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Education Plus
STATE OF EDUCATION
Workshop
The information world is now driven by three different but closely related movements – open standards, open access and open source. Open standards are seen as the glue that bind data and information on different platforms and networks worldwide to connect to each other, share and exchange data seamlessly.
Many governmental bodies funding public research mandate that the results of such research should be made accessible to anyone in need of them. New web protocols and software are now available which enable free and open access to such information from sources worldwide. The third movement, open source software, is epitomised by the Linux operating system.
A three-day workshop on Open Source Library Management Software – NewGenLib – developed by Kesavan Institute of Information and Knowledge Management (KIIKM), Hyderabad, in partnership with Verus Solutions Private Limited, a software company, was organised in Mysore. The workshop, which was held at Sri Dharmastala Manjunatheswara Institute of Management Development (SDM-IMD), had been designed on a hands-on training methodology.
NewGenLib is based on contemporary web architectures and uses many open source components and international standards, according to SDM-IMD. Also, NewGenLib is designed to meet the contemporary requirements of the information world in automating the library administration and management, digital library and institutional repository.
“The software is freely downloadable and is already in use by over 120 institutions in India and overseas. SDM-IMD is one of the early implementers of the software,” it said.
The workshop was organised to spread awareness of the software among libraries in the country and help them to make their collection available on web platforms.
A number of structured hands-on exercises are prepared under the system and KIIKM will give the software and other resources to help the participating libraries to apply the software for their libraries.
SHANKAR BENNUR
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