Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Digital library launched

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD Nov. 11. A digitised library with a software package that promises to give access to books from multiple publishers spread all over the globe and addressing to specific needs of different users has been launched by a city-based software company.

Kedia Infotech Systems, a subsidiary of the Kedia group, has come out with the Kedia Digital Library Systems, where the user can get all the information he wants from different publications, providing several links, relationships between topics and keywords unlike a search engine that leads to websites.

"You can build an electronic library customised to your needs, browse new e-books, search for a book by the author or title, check out the pre-publication specials for a list of books being released and give references based on keywords or subjects," said Ashok Kumar Kedia, Group Chief Executive Officer here on Tuesday.

The KDLS has digitised material of 700 to 800 books at present, including international titles suitable for the 10th and 12th students. It has evolved plans to have about 5,000 books by March next year catering to the needs of medical and engineering students.

Gradually, the network would be built to have wide variety of books for all sections in two years time, Mr. Kedia said.

With 48 servers throughout the country and three abroad, the KDLS is said to be accessible from anywhere in the world with a capacity to work offline too. The system can be installed from a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or over the Net and once installed can detect, install new components and resources whether on separate discs or the Net.

For now, KDLS is being offered to students at Rs. 320 per year or Rs. 2,300 for life membership. A smart card with a password is given to the member through which the digital library can be accessed. But, the books can only be viewed and no prints can be taken. "We are negotiating with several publishers to download the material on a revenue sharing basis," said Mr. Kedia.

He is also planning to make KDLS a global product, where the software can support different languages and the language is `scalable' - where matter can be translated into different languages. When the matter is not available in local language it gets back to English.

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