

Fig. 2 Home page of KMS at Computer Division 

The classification of the knowledge is done based on domains than on sections. 

Every activity is further subdivided and at every level the user is facilitated to upload the 

knowledge asset. 

The classification of Application software is shown below as an example. It has 

been classified as

Computer Division → Application software → Information System → IIS 

7. FUTURE PLANS 

 

The Knowledge Management Server is being ported to Windows Share Point 

Services 3.0. It is a versatile technology that organizations and business units of 

all sizes can use to increase the efficiency of business processes and improve team 

productivity. It helps teams stay connected and productive by providing easy 

access to the people, documents, and information they need to make more 

informed decisions and get the job done. Enhancements in Windows Share Point

Services 3.0 make it easier than ever to share documents, track tasks, use e-mail 

efficiently and effectively, and share ideas and information. 

A Knowledge base for Computer Division is being developed in the form of FAQ. 

The quality value of the knowledge asset is planned to be calculated based on the 

content, the no of users who have read the document, the frequency and recency 

of the document read, the ratings given by the users and reviewers 

A web based portal for Computer Division employees is being developed to 

upload the details of their domain of knowledge and the projects handled, the 

experience and expertise gained. Also it is proposed to dynamically update the 

expertise/ experience based on documents submitted, questioned, answered etc. 

8. CONCLUSION 

Managing knowledge never has been more important than today’s competitive 

environment (Desouza, 2003). Organizational knowledge starts with individuals. The 

Knowledge needs to be shared throughout the organization; otherwise it will have limited 

impact on organization’s effectiveness. 

Knowledge management is believed to be the current savior of the organization 

and it depends on ability to transfer the knowledge. The ability of the transfer of 

knowledge is critical for an organization and occurs at many levels. Knowledge can be 

transferred among individuals, within groups, between groups and organizations (Alavi & 

Leidner). The knowledge transfer may be affected by many things within and 

organization, such as the inclination of the knowledge holder to divulge it, the recipient’s 

ability or desire to receive it and the perceived value of the knowledge asset(3). 

However, with all the constraints, organizations have to leverage knowledge 

assets more effectively to be successful. In IGCAR, the need for the KM is well 

understood, a Proper KM policy is framed and a robust Knowledge Management System 

is implemented with the complete participation of all employees and consistent support 

and guidance from the management. 

REFERENCES 

1. Malhotra, Y., (1996) “Organizational Learning and Learning Organizations : An 

Overview,” URL=www.brint.com/papers/orglrg.htm 

2. Nonanka, I (1991) “The knowledge creating company” Harward Business Review 

3. Murray E. Jennex,, “Knowledge Management in Modern Organizations” 

4. Jay Liebowitz, “Knowledge Management Handbook”

Knowledge Warehouse for Library 

D.Thirupurasundari, S.Rajeswari and S.A.V. Satya Murty 


Email: tripura@igcar.gov.in 

ABSTRACT 

Knowledge warehouse is where knowledge is stored. Library is termed as the knowledge repository of 

an organization. A library information management system aptly called knowledge warehouse. Presently every 

library in India is getting digitized. The digital data of books, journals and reports are stored in the knowledge 

warehouse as well. To enhance the library information management system to a fully developed digital library 

on the web with advanced search facilities and secure storage facilities, knowledge of advanced storage 

technology, highly available cluster technology and high performance multiprocessors are required. This article 

will talk about them. 

Key words:Storage, RAID, NAS, SAN, SMP, Parallel Processing, SMP 


Library information management system consists of order processing, resource 

access, user access and accounts, books issue, image processing, and information about 

books, journals, magazines, CDs and etc. Many levels of access control logic are 

implemented. The output benefits of these different modules are delivery, user details, 

transactions of books and other library resources, set of policy, catalog and the utility. The 

data in the knowledge warehouse in leaps and bounds. In India, government has initiated 

digitizing its various libraries. This concept is slowly spreading and all libraries are digitizing 

millions of books, journals are making the databases very big. These are all controlled as 

distributed data bases. 

Order 

Processing 

Resource 

Access 

User 

accounts 

Books 

Issue 

Image 

Processing 

Information 

holding 

Delivery Utility User Transaction Policy Catalog 

2. STORAGE TECHNOLOGY 

Digitization of Books, 

Journals and reports 

Library Information Management system 

The Knowledge warehouse will have data from storage of millions of book, Journals 

of many years and reports. This needs a highly reliable, available, and secure storage 

technology. Storage technology has become highly reliable. They protect the systems from 

component and device failures. It has become available without failure on 24x7 basis. RAID, 

data duplicating techniques like mirroring etc are used to protect data loss in disk storage. 

The threats like virus, worms attack, spam and other threats are taken care by increasing 

security to systems. Based on the storage technology data loading, data fetching, data 

archiving and data management are taking place. 

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) concept suits almost all of today’s 

storage technology. This technology is implemented in the large servers. The array of disks 

enables the server to continue operation even while they are recovering from the failure of 

any single disk. The underlying technique that gives the primary benefit of RAID breaks the 

data into parts and writes the parts to multiple disks in a striping fashion. The technology can

ecover data when a disk fails and reconstruct the data. RAID is very fault-tolerant. Disk 

mirroring, Disk duplexing, Parity checking, Disk striping are some the techniques which are 

included in the RAID concept. RAID is implemented at six different levels of RAID 0 

through RAID 5. Some RAID levels may also increase the system's I/O (read and write) 

performance. 

A Networked Attached Storage (NAS) is a device located with in a network allows 

more hard disk space. It is not attached with any of the server or system. Separating storage 

from the server reduces the file serving activity and I/O bottlenecks and increases server 

bandwidth. Hence CPU cycles are dedicated to handle application requests, resulting in 

improved client response time. During the maintenance or up-gradation of the server a NAS 

device still delivers the data to the user. NAS supports Multi-platform File Sharing by 

simultaneously supporting Windows Common Internet File System (CIFS) and Unix 

Network File System (NFS) as well as for Macintosh, Novell, and other operating systems. 

Sharing files across different OS platforms on the same network is possible on NAS. The 

access speed is based on the bandwidth provided by the network. The prompt access is 

realized by upgrading the network infrastructure to Giga bit Ethernet connectivity and 

supporting networking cables of type CAT6 (1000 Mbps). 

User 

User 

User 

User 

LAN switch 

NAS 

Storage 

Library 

Server 

Storage Device on the Network 

A Storage Area Network (SAN) interconnects different kinds of storage devices with 

associated server through a high speed special purpose network. The storage devices 

available on the network are made to look like they are available locally to the system. This 

allows storage resources to be shared in order to provide continuous, faster, easier access to 

data for the users. Multiple users are requesting a same data at a time then a single copy of 

data is accessible to any and all hosts via multiple paths. It provides reliable data 

transportation which ensures low error rate, and an ability to recover from failures. Servers 

and storage devices may be added in parallel of one another, and do not depend on 

proprietary systems. Since the interconnection is through Fiber Channel it has high 

bandwidth and low overhead. The fabric layer separates storage and network interface it 

includes proactive error detection and correction.

Users 

LAN switch 

Library Server 

SAN Fabric Layer 

(Fiber channel) 

SAN Device 

With RAID firmware 

Storage Devices through Storage Access Network (SAN) Layer 

An iSCSI is basically the SCSI disk control protocol over IP (internet protocol). It is 

also like a SAN, iSCSI is a dumb-bag-of-bit, and the client that owns a block of data is 

responsible for its management. It is inexpensive storage device and price ranges between 

NAS and SAN. 

3. PARALLEL PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY 

Few factors are considered while designing the knowledge warehouse. i) Speed up – 

The ability to execute the users request on the large amount of data in less time. ii) Scale up – 

The ability to obtain the better performance on the user’s request as the data base size 

increases. The data from the library warehouse will be accessed and processed by many 

people simultaneously. This brings in the need for good at processing and parallel systems. 

Clusters improve performance and/or availability over that of a single computer, and much 

more cost-effective than single computers of comparable speed or availability. 

High-Availability (HA) clusters are implemented for improving the availability of 

services. The HA cluster should have at least two nodes, to provide redundancy when failure 

occurs. HA cluster implementations attempt to use redundancy of cluster components to 

eliminate single points of failure. High Performance Computing (HPC) clusters are 

implemented for improving the performance of the CPU throughput. Hence scientific 

computing, structured analysis, modeling software and weather forecasting systems use HPC 

clusters.

Symmetric Multi Processing (SMP) Servers and Clusters, come under highly 

available and highly reliable systems for fewer prices. SMP provides the parallel processing 

mechanism with shared disk space and shared memory concept. Each processor reaches the 

shared memory through a common bus. Communication between the processors occurs 

through common memory. Disk controllers are accessible to all processors. The knowledge 

warehousing technique can be employed in the SMP clusters. Since a variety of users and 

knowledge users are involved in the library system the architecture should be capable to hold 

all types of parallel transactions. SMP clusters Provides high concurrency. User can run many 

concurrent requests with the better workload balances. SMP gives scalable performance to 

fulfill the user or analyst need. 

Core 1 

Core 2 

Core 1 

Core 2 

Core 1 

Core 2 

L2 Cache 

L2 Cache 

L2 Cache 

CPU CPU CPU 

Common Bus 

Knowledge 

Shared Memory 

Warehouse 

data 

SMP Architecture 

Access gateway 

Depositing 

Query 

Processing 

Downloading 

Knowledge warehouse for Library 

A knowledge staff in the library can deposit or store the exact files to the warehouse 

hard disk through a gateway. The files can be of different formats like document files, video, 

audio and image files of different sizes. Query processing is for analysis and report 

generation. This is done by the management to take the necessary decision. A user or users at 

the desktop can download a required file. These are some of the actions which are taking 

place regularly in the knowledge warehousing. All these operations may occur 

simultaneously and the requests are sent to the CPU scheduler. The scheduler checks the 

availability of the free CPU and the job is allocated to that CPU. So the jobs are served in a 

parallel manner there will not be a big queue in the scheduler. 

Most of the current database software can parallelize a large number of operations. 

These operations include mass loading of data, full table search, queries with exclusion 

conditions, multiple queries, selection with distinct values, aggregation, sorting, creation of 

tables using sub queries, creating and rebuilding indexes, inserting rows into a table from 

other tables, enabling constraints, star transformation and so on. Remarkable list of 

operations can be processed in parallel with the DBMS. 

SMP cluster provides parallel processing which in turn improves performance for 

query processing, data loading and downloading compared to the single processing. The 

scalability option, allows the addition of CPUs and memory modules without any change to 

the existing application. Fault tolerance enables the availability of database even when some

of the parallel processors fail. Parallel environment gives single logical view of the database 

even though the data may reside on the disks of multiple nodes. This SMP clusters are the 

best suit for designing the Knowledge warehousing. 

4. CONCLUSION 

A user can easily locate the desired data or information from the Library knowledge 

warehouse. The queried information can be presented in the form of reports and graphs for 

analysis and decision making purpose. The frequency of usage of library resource can be 

easily figured out from the queries. The new information can be discovered by the analysis 

and further this can be shared. The Library knowledge warehouse enhances the availability of 

data, as well as increase the efficiency of the organization. 

REFERENCES 

1. www.allsan.com/sanoverview.php3 

2. http://compnetworking.about.com/od/itinformationtechnology/l/aa070101a.htm 

3. http://www.networkworld.com/details/550.html?def 

4. Data warehousing fundamentals by Paulraj ponniah

Knowledge management practice in library and 

information centres 

M. Veerabasavaiah*, K.K. Suresh Kumar** 

* Dept of Library and Information Science, Bangalore University, Bangalore-560056. 

E-mail: vrbasavaiah@rediffmail.com 

** Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (Deemed University), Carmelaram 

Post, Bangalore-560035 E-mail: kk_suresh@blr.amrita.edu 

ABSTRACT 

The concept of knowledge management is 21st century phenomena. The corollary of 

knowledge management used by the Library and information professionals as library management, 

information management now due impact of information and communication technology and growth 

and development knowledge based industries and corporate organization. Due these development and 

the KM tools, strategies, techniques are emerging to solve the problems of both tacit knowledge and 

explicit knowledge in any organizations. The present paper is made an attempt to application of 

knowledge management tools, techniques and technologies for better management of libraries and 

information centers. 

Keywords: Library, Information Centre, Knowledge Management, KM Tools 


Libraries have been service driven repositories of knowledge from time 

immemorial and they rendered this role in a satisfactory manner with the help of tools 

like classification systems, cataloguing practices, indexing routines, subject heading 

and keyword assigning procedures, for effective library organization and efficient 

information services. With the onset of electronic sources and more focus on nonpaper 

multimedia information resources, mere management of library and its 

collection was changed to encompass complex techniques of information processing 

and management. As a result, the libraries must be conversant with tracking not only 

locally hold collection owned by the libraries but also fee based access of electronic 

journals and other consortia information resources and free access of internet 

information. The arrival of information Technology (IT) and the spread of internet 

challenged the established roles of libraries and producers, consumers, and publishers 

of information. Thus the focus over the years in libraries changed from library 

management (more focus on form and sources) to information management (more 

focus on content to knowledge management (value addition of information to 

knowledge). We do things primarily for the customer whereas in knowledge 

management, the client as well as libraries and librarians are beneficiaries. In other 

works, on the one hand we are planning to map the knowledge about libraries, its 

work practices, its user needs, qualifiers concerning collection and service details, 

special abilities of its professionals and other staff in ‘synergy’ into a system to 

substantially improve the library operations. This may seem something similar to the 

expert systems and artificial intelligence based techniques earlier, however the 

difference with knowledge management is that they are not meant to replace the 

human beings, but to aid their working with the expertise of other personnel working 

in the organization in a shared work environment

The more lofty ideals of knowledge management that directly benefit the 

user are concerned with rendering the information support role of preserving the 

organizational knowledge by the Institution, as Institutions are getting more brand 

conscious subsequent to globalization. 

2. CONCEPT OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 

Knowledge resides in many different places such as databases, knowledge 

bases, filing cabinets and people’s heads and distributed right across the enterprise. 

An organization works with tacit knowledge (hands on skills, special know –how, 

heuristics, intuitions, which are implicit), rule-based knowledge (explicit knowledge 

used to match actions to situations by invoking appropriate rules), and background 

knowledge (knowledge that is part of the organization al culture and is communicated 

through oral and verbal texts). Explicit knowledge consists of anything that can be 

documented, archived and codified, often with the help of IT whereas it is challenging 

to recognize, generate, share and manage tacit knowledge, or the know-how contained 

in peoples heads. The intelligent organization promotes the learning of tacit 

knowledge to increase the skill and creative capacity of its employees, takes 

advantage of rule-based knowledge to maximize efficiency and equability, and 

develops background knowledge to unify purpose and meaning in its community, and 

a fourth class of a higher order or meta-knowledge to create, integrate, and invigorate 

all its intellectual resources in order to achieve superior levels of performance. At the 

strategic level the organization needs to be able to analyze and plan its business in 

terms of the knowledge it currently has and the knowledge it needs for future; at the 

tactical level the organization is concerned with identifying and formalizing existing 

knowledge, acquiring new knowledge for future use, archiving it in organizational 

memories and creating systems that enable effective and efficient application of the 

knowledge within the organization ; and at the operational level knowledge is used in 

everyday practice by professional personnel who need access to the right knowledge, 

at the right time, in the right location. And libraries hold the repositories of different 

classes of knowledge for its users and work with different kinds of professional 

knowledge to ably perform their information support role. 

Knowledge management (also designated as organizational learning, 

organizational memory, and expertise management) is the collection of processes that 

govern the creation, organization, dissemination, and utilization of knowledge. 

Knowledge management is not only about managing the knowledge assets 

(knowledge regarding markets, products, technologies and organizations, a business 

owns or needs to own for its business processes to generate profits, add value, etc) but 

managing the process (developing, preserving, using, and sharing knowledge) that act 

upon theses assets. Fundamental to the success of Knowledge Management activities 

is the level of ‘information literacy’ skills throughout the organization, staff needs to 

be ‘knowledge and information aware’, and to understand the value of information 

within the context in which they are working and how quickly relevant knowledge 

can be used to make a decision or solve a problem.

3. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: SOME DEFINITIONS 

"Knowledge Management is the discipline of enabling individuals, teams and 

entire organizations to collectively and systematically create, share and apply 

knowledge, to better achieve their objectives" (Ron Young, CEO/CKO Knowledge 

Associates International). 

The process of capturing, organizing, and storing information and experiences of 

workers and groups within an organization and making it available to others 

(www3.imperial.ac.uk/portal/page/portallive/24EA98FE29AA21ACE0440003BADB 

DCAF) 

The process of systematically and actively managing and leveraging the stores of 

knowledge in an organization is called knowledge management. ... 

(www.usq.edu.au/planstats/Docs/GlossaryTerms.doc) 

4. IMPORTANT TOOLS FOR KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 

The technologies used as tools and Area of Application for knowledge 

management are: 

Intranets/Extranets: Information networks and Web browsers for accessing 

interlinked documents 

Group Ware : It is platform for intercommunication between employees in an 

organization. E.g.: Lotus Notes and Netscape’s Collabra Share are Popular 

Group Ware software 

Electronic Data Management: Online Electronic Document Management 

Information Retrieval tolls: Full text search software and advanced 

algorithms 

Workflow Management System: Integration of Knowledge Management 

into Business process 

Data analysis : These tools are used for generating new knowledge 

Data warehousing/data mining : The technologies for storing structured and 

related databases to collate and extract meaningful data from the ware house 

(known as Drill down techniques) 

Agent Technologies : Used for processing management tasks personalized 

and in continuously running systems 

Help Desk: These are primarily concerned with routing requests for 

technologies help from information seekers to right organization or person 

Machine learning: This technologies generate new knowledge through 

artificial 

intelligence 

Computer based Training : It is used to simultaneous distribution of 

knowledge with multimedia and electronic performance support systems 

(EPSS) 

Geographic Information System: It Involves Digitization of maps which can 

super impose and manipulate various kinds of demographic and corporate 

Meta Data : Meta data is information added to a document that makes it 

easier to access and reuse the content it is also referred as “Data about data: 

Ontologies Computer based : It Associated with artificial intelligence which 

helps in structure representation of knowledge

5. ROLE OF LIBRARY PROFESSIONALS IN KNOWLEDGE 

MANAGEMENT 

Library professionals are searching for new roles and many are wondering how 

they fit into space that is referred digital world librarians are engaged in endless 

routines of clert cal job. So there should be improved processes and additional 

technological tools that will help to manage information. Library professional can 

play now their role as Consultant, Analyst Facilitator Trainer, Internet Content 

Manager, Product Planner, knowledge Manager. 

Tom Davenport and Laurence Prusak define knowledge as a fluid mix of framed 

experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a 

framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It 

originates and is applied in the minds of knowers. In organizations, it often becomes 

embedded not only in documents or repositories but also in organizational routines, 

processes, practices, and norms. 

Knowledge Management is the name given to the set of systematic and disciplined 

actions that an organization can take to obtain the greatest value from the knowledge 

available to it “Knowledge” in this context includes both the experience and 

understanding of the people in the organization and the information artifacts, such as 

documents and reports, available within the organization and in the world outside. 

Knowledge Management is first and foremost a management discipline that treats 

intellectual capital as a managed asset. The primary tools applied in the practice of 

Knowledge Management are organizational dynamics, process engineering and 

technology. These work in concert to streamline, and enhance the capture and flow of 

an organization’s data, information, and knowledge and to deliver it to individuals and 

groups engaged in accomplishing specific tasks,. These individuals or knowledge 

workers are unequivocally the most vital resources in the 21 st century organizations. 

6. KM IN LIBRARY AND INFORMATION CENTERS (LICS) 

Knowledge management in LICs should be as follows 

6.1. Knowledge Innovation Management 

Knowledge innovation management in LICs refers to the management of the 

production, diffusion and transfer of knowledge as well as of the network systems 

constructed by related institution sand organizations. It includes three aspects, 

namely, 

6.1.1. Theoretical innovation management of knowledge: 

It enriches and enlarges the theoretical and practical research fields of library and 

information science through pursuing the latest development trends in library science 

the world over. 

6.1.2. Technical innovation management: 

It is to manage the network systems constructed by institution sand organization 

that relate to the full courses of technical innovation. In their evaluation from 

conventional libraries to electronic libraries, or digital libraries, libraries should make 

technical breakthroughs and progress and buildup technical facilities to support 

knowledge management. 

6.1.3. Organizational innovation management:

It is to create a set of effective organization al management system adaptable to 

the requirements in the electronic library era to support and strengthen knowledge 

management activities, by optimizing the functional departments and operating 

procedures of libraries. 

In these systems, it firstly requires that leaders who take charge of knowledge 

management activities should undertake to formulate the management plans and 

coordinate all knowledge management related activities. Secondly, it requires 

establishment of special leading groups of knowledge flow for accomplishing all tasks 

relating to knowledge management activities. Electronic resources committees are 

established composed of various types of specialists to take charge of evaluating, 

procuring and crating the electronic sources on the one hand, and coordinating 

activities of business departments and spurring them on to the close cooperation in 

such fields as procurement and organization of the electronic information resources as 

well as providing services on the other hand. 

6.2. Knowledge Dissemination Management 

Knowledge dissemination is of equal importance as compared to knowledge 

innovation. Knowledge creators do not have much times and energy to look for 

knowledge users. Though there are a multitude of knowledge users, it is very 

difficult to acquire knowledge that already exists in the minds of knowledge creators 

as restricted by various objective and subjective conditions. Therefore, LICs may 

play the part of knowledge tosses, use diverse media and channels to disseminate 

various new knowledge. The Internet, with its mass information and extensive 

contents, will provide peoples with the main approach to searching knowledge and 

acquiring information. But now there emerge absurd, salacious, false and uncivil 

information resulting from seeking for commercial profits and political objectives on 

the Net. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen knowledge dissemination 

management in libraries as follows: 

 

Uninterruptedly strengthening the creation of libraries own document 

resources and deepening the development of documents information 

resources. 

Continuously raising the quality of libraries, staffs and strengthening 

continuous engineering education of working staffs; 

Giving full play to the special role of the expert systems in knowledge 

dissemination; 

Making a comprehensive utilization of all media to ensure security of 

operation of networks, and prevent on line criminal activities and online 

dissemination of inappropriate information 

6.3. Knowledge Application Management 

Libraries should also attach importance to provision of services for people to 

acquire knowledge and achieve maximum functions and efficiency of knowledge 

information. Therefore, Knowledge services based on high-speed information 

networks should be carried out by: 

Setting up virtual libraries or information centers for enterprises, 

governments, public organizations and scientific research institutions. It is 

difficult for an enterprises or a social organization to put sufficient 

manpower, material and financial resources on information gathering, 

organizing and developing. It also impossible and unnecessary to spend a 

large amount of funds on information resources for their own use. 

Libraries can create virtual libraries or information centers for these organs

separately according to their respective information requirements by using 

abundant information resources on the high speed information networks. 

Setting up digitized knowledge services which is, at present, actually a 

development trend of libraries. This presupposes: crating step by step the 

users-oriented information service systems such as information 

dissemination, information search and special supply of information; 

quickening the creation of digitized libraries; studying the methods, means 

and techniques of information distribution and search with the Internet as 

the base and WEB technique as the core. 

Digitizing LICs resources. The electronic libraries or digitized libraries 

are the technical modes and development trends of libraries in the 

knowledge economy era. The knowledge services of libraries in the future 

will start with creation of databases comprising electronic journals and 

books in different languages that have discipline features and can operate 

on high speed information networks. Great efforts should be made to 

transform all existing large non-electronic information resources into 

electronic information and integrate them into electronic libraries. 

6.4. Human Resources Management (HRM) 

Human resources management takes it as its basic starting point to train high 

quality specialized talents and to revitalize the library undertaking. In practice, we 

should pay full attention to diversity and variation of library staffs requirements, 

strengthened management of different library staffs by applying contingency 

management approach. That is, to some people, rigid management method is applied, 

rigorous supervision and control imposed, and quantity and quality requirements of 

work according to regulations and procedures are made clear. And to the rest of 

people, more flexible management method is applied to let them participate in 

decision-making and consultation and undertake more jobs so as to bring their 

management abilities into full play and realize organizational and personal objectives. 

Doing well in continuous engineering education of specialized staffs, which should 

not only focus on the theory of library sciences and related disciplines, but also cover 

the latest technical knowledge and strengthening professional ethics education. 

7. CONCLUSION 

Knowledge Management as its is practiced today, is a system of technologies 

focused upon the delivery of strategically useful knowledge and expertise, the 

availability of which facilitates effective collaboration and timely decision making. 

Knowledge Management should be well understood as strategic process, as it 

involves the planning, implementation and outcome. There is confusion that 

Knowledge Management is basically a technological process but in practice it is seen 

that it is more strategy oriented towards the goal of organization, whether it is an 

academic, R & D or commercial organization. Technology only plays a supportive 

role in Knowledge Management, as the main bottlenecks are culture, quality and 

utility of knowledge. Developing knowledge management system requires a well 

balanced approach. Technology is a required foundation for managing knowledge 

assets and bringing people together in dispersed organizations. But the focus of 

Knowledge management is not just on the effective use of available technology but on 

crating a synergy between the human capital and information technology tools.

REFERENCES 

1. Banka Bihari Chand (2001). Knowledge Management: Tools and Techniques 

for Librarians. Journal of Library and Information Science, 26 (2), p175- 

186. 

2. Chen, H (2002). Knowledge management system : A text mining perspective. 

Tuesm, A.Z University of Arizona. 

3. Jeevan,V K J (2006). Computers@Libraries. New Delhi: Ess Ess Publications, 

p.500. 

4. Mahapatra, G and Das B (2002). Towards knowledge management: An 

emerging paradigm. SRELS Journal of Information Management, 39(4), 

p339-354. 

5. Shanhong T (2000). Knowledge management in libraries in 21 st Century: 

http://www.ifla.org 

6. Shobha Sharma, Sukirti Arya and Krishan Gopal (2006). Knowledge 

management in digital Era: A challenges to library professionals. ILA 

Bulletin. 42(2), p10-13. 

7. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue28/personalization/intro.html 

8. http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue4-9/chard/index.html 

9. http://www.headline.ac.uk/public/diss/jp-PIE-Hyblib-model/

Knowledge Management for Improving Teaching – 

Learning Process in Higher Learning Institutions 

D.Gnanasekaran * , S. Balamurugan ** and R. Karpagam ** 

* Bharathiar University, Coimbatore 

** Anna University Chennai, Chennai – 600 025. 

Email: dsekarg@gmail.com ; muruganbalas@indiatimes.com ; karpagam.au@gmail.com 

ABSTRACT 

This article discusses the origin and dimensions of knowledge, definitions of knowledge management, 

the need and process of implementing the knowledge management in the higher learning institutions, 

and various ICT tools involved in knowledge management. The role of the library professionals in 

implementing the knowledge management and various skills and capabilities they must posses are also 

discussed. 

Keywords: Knowledge Management, Knowledge Sharing, E-Learning, Knowledge Implementation, 

Knowledge Management Tools, Knowledge Management Process. 


The most of the activities in the academic institutions are based on information 

and knowledge. The organisations depend on the library for their information and 

knowledge needs. The knowledge requirement of the members of the organisation is 

ever changing. In the IT era more and more information and knowledge are produced 

at each and every moment. Since all these information are not valuable the libraries 

need to filter them and provide valuable, relevant and right information at the right 

time to its members that is the main goal of the libraries. Management of information 

and knowledge is essential to an organisation to achieve its goal. The application and 

practice of knowledge management in libraries elevate the present system which can 

be achieved for the betterment of both members and institution. 

2. ORIGINS OF KNOWLEDGE 

The knowledge depends on two factors namely Data and Information 

Data – This is a set of unfiltered, unprocessed and unorganized facts about an 

event which is discrete content and does not make much sense by itself. It has 

little use in itself unless converted into information. 

 

Information – There are firms and organizations whose very survival rests 

solely on their effectiveness and efficiency in handling and keeping the raw 

data. Well processed and organized data gives information. Davenport & 

Prusak 8 proposed a five ‘C’ processes for converting data into information and 

the same is shown in figure .

2 

Fig : 1. Five ‘ C ‘ Model 

 

Knowledge – Knowledge is a fluid mix of contextual information, framed 

experience, values, assumptions, beliefs, intelligence, expert insight and 

grounded intuition that provide an environment and framework for evaluating 

and incorporating new experiences and information. The knowledge is 

constantly tested, updated and revised. A good chunk of the knowledge is not 

stored in databases but in the minds of people who work in the organization. 

Only a minuscule portion of the knowledge gets formalized in databases, 

books, manuals, documents, and presentation; the rest of it stays in the heads 

of people. Knowledge is the key resource for effective planning and predictive 

decisions being made at every minute. 

3. DIMENSIONS OF KNOWLEDGE 

There are two dimensions of knowledge namely Tacit and Explicit. Tacit 

knowledge is considered as personal which is referred as skills, know-how, insights, 

judgments and intelligent which are embedded in the minds of the people and that it is 

difficult to communicate to the rest of the institution. Explicit Knowledge is a 

knowledge that has been/can be articulated, codified, expressed, captured and 

documented in certain media such as manuals, procedures, patents, standards, online 

databases and websites, audio-visual works of art and product design and so on which 

can be readily transmitted to others. 

4. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 

Although knowledge management concepts have been around for a long time, 

the term knowledge management seems to have arisen in the mid 70’s. Nicholas 

Henry 12 uses “Knowledge management” in a manner that resembles our current 

understanding of the expression. Defined broadly “KM is the process through which 

organizations extract value from their intellectual assets”. 3 Knowledge management 

caters to the critical issues of organizational adaptation, survival and competences in 

face of increasingly continuous environment change. 

The most common definition describes Knowledge Management as a set of 

processes directed at “Creating, Capturing, Storing, Sharing, Applying and Reusing” 

knowledge. 10 

Successful business knows that their key assets are not in its buildings, its 

market share or its products, but it lay in the heads of its people. Market value of an 

organisation is derived not only from its physical and financial assets, but also from 

the intangible assets it creates through knowledge based activities. Intangible assets

3 

refer to the intellectual property, such as patents and copyrights, as well as the more 

nebulous assets such as methodologies, best practices and customer relationships. 

Libraries have excelled at creating scholarly information and intelligence from 

data, but they have tended not to create knowledge from intelligence. Moreover they 

have not been as successful in generating organizational knowledge to achieve the 

goals of the library. By promoting an integrated approach towards identifying, 

capturing, evaluating, sharing, leveraging, and creating new enterprise knowledge 

assets, KM enables organizations to leverage its intellectual capital to achieve business 

objectives. 

The challenge of KM is to determine what information within the institution 

qualifies as “valuable”. All information is not knowledge, and all knowledge is not 

valuable. It is directly linked to what people know, and how they know can support 

business and institutional objectives. 

5. NEED OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 

Every institution needs to know what their requirement and knowledge assets 

they have, and how to manage and make use of these assets to get maximum results. 

In the academic institutions and R&D organisations most of the works based on 

information and knowledge. Knowledge and information have become the medium in 

which research problems occur. So the librarian used to manage the knowledge to be 

available upon request. The institutions serve its patrons with generous information 

through tools, techniques and methods of KM. 

To serve the clientele well and remain in institution, the institution must 

shorten the product development time, improve customer service, empower 

employees, innovate and deliver high-quality products, capture information, create 

knowledge. None of these possible without a continual focus on the creation, 

availability, quality and use of knowledge by all employees and teams at workplace. 

6. PROCESS OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 

Process of KM includes knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing, retention 

and utilization of knowledge. 

Fig. 2. Process of Knowledge Management 

6.1 Knowledge Acquisition

4 

Knowledge acquisition is the starting point of knowledge management in 

libraries. This is the process of development and creation of insights, skills and 

relationships, and capturing and articulating the created knowledge. 

6.1.1 Knowledge Creation 

Discovery and generation of new knowledge through various means such as 

experimentation research and innovative thinking. Technology plays an important role 

in the knowledge creation process. Mind mapping tools, visualisation tool, and data 

mining and text mining tools are some of the tools. 

Tacit to Tacit 

(Socialization) 

Team Meetings and 

Discussions 

Explicit to Tacit 

(Internalization) 

Learn from a Report 

Tacit to Explicit 

(Externalization) 

Dialog within teams 

Explicit to Explicit 

(Communication) 

Email a Report 

Fig. 3. Knowledge Creation Process 

6.1.1.1. Socialization (Tacit to Tacit) 

In this model the knowledge is generated by sharing mental models. 

Knowledge creation is done by the interaction of tacit and tacit form of knowledge. It 

is primarily the sharing of knowledge between individuals, sharing of experience, 

thereby creating tacit knowledge as shared mental models and technical skills. In 

organizations, it is generated by interaction of employees with the colleagues, 

suppliers of instruments or simply by walking around inside the organization and 

observing the individuals at work therein. 

 

 

 

Mentoring – New employee may be assigned as an apprentice to a mentor so 

that the employee observes the mentor’s way of working. Mentoring should be 

present even for old employees of the organization who are transferred to the 

different departments. One would gain immensely from a mentoring program 

through knowledge transfer. 

Knowledge from Suppliers – Transfer of knowledge from suppliers to 

employees is vital for product and service improvements. The suppliers 

understand the final customers of their products and services are able to deliver 

good products and services that the customer needs better. 

Diverse Recruitments – By recruiting individuals of diverse background, an 

organisation gains access to a variety of mental models that lead to 

interpretation of the same information and data in the organisation in different

5 

ways. This diversity facilitates the organisation in having a more holistic 

approach to its business. 

6.1.1.2 Externalization (Tacit to Explicit) 

Externalization is essentially articulation among people through dialogue. 

Discussion can capture tacit knowledge and apply it to an immediate problem. 

 

 

 

 

Brainstorming Camps – The word Brainstorming was first coined by Alex 

Osborn, a pioneer in the field of creative problem solving. Brainstorming is an 

unstructured approach to generate ideas about a problem. The meetings 

arranged outside the workplace and in relaxed environments. The employees 

from different streams give their suggestions to the problem and no idea is shot 

down or evaluated. The participants from different organisations, different 

environments transfer some tacit insights from one to another. The 

development of IT has brought a relatively new development in brainstorming. 

This is a computer-aided approach to deal with multiple experts. The experts 

sitting in front of the PCs in the networked environment through a software 

tool that serves as a catalyst in the meeting, promotes instant exchange of ideas 

between experts, and sorts and condenses these ideas into an organized format. 

The experts engage in parallel and simultaneous communication. The format 

allows two or more experts to provide opinions through their PCs without 

having to wait their turn. 

Nominal Group Technique (NGT) – The panel of experts becomes a 

‘nominal’ group whose meetings are structured in order to effectively pool 

individual judgment. The result is a written report. NGT is similar to 

brainstorming, except that it is based on the understanding that certain group 

goals can be best achieved by writing rather than discussion. 

Creativity Training – Organisations keen to tap into their employee’s 

knowledge base in order to innovate, should train the team leaders as well as 

the team members to work on problems via metaphors and analogies. 

Metaphor is a way of perceiving one thing by imaging another symbolically. 

Special Interest Clubs – Interaction between individuals around some area of 

interest, a specific knowledge of a particular market or technology, should be 

encouraged in organisations by promoting special interest clubs. Supporting 

the establishment of informal, special interest networks of people who might 

from interacting occasionally with each other becomes important because 

traditional boundaries between business are changing very fast. 

6.1.1.3 Communication (Explicit to Explicit) 

Explicit knowledge can be easily captured and transmitted to a worldwide 

audience. Technology helps by motivating people to capture and share what they have 

or what they know. 

 

Meetings and Seminars – Presentations, lectures delivered in the seminars, 

conferences, meetings help in direct dissemination of explicit knowledge to the

6 

 

group of audience. Similarly with seminars and presentations that are 

interactive where in different members give their findings to the group, and 

collectively enrich their understanding of issues that are relevant to meet 

business objectives. 

Intranet – Formation of an intranet often enables consolidation of knowledge 

assets that can be accessed and exchanged within organisation. Intranets due to 

a constant flow of information primarily enhance knowledge within 

organizational boundaries. 

Online Knowledge Transfer – Sending an attached memo or document via e- 

mail expedites knowledge sharing in an efficient and effective way. E-mail is 

the most frequently used online contact between knowledge workers. 

Managing information with e-mail is more efficient than dealing with the flood 

of lectures, faxes and bills we handled today. 

6.1.1.4 Internalization (Explicit to Tacit) 

This is also called “Learning by Doing”. One of the important goals of KM is 

to create technology to help users to derive tacit knowledge from explicit knowledge. 

 

 

 

 

 

Workshops – Many organizations are now moving towards training programs 

such as ‘workshops’ that offer actual performing of the tasks as that is known 

to trigger experimentation and hence new knowledge generation. This kind of 

programs give an opportunity to individuals to either observe an activity or to 

go through a piece of presentations and then to do the activity immediately 

after that. They are the way of enhancing the tacit knowledge of the 

employees. 

Action Learning – When the individual tries to summarize the explicit 

knowledge and his experiences by making use of the models, it increases his 

understanding of the same explicit knowledge, thus enhancing his tacit 

knowledge on that topic. 

Learning by Experience – The ability to learn by experience is a mark of 

intelligence. Trial and error or reworking problem is used to acquire 

experience in problem solving. An expert uses experience to explain how a 

problem is solved. 

Learning by Example – Specially constructed examples are used instead of 

broad range of experience. Much classroom instructions are composed of 

teaching by example – providing examples, cases, or scenarios that develop the 

concepts students are expected to learn, because this method allows students to 

learn without requiring them to accumulate experience, it is more efficient than 

learning by experience. 

Learning by Discovery – This is undirected approach, where humans explore 

a problem area without advance knowledge of the objective.

7 

6.1.2 Knowledge Capture 

This activity enables the Knowledge Manager to identify the knowledge 

sources which can be the know-how, competitors’ intelligence, marketing and 

customer information etc. Also this is a process by which the experts’ thoughts and 

experiences are captured. Knowledge capture also includes capturing knowledge from 

other sources such as books, technical manuscripts, and drawings. Knowledge capture 

is a demanding mental process in which a knowledge developer collaborates with the 

experts to convert expertise into a coded program. 

The following steps are involved in knowledge capture. 

 

 

 

Using an appropriate tool to elicit information from the expert. 

Interpreting the information and inferring the expert’s understanding 

knowledge. 

Building the rules that represent the expert’s thought processes. 

6.1.2.1 Knowledge Capture Tools & Techniques 

Interview is used commonly in the early stage of tacit knowledge capture. It is 

the oldest and most often used tool for capturing and verifying tacit 

knowledge. Because the knowledge captured through an interview is so 

important to KM system development, validity is critical issue. In an interview, 

the knowledge developer has an opportunity to verify information and observe 

the expert’s thought process in action. A major benefit of interview is 

behavioural analysis. 

 

 

Onsite Observation is a process of observing, interpreting, and recording an 

expert’s problem solving behaviour while it takes place. The knowledge 

developer does more listening than talking, avoids giving advice and does not 

pass judgment on what is observed, even if it is incorrect; and does not argue 

with the expert while the expert is performing the task. On-site observation 

gives the knowledge developer a visual or a live exposure to the kind of 

information that can also be gathered through the interview. 

Intelligent databases, keyboard scanners, note-capture tools, and electronic 

whiteboards are examples of IT components that can support knowledge 

acquisition. 

6.2 Knowledge Sharing 

Knowledge sharing is an activity of disseminating and making available 

knowledge among the members of an organisation. This activity is effectively done 

with the help of IT. Internet plays an important role in sharing the knowledge. 

Knowledge sharing is enhanced through email, video conferencing, and online 

discussions-forums and so on. Web browsers, web pages, distributed systems are some 

of the knowledge transfer tools.

8 

Knowledge sharing is enhanced by two tools : the first is the intranet, which 

includes the development of knowledge repositories ( memos, reports, articles) and 

knowledge compilation. Another tool ( such as Yahoogroups) is used to manage 

knowledge-specific activities, that is , knowledge acquisitions, creation, distribution, 

communication, sharing and application 18 . Knowledge management consists of the 

administration of knowledge assets of an organization and sharing and enlarging those 

assets. 

6.3 Knowledge Retention & Utilization 

Knowledge retention deals with ways to capture knowledge “before it walks 

out the door” and avoid “reinventing the wheel.” The need for knowledge retention is 

driven by trends in outsourcing and retirement. The loss of critical knowledge hits 

organizations by the growing number of managers and executives retiring and exiting 

from the workforce, and by the shrinking pool of qualified younger workers. 

The retention process identifies potential critical knowledge loss through 

attrition in the workplace and that executes plans to retain that knowledge to maximize 

organizational performance. The shared knowledge should be conceptualized and 

analyzed which plays a vital role in taking strategic decisions, problem solving and 

generating new knowledge. Designing of database management, information systems 

and expert systems are some of the processes carried out to retain the captured 

knowledge. 

7. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TOOLS & TECHNOLOGIES 

The application of information technology raises the scope and speed of 

knowledge acquisition, reduces knowledge acquisition cost. It is impossible to 

accomplish such important tasks using man’s brains only in the modern society in 

which the knowledge change with each passing day. It will be possible to link closely 

knowledge sources and knowledge worker by computer networks, thus constructing 

knowledge networks in libraries. 

 

 

 

Web based learning is a learning experience that builds knowledge, skills and 

capabilities using real time web enabled technologies. The course contents 

developed based on the curriculum are made available to the individual users 

in the institution through their internal networks or worldwide through the 

website. 

Intranet is a platform, by using standard internet protocol, forms an online 

community of staff, particularly for those in geographically isolated locations 

to remain in contact with their organization. Faculties on various levels in inter 

and intra departmental level can share documents and their views through 

intranet. 

Internet is the biggest depositories of information which is the effective 

platform for communication and collaboration. Creating web portals and 

knowledge portals have become inevitable task of the knowledge worker. Web 

portals are the gateway of accessing information from various websites. 

Knowledge portals are the integrated information and knowledge which are 

essential for decision making and policy making.

9 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Groupware encompasses a set of functions designed to help members of a 

group with tasks of interest to the group as a whole. E-mail, shared document 

databases, and electronic forums are the components of a groupware solution. 

It encourages the group members to pool their knowledge and experience, 

resulting in thorough information processing and better decision making at a 

reasonable cost. It is designed to facilitate the work of groups and may be used 

to communicate, cooperate, coordinate, solve problems, and compete or 

negotiate. Groupware enables the possibility of faster, clearer, and more 

persuasive communication in problem solving, and cuts down the cost and 

time in coordinating group work. 

Knowledge Portals are web based application providing a single point of 

access to online information. They assure secure and reliable interface to 

participants in a business process and collaborate with users through the 

integration of external web based applications or internal back-offices systems. 

The portals facilitate the dissemination of knowledge across the organisation 

and collaboration among employees, and assist the organisation in reaching its 

members. 

Search Engine is undertaking Knowledge Management practice by searching 

the data from the local processed database and the information links web sites. 

By using this application, learners will get both the explicit knowledge and 

tacit knowledge and further information links. Further, it provides the 

functionality to access other popular search engines, i.e. directly get the search 

results from other favorite sites. In this way, users will obtain more accurate 

knowledge in a timely manner. 

Virtual Classrooms aims to deliver education to learners who are not 

physically "on site". Rather than attending courses in person, teachers and 

students may communicate at times of their own choosing by exchanging 

electronic media, or through technology that allows them to communicate in 

real time and through other chatting ways. Video Conferencing system 

established in an organisation makes it practicable for remote knowledge 

workers to initiate a face-to-face discussion over a telecommunication 

network. It enables people to exchange both full motion video and audio across 

a distributed network. 

Data Mining is the process of sorting through large amounts of data and 

picking out relevant information. Eventhough It is usually used by business 

intelligence organizations, and financial analysts, it is increasingly being used 

in the sciences to extract implicit, previously unknown, and potentially useful 

information from data sets and databases generated by modern experimental 

and observational methods. 

Knowledge Mapping is commonly used to cover functions such as a 

knowledge audit which discovers what knowledge exists at the start of a 

knowledge management project, a network survey which maps the 

relationships between communities involved in knowledge creation and

10 

 

sharing, and creating a map of the relationship of knowledge assets to core 

business process. 

Document Management System is a computer system used to track and store 

electronic documents and/or images of paper documents. It is related to digital 

asset management, document imaging, workflow systems and records 

management systems. 

8. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION 

The application of four-stage practices framework to the implementation of 

KM in an educational institution delivers a good KM system. 

8.1. Analysis of Existing Infrastructure & Aligning KM and Business Strategy 

By analyzing the existing infrastructure we can identify the critical gaps in the 

existing set up and can identify the concrete steps to leverage and to build a KM 

platform. Usually business strategy is in high level and the system is in low level. The 

linking these two can be done by raising the KM platform design to the level of 

business strategy and pulling down the business strategy to the level of the system 

design. 

8.2. KM System Analysis, Design and Development 

The system analysis should first carefully identify and select the target endusers 

and subject experts, conduct a detailed needs assessment and select the 

infrastructural components and readily available technology to build the layer of KM 

and integrating these components to create the KM system. Artificial Intelligence, data 

warehouse, genetic algorithms, neural networks, expert reasoning system, rule bases, 

and case based reasoning are some of the components. Based on the needs assessment, 

available resources and components the blue print is prepared that provides a plan for 

building and incrementally improving KM system. Once the blue print is prepared for 

the KM system, the next step is actually putting together a working version of the 

system. 

The KM team should thus have a greater control over the project variables, and 

the executive management should be more likely to provide the required support. 

Finding the right balance between using already available content versus 

creating new knowledge depending on the organizational needs and target consumers 

will ensure the relevant, right and adequate content which will give a solid start to the 

KM implementation. 

The KM system design and process workflow need to manage this knowledge 

evolution directly impacts end-user adoption. Simple and effective workflow makes a 

KM appear natural and in tune with overall business processes will users learn and 

adopt the system faster. It will also ensure that users do not see the KM system as 

adding bureaucracy and complexity, but rather as a system that encourages the easy 

creation and sharing of knowledge.

11 

8.3. Deployment of the KM System 

Selection of the right, nontrivial and representative pilot project and 

implementation of it to precede the introduction of a full-fledged KM system is 

important. Implementing a pilot project will give clear feedback about the difficulties 

encountered during execution and alternate solutions to the difficulties. The system 

should allow room to incorporate user feedback, prioritize and implement change 

requests, and finally deliver a real project. KM requires enthusiastic leadership to 

motivate the employees to use the system and contribute to its enthusiastic adoption. 

The implementation should also ensure the involvement of the user community at all 

times, pay specific attention to knowledge quality, and effectively market the KM 

system across the organisation. 

8.4. Performance Evaluation of the KM System 

Once the previous three phases are completed successfully, both financial and 

competitive impacts of KM should be measured. Selecting the appropriate metrics is 

important in measuring the performance of the system. 

9. ROLE OF LIBRARY PROFESSIONALS 

Library functions are considered as the heart of knowledge based organization. 

Knowledge based organizations such as an institution of higher education insists on 

effective library and knowledge services. 

The new networked electronic environment has deeply affected the world of 

information and has an immediate impact on the role of information professionals. The 

communication network reveals patterns of communication throughout the 

organization. Effective library managers should develop skills in using each kind of 

network to collect and transfer organizational knowledge. Commitment to staff 

training is an important part of both knowledge management and library services. 

KM primarily deals with organizing and maintaining information and 

knowledge within an organization. The librarians should be familiar with 

communication networks and technological tools of information management. The 

professionals may use internet to the fullest extent for organizing and managing 

knowledge. 

It is important for information professionals to show success along with 

progress made on more protracted efforts. KM is an excellent opportunity to elevate 

the libraries position in an organization and this is high time that the library 

professionals have to develop their skills in knowledge management and to enhance 

their tacit and explicit knowledge management. 

Academic librarians can benefit their institutions, their libraries, and 

themselves by undertaking a campus wide role in managing organizational knowledge 

using the knowledge management.

12 

10. REQUIRED SKILLS AND CAPABILITIES 

Many of the interpersonal and organizational skills that made library manager 

successful in the past remain important for modern manager to emulate. With a focus 

upon customer and their needs, the library professionals need different sets of skills at 

different levels of management. 

 

 

 

 

Problem solving skill is most important attribute. Problems may arise in the 

area of human relations, technology etc. 

Analytical skill is one of the important skills; a manager must be good at it. A 

lucid rational, well argued analysis is much more difficulties overturn. 

People skill makes a manager to work with colleagues with reduced conflicts 

among disparate points of view and facilitates cooperation. 

Political skill is required to the knowledge managers since any organization is 

first and foremost a social system. They should maintain the relationship to 

forces inside ad outside the organization. 

Business skill requires understanding of money when it comes from, where it 

goes and how to get it and the ability to promote the library and information 

services. 

Flexibility to respond to a rapidly changing environment is important. Library 

managers need to learn network effectively, think statistically and manage skillfully. 

With these skill sets the library managers must have the following capabilities 

to implement and maintain KM in the system where he/she is employed. 

Information based - External capabilities such as Client information, 

competitive information, customer information, market information and 

Internal capabilities such as Financial information, Human Resource 

information, product/services information. 

 

 

Technology based - Integrated database, interoperability of existing system, 

larger bandwidth, global IT structure, e-mail and web products, and 

navigational tools. 

Cultured Based - Team work, practical guidelines, knowledge sharing. 

11. CONCLUSION 

Knowledge Management is an essence in organizing principle, which lays 

foundation for capturing the potentials of the possessed knowledge within an 

organization. To make the most of the organizations resources and enhance knowledge 

sharing it is important to acknowledge that it is about managing both technology and 

people in order to provide a knowledge sharing environment.

13 

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