Dhruba Jyoti Borgohain
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Digital Library Development and Digital Library Initiatives in India: At a Glance
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Abstract
Paper deals with the digital library definition and concept followed by specific features. Digital Library Development and Initiatives in Indian environment has been categorized and discussed elaborately. The paper concluded with the remarks that more digital library development and initiatives should be taken up by the academic disciplines and Government should encourage for such initiatives. 1. Introduction The information professionals has faced number of challenges in handling, processing, disseminating information since the last decade of the 20 th century mainly for information explosion-generation of information incessantly increased with the advancement of Information and Communication Technology in all fields of research and development; use of Internet became popular during 1990s in advanced countries due to which information communication developed to a large extent leading to generation of more and more information resources that too in e-format; popularity of electronic resources due to a large number of advantages over print resources gave the concept of managing these resources for proving easy access to its seekers brought the concept of electronic library that came into being in 1992; information professionals are demanded for handling more information and it involved a greater level of activity; they are in need of greater efficiency than previous; and demand for creating opportunities for cooperation and centralization in the creation and exploitation of shared data.
Key takeaways
AI
AI
- Digital libraries should enhance accessibility and efficiency in information management for users.
- The paper outlines the importance of digital library initiatives in India and encourages further development.
- Digital libraries encompass various formats including texts, audio, and video, all accessible online.
- Key characteristics include 24/7 availability, cost-effectiveness, and preservation of resources.
- India's government and institutions are actively digitizing significant works to support education and research.
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Digital Library Development and Digital Library Initiatives in India: At a Glance
Dhruba Jyoti Borgohain
M. Phil. Scholar
Department of Library & Information Science
Mizoram University, Aizawl
Email: [email protected]
Abstract
Paper deals with the digital library definition and concept followed by specific features. Digital
Library Development and Initiatives in Indian environment has been categorized and discussed
elaborately. The paper concluded with the remarks that more digital library development and
initiatives should be taken up by the academic disciplines and Government should encourage for
such initiatives.
Keywords: Digital Library Initiatives, Indian Digital Library Initiatives, NDL, e-Shodhsindhu,
Shodhganga, NMM
1. Introduction
The information professionals has faced number of challenges in handling, processing,
disseminating information since the last decade of the 20th century mainly for information
explosion-generation of information incessantly increased with the advancement of Information
and Communication Technology in all fields of research and development; use of Internet
became popular during 1990s in advanced countries due to which information communication
developed to a large extent leading to generation of more and more information resources that
too in e-format; popularity of electronic resources due to a large number of advantages over print
resources gave the concept of managing these resources for proving easy access to its seekers
brought the concept of electronic library that came into being in 1992; information professionals
are demanded for handling more information and it involved a greater level of activity; they are
in need of greater efficiency than previous; and demand for creating opportunities for co-
operation and centralization in the creation and exploitation of shared data.
All these factors lead to production of enormous electronic resources. Now, these resources are
to be organized, managed, preserved, stored and disseminated to users on demand keeping in
mind that the users get easy and cost-effective access with huge variety of content. This demands
use of a reliable network like Internet, which came into being as an essential tool for promoting
digital library. All these lead to the growth and birth of digital environment in information
processing and handling works which gave a new addition to library services i.e. digital library
services- a step ahead of the traditional form of libraries. Information began to be stored in
digital format rather than in print form.
2. Terminologies and Definitions of Digital Libraries
There are number of terminologies are used for digital library:
a) Paperless Library (Lancaster, 1982)
b) Libraries without boundaries/Virtual Libraries
c) Electronic Libraries (IFLA, 1983)
d) Hybrid Library
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Hybrid Library is a new concept than others, and are those libraries designed to bring range of
technologies from different sources together in the context of a working library and also to
explore integrated systems and services in both electronic and print environment.
Definitions of Digital Libraries
Arms (2000) defined digital libraries as,
“Managed collection of information, with associated services where Information is stored in
digital format accessible over a network”.
The term “digital library” was used in 1994, in the project funded by US government called
“Digital Library Projects, Phase-1”.
Clifford Lynch (1995) defined digital libraries as,
“Digital Library is a system providing a community of users with coherent access to a large
organized repository of digital information and knowledge. The digital library is not just one
entity, but multiple sources that are seamlessly integrated.”
Terence R. Smith (1997) defined as
“Digital Library is controlled collection of information bearing objects (IBOs) that are in digital
form and that may be organized, accessed, evaluated and used by means of heterogeneous and
extensible set of distributed services that are supported by digital technology”
From these definitions it can be stated that digital libraries are databases of digital objects that
may include text, still images, audio, video or other digital media formats accessible online
through a network. In addition to storing content, digital libraries means for organizing,
searching, and retrieving the content contained in the collection.
Digital Library includes-
a) Full-text databases, digital access to scanned text, photographs, printed texts or digital
video segments.
b) Scientific data sets like protein sequences, or nuclear acid sequences etc.
c) Online databases and CDROM information products with multimedia or interactive
video components.
d) Software libraries or multimedia works.
e) Digital audio, video clips or full length movies.
f) Computer storage devices like optical disks, juke boxes, CD ROM/ DVD ROM towers
etc.
g) Commercial and academic system designed to enable e-access to large corpora of
electronic documents to authorized users.
3. Features of Digital Libraries
Digital libraries are characterized by three characteristics:
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a) Access: Supports multiple, instant and remote access to its resources which can be
retrieved online, thus digital libraries are so called libraries without walls.
b) Content: Huge varieties of learning materials are provided through digital library
services to its patrons.
c) Cost: Digital access to information resources is cost-effective, comparatively of low cost
than printed materials.
Based on these characteristics, digital libraries are found to have the following features:
a) No physical boundary- Users need not visit the library physically, people from
anywhere in the world can access information resources through Internet. That’s why
digital libraries are called “virtual libraries”.
b) Round the clock availability- A digital library provides access to its resources 24x7,
people can use those resources as per their convenience justifying its title “Library
without walls”.
c) Information Retrieval- The user is able to use any search term (word, phrase, title,
subject, and author) to search the entire collection i.e. compatible to federated search.
Digital libraries can provide user friendly interfaces, giving click able access to its
resources.
d) Preservation and Conservation- Digitization is not a long term preservation solution for
physical collections, but does succeed in providing access copies for materials that would
otherwise fall to degradation from repeated use.
e) Space- Digital information requires very little physical space to contain them and media
storage technologies are more affordable than storage technologies for printed
documents. Traditional libraries needed much storage space but digital libraries have
much potential to store lots of information in a little space.
f) Added Values- Certain characteristics of objects, primarily the quality of images, change
from a format to another can be improved. Digitization can enhance legibility and remove
visible flaws such as stains and discoloration.
g) Multiple Access- The same resource can be used at the same time by a number of
institutions and patrons. This may not be the case for a copyrighted material: a license
may be issued at the time of lending (achieved through digital rights management).
h) Easily Accessible – Demands simply Internet connectivity for accessing the resources.
4. Digital Library Initiatives in India
The concept of digital library and digitization has started in western countries last couple of
years back. In developing countries like India, initiatives are being taken. The Govt. of India has
already taken initiatives with the help from USA. The National Science Foundation of USA has
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initiated “The Million Book Project” at the Carnegie Mellon University in USA with India as a
part in this endeavor. The project at digitizing a million books by 2005 alone. When it was over
then it proved to be an important step in the field of digitization in India. As a part of this project,
India launched “Digital Library of India Portal” in September, 2002 and it was launched by Dr.
APJ Abdul Kalam. As a part of digitization efforts, the Department of Culture, Ministry of
Tourism and Culture, GoI, also launched National Mission for Manuscripts in February, 2003. It
was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Sri Atal Vihari Bajpayee. The main aim of this
mission was to facilitate conservation and preservation of manuscript through digitization, to
encourage research in study of Indian languages and manuscriptology, and to build a National
Manuscript Library. All these projects launched in India for initiating digitization in library
operations and services.
There are numbers of Digital Library Initiatives in India which are discussed briefly and
arranged under the following categories:
A). Initiatives for Digital Library of Books
[1] Digital Library of India (http://www.dli.ernet.in)
It is a part of Universal Digital Library Project of US-NSF and Million Book Project
envisaged by Carnegie Mellon University, USA. Initiated in India on 8th September,
2003; coordinating agency is IISc Bangalore, supported by Ministry of
Communication and Information Technology, GoI.
Activities – Digitizes and preserves all significant library artistic and scientific works
in its three regional mega scanning centre and 21 scanning centers and make it freely
available to the world for education and research. At present Digital Library of India
hosts 4, 80, 335 books.
Participating Institutes – Indian Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad;
Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Noida; C-DAC Kolkata;
and ERNET, INDIA.
[2] VigyanPrasar Digital Library (http://vigyanprasar.gov.in/digilib/)
It is co-ordinated by VigyanPrasar, an autonomous council under DST, GoI for
communication in the field of Science and Technology. It maintains an open access
digital library to spread scientific knowledge, where digital collections contains
digitized full-text versions of all significant scientific works that are being published
by VigyanPrasar.
Participating Institutes – National Council for Science and Technology
Communication (NCSTC), New Delhi; NCSTC Network, Delhi; and National
Children’s Science Congress.
[3] NCERT Online Textbooks (http://www.ncert.nic.in/textbooks/testing/Index.htm)
The National Council for Educational Training and Research has initiated a national
portal where school textbooks based on National Curriculum Framework-2005, are
freely available on the Internet for students and teachers. This portal provides easy
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navigation to textbook chapters by title/subject of the book for a particular class. The
entire book or individual chapters can be downloaded as per terms of use as
mentioned in the copyright notice. The service provides easy access to textbooks of
all subjects published by NCERT for class 1 to 12 in Hindi, English and Urdu.
B). Initiatives for Digital Library of Manuscripts
[1] Kalasampada: Digital Library Resources for Indian Cultural Heritage
(http://www.ignca.nic.in/dlrich.html)
Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) in collaboration with Ministry of
Communication and Technology sponsored this project. This digital library was
initiated for the development of databank on cultural heritage. It provides online
access to digital images of cultural heritage resources such as manuscripts, rare
photographs, rare books, rare paintings, sculptures, handicrafts, monuments, artifacts,
festivals as well as variety of textual, graphical and audio visual multimedia
resources. Kalasampada facilitates scholars access to the materials including 2,72,000
manuscripts, 10000 slides, thousands of rare books, 4000 rare photographs, 400 hours
of audio-video clips along with research publications, fifty tutorials produces by
IGNCA. It also holds a Sanskrit textbook repository called “Gaudiya Grantha
Mandira” that covers more than 400 chapters from different original texts.
Kalasampada received an honor namely “Golden Icon Award for Exemplary
Implementation of e-governance Initiatives” under the category Best Documented
Knowledge and Case Study given by India’s Department of Administrative Reforms
and Public Grievances in 2005.
[2] National Mission for Manuscripts (http://www.namami.org/index.htm)
Sponsored by Dept. of Culture along with Ministry of Tourism and Culture, GoI
launched this project on February, 2003 with an aim to locate document, preserve and
render vast collection of manuscripts which are available in variety of themes,
languages, calligraphies, illuminations and illustrations. NMM established a network
of 47 Manuscript Resource Centres (MRCs), 32 Manuscript Conservation Centres
(MCCs), 32 Manuscript Partner Centres (MPCs) and more than 200 Manuscript
Conservation Partner Centres (MCPCs) across the country for identifying,
inventorying, preservation and conservation of endangered documentary heritage
collections available in the form of manuscripts. NMM maintains a national database
of manuscripts called “Kritisampada”. At present 20 lakh data are available on NMM
website.
[3] Muktabodha: Digital Library and Archiving Project
(http://muktabodhalib.org/digital_library.htm)
Initiated by Muktabodha Indological Research Institute on July, 2003 to preserve
scriptural texts related to Tantric and Agamic traditions, as well as India’s oral
tradition of Vedic Chanting and the ritual philosophical knowledge associated with it.
The goal of it is to preserve rare Sanskrit manuscripts and texts in multiple digital
formats, and make them accessible through website for study worldwide. For digital
preservation and conservation as well as management of digital resources another
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group of initiatives were started by different autonomous councils, initiatives for
digital preservation of Theses and Dissertations.
C). Initiatives for National Digital Libraries for Electronic Theses and Dissertations
[1] Shodhganga (http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in)
It is an Indian ETD repository launched on 20th May, 2010 by INFLIBNET Centre
under the support of UGC with an aim to facilitate Open Access to Indian Theses and
Dissertations to the academic community world-wide. Aims at improving the quality
of research in Indian Universities and avoiding duplication of work. Till now more
than 405 Indian Universities have signed MoUs with INFLIBNET Centre to join in
Shodhganga Project and deposit their theses. It provides access to more than 20000
full-text copies of theses, with more than 5000 synopsis submitted by research
scholars of M. Phil. and Ph.D. programs. Shodhganga received the e-India Jury
Choice award for the best ICT enabled Higher Education Institute of the Year in
2011.
[2] Vidyanidhi Digital Library (http://www.vidyanidhi.org.in)
It is a portal of Doctoral Research implemented by Deptt. of Library and Information
Science, University of Mysore supported by NISSAT, DSIR, GoI; Ford Foundation
and Microsoft India. It is having two different layers providing support to its users- a
metadata layer which is a database and the database with full-text of theses. More
than 5000 full-text and 50000 bibliographic records of theses submitted to the Indian
Universities hosted in Vidyanidhi.
D). Initiatives for Digital Library of Journals: These are initiatives started by different
scientific societies of India and by some publishers.
[1] Indian National Science Academy (www.insa.ac.in)
It was established in 1935 by GoI under the support of NISSAT. INSA initiated an e-
journal project in 2002. The portal of e-journal provides an access to current and back
volumes of full-text literature of INSA journals, organizes scientific discussions,
proceedings and monographs, annual report etc.
[2] Indian Academy of Sciences (www.ias.ac.in/pubs/journals)
It provides access to 11 peer-reviewed journals in digital format with back files and
other publications including reports, newsletter, magazines (patrika), yearbook and
annual report etc. published by Indian Academy of Sciences.
[3] NISCAIR Research Journal (http://nopr.niscair.res.in/)
For preserving its 7 research journals, working papers, technical papers, conference
papers in digital format, NISCAIR developed Online Periodicals Repository (NOPR).
[4] National Science Digital Library (http://nsdl.niscair.ac.in)
It was formed to provide Science and Technology information to students pursuing
UG and PG courses in Science and Engineering subjects. NSDL provides curriculum
based access to e-books, lecture notes, presentation for undergraduate science
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students.
[5] Indian MEDLARS Centre (http://inmed.nic.in)
It provides information support and services to medical research community. It also
provides online access to a bibliographic database which has indexes of more than
100 prominent Biomedical journals from India. MEDIND@NIC is also a link
providing open access to full-text articles of 62 Indian Biomedical journals.
[6] E-ShodhSindhu (http://eshodhsindhu.inflibnet.ac.in)
It is a consortium formed by merging of UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortia,
N-LIST Consortia and INDEST-AICTE Consortia. It is executed by INFLIBNET
Centre, an initiative of MHRD, GoI. It provides access to more than 10000 e-journals,
31, 35000 e-books to Indian universities, colleges and centrally funded technical
institutes. Presently, there are 217 universities, more than 3000 colleges and 91 CFTIs
in its membership.
E). Initiatives for Digital Library of Online Courseware
[1] NPTEL (www.nptel.iitm.ac.in)
It is a project funded by MHRD started by seven Indian Institutes of Technology and
IISc Banglore. It provides enhanced quality of information support to engineering
students by providing curricula based video and Web courses.
[2] e-Gyankosh (www.egyankosh.ac.in)
Started by IGNOU for the establishment of a National Digital Repository of learning
resources. It stores, index, preserve, distribute and share digital resources of Open and
Distance Learning (ODL) institutes in India. It provides learning resources in
different formats such as self-instructional study materials, audio-video programs and
archives of radio and television based live interactive sessions.
[3] e-PG Pathshala (http://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/about.php)
It is a portal under INFLIBNET Centre sponsored by UGC, New Delhi which
provides access to e-content of 77 subjects at PG level. Contents of high quality
which are interactive and purely based on curriculum are provided in this portal in all
disciplines of Social Sciences, Arts, Fine Arts and Humanities, Natural and
Mathematical Sciences, Linguistics and Languages is being developed under this
initiative.
[4] UGC- INFONET Digital Library Consortium (http://www.inflibnet.ac.in/econ)
Currently, it is merged under e-Shodhsindhu. Before merging, it provided access to e-
resources to 206 universities and 150 institutes covered under associateship program.
It had the current and archival access to 8500 core and peer-reviewed journals as well
as 10 bibliographic databases from 28 publishers.
F). Special Initiatives for Digital Library
[1] TKDL (www.tkdl.res.in)
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TKDL stands for Traditional Knowledge Digital Library and it’s a collaborative
project of NISCAIR, CSIR, Ministry of Science and Technology, Department of
AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and being implemented by
NISCAIR. Public domain traditional knowledge related to Ayurveda, Unani, and
Siddha in 5 international languages (viz. English, German, French, Japanese and
Spanish) are documented in this initiative of digital library. Researcher can access
study materials and documents having scientific value of medicinal knowledge and
remedies in the collection protecting from foreign pharmaceuticals to copyright such
medicinal information.
[2] Librarians Digital Library (http://drtc.isibang.ac.in/)
Developed by DRTC Bangalore providing access to full-text research papers and
research articles related to Indian Librarianship. DRTC seminar papers, theses and
dissertations submitted by LIS professionals in the institute are in its holdings.
[3] National Digital Library (http://ndl.iitkgp.ac.in)
It’s a pilot project initiated by Ministry of Human Resource Development in May,
2016 under its National Mission on Education through Information and
Communication Technology (NMIECT) and implemented by IIT Kharagpur.
Presently it hosts 18,907,705 items with more than 1,200,000 memberships. Its aim is
to provide online search facility to huge variety of virtual repository of online
resources and integrate many national and international digital libraries at one portal.
It provides support as interface for studying and learning Indian languages and holds
content of many Indian languages. It is designed to help students to prepare for
various competitive exams and entrance exams providing access to the best learning
resources from all over the world and facilitate researchers to perform interlinked web
explorations from multiple resources. Learning resource types in NDL portal
includes- Technical reports, Manuals, Monographs, Albums, Books, Theses, Audio
lecture, Articles, Video lectures, Manuscripts, Question papers, Web courses, Data
set, Annual reports, Solution, Law judgments etc. Subject domain which NDL holds
are: Religion, Language, Natural Science and Mathematics, Computer and
Information Science, Social Sciences, Philosophy, Psychology, History, Geography,
Literature and Rhetoric, Arts, Fine Arts and Decorative Arts, and Technology. There
are some featured sources in NDL portal which are discussed previously Includes:
NPTEL, e-Shodhsindhu, e-Granth, NCERT, libriVox, Krishikosh (it includes 50000
agricultural books, journal, articles and reports). News and Events portal maintained
by NDL gives CAS to its users regarding various Scientific and Technical seminars
and programs being held across the country and also the latest development in NDL
services.
5. Conclusion
The online availability of Theses and Dissertations through centrally managed digital
repositories like Shodhganga is helping in raising quality and standards of research of an
institution besides minimizing duplication of works and providing easy access to these resources.
National Digital Library is a major initiative that is striving to create a digital environment in
India showing the world that India has travelled far ahead in Digital Library Movement. For the
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libraries which are aiming to develop a digital library must make careful planning, proper agenda
through feasibility study of projects that have been already successful in digitization. A digital
project implementation requires careful selection of hardware, software, materials and standards
to be used in the process. Digital Library Initiative in India are still in nascent stage and digital
environment in India is a new concept which can become a reality through more and more
projects funded by government and India’s participation in international initiatives like “Million
Book Project”, U.S.A.
References
Bansode, S. P. (2008). Scholarly Digital Library Initiatives: World vs India. Retrieved 24th
October 2018, from http://www.researchgate.net/publication/228705098_Scholarly_
Digital_Library_Initiatives_World_vs_India
Barui, S. N. (2016). Digital Library Initiatives in India: An overview. Retrieved 22nd October
2018, from www.researchgate.net/publication/Digital_Library_Initiatitves_in_India
_an_overview
Bhattacharyya, P. (2004). Advances in digital library initiatives: A developing country
perspective. The International Information and Library Review, 165-175.
Jennifer, R. (2006). The Electronic Library. UK: Facet Publishing.
Sinha, M. K. (2013). Digital Library Initiatives in India: An overview. Retrieved 23rd October
2018, from http://www.slideshare.net//mksinha2013/digital-library-initiatives-in-India-
mks
9
References (5)
- Bansode, S. P. (2008). Scholarly Digital Library Initiatives: World vs India. Retrieved 24 th October 2018, from http://www.researchgate.net/publication/228705098_Scholarly_ Digital_Library_Initiatives_World_vs_India
- Barui, S. N. (2016). Digital Library Initiatives in India: An overview. Retrieved 22 nd October 2018, from www.researchgate.net/publication/Digital_Library_Initiatitves_in_India _an_overview
- Bhattacharyya, P. (2004). Advances in digital library initiatives: A developing country perspective. The International Information and Library Review, 165-175.
- Jennifer, R. (2006). The Electronic Library. UK: Facet Publishing.
- Sinha, M. K. (2013). Digital Library Initiatives in India: An overview. Retrieved 23 rd October 2018, from http://www.slideshare.net//mksinha2013/digital-library-initiatives-in-India- mks
FAQs
AI
What explains the growth of digital libraries in India since the 1990s?add
The proliferation of electronic resources and advancements in Information and Communication Technology, notably since the 1990s, have driven the development of digital libraries in India.
How have digital libraries improved information access for users?add
Digital libraries provide 24/7 access to resources, significantly enhancing accessibility for users globally.
What characterizes the concept of a hybrid library?add
Hybrid libraries integrate both electronic and print materials, uniting various technologies to enhance library services.
When did the term 'digital library' first emerge in academic projects?add
The term 'digital library' was first used in 1994 during the US government-funded 'Digital Library Projects, Phase-1' initiative.
What initiatives support digital journal access in India?add
Institutions like Indian National Science Academy and Indian Academy of Sciences launched initiatives to digitize and provide access to scientific journals since 2002.