Workshop on Digital Libraries: India, New Delhi.

Workshop on Digital Libraries is being organized by TERI with support
from Technology Information Facilitation Programme of Department of
Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India. The aim of the
Workshop is to equip participants with adequate practical knowledge so as
to enable them to efficiently carry out digital library projects using
open-source software. The workshop will be held at TERI, IHC Complex,
Lodhi Road, New Delhi. For more details about the workshop, please visit
the website http://www.teriin.org/events/dlworkshop

Bibus:bibliographic and reference management software

Bibus is a bibliographic and reference management software. As with other such tools, Bibus allows one to search, edit, and sort bibliographic records. In addition, Bibus contains features that makes it unique among open source and even commercial bibliographic databases:

Hierarchical organization of the references with user defined keys
Designed for multiuser environments
You can share the database between an "unlimited" number of users
Each user will have its own classification
You can define read-only and read-write users
Live queries; that is searches that update as the database changes

Open Media Lending Database (OpenDb)

An extremely flexible web application to catalogue all sorts of things including DVD, VCD, CD, VHS, games, books & Laser Discs. The application allows the addition of new custom types too. Anything collectable can be catalogued.

Catalogue all sorts of things including DVD, (S)VCD, DivX, CD, VHS, Games, Books and Laser Discs
Lending workflow
Flexible add of new types
Themes
Supports metadata from Amazon, imdb, etc.
Plugins
Language packs

Karra: web-based, multi-lingual system for creating digital libraries of files

Karra is a flexible, web-based, multi-lingual system for creating digital libraries of files and images with associated metadata. Information can be included with each item, creating a repository of data and providing a way to search for items later.


Features

Flexibility
Karra can be used for a simple photo collection, or a large, complex digital library
Customisable fields
All data fields are user-definable. So Karra can support any data storage scheme you require, e.g. DCMI.
Administrator can choose:
which fields are displayed in search results or when editing
how many search results per page
to disable multilingual features
to display numerous titles, headers, footers and messages
the placements of navigation bars
Ease of Use
Tips and hints guide you while creating your database.
Searching
Simple and advanced
Table or list layout of search results
Thumbnails
Automatically generated and cached
Customisable size
Multiple language support
Item data can be entered in multiple languages. The user will see the correct data based on their preferred language.
Just about everything is translatable
Item data
Collection names and descriptions
Category names and descriptions
Field names and descriptions
Controlled indexing elements
Most settings
gettext is used for internationalisation support.
Items
Items can contain multiple Files.
All file types can be added to an OSIC database.
Including, but not limited to: jpeg, png, mpeg, mov, mp3, ogg, wav, txt, html, doc, pdf, rtf, odt, swx, xml.
You can upload one at a time or many using the Java upload applet.
Items can link to external URLs, instead of a local file.
Fields
Items can have an unlimited number of user-defined fields
All fields are translatable
Short text fields
Long text fields
HTML fields (with fckeditor)
Controlled Index fields
Single selection
Multiple selection
Searchable
Uploadable lists (CSV, TXT)
Images
Images can be compressed/resized on-the-fly, for transfer over slow networks.
Images fit-to-window, resized, or original size
Unlimited heirarchical categories.
Unlimited user-defined fields for metadata description.
Multiple field types: Single line, Multiple line, HTML, Controlled index
CSS Theme support
View count
Statistics page

YALE(Yet Another Learning Environment) now on Widows platform

YALE (Yet Another Learning Environment) is a flexible open-source tool for knowledge discovery, machine learning experiments, and data mining applications. Experiments can be made up of a large number of arbitrarily nestable operators and their setup is described by XML files which can easily be created with a graphical user interface. Applications of YALE cover both research and real-world data mining tasks.More than 350 nestable learning and preprocessing operators are provided. Among other features, the new release YALE 3.3 offers a completely revised visualization engine which is both more efficient and more powerful. Beside other major improvements and several bugfixes this version also includes a Windows executable and a Windows installer.

Wireless technologies -WiMax, Bluetooth, UWB, WPA2, 3G, 4G, 3GPP, Wi-Media, Wireless switches to mobile VoIP, IMS etc- will have a huge impact on library services in the coming years.

Wi-Fi standards has seen an exponential growth in recent times

802.11e:IEEE standard belongs to the WLAN cadre, and is aimed at improving audio and video streaming over Wi-Fi networks.

3G: will provide the ability to transfer both voice and data (e.g Video telephony). Data transfer can achieve upto 3Mbps

4G: Data transfer rate upto 100Mbps (moving) 1Gbps (stastionary). Internet Telephony over mobiles or Mobile IP to offer wireless network anywhere. (e.g skype offering VoIP, Nokia 6136 uses UMA(Unlicensed Mobile Access)

WiMax: Speeds of 75 Mbps and range of 50 kms to connect wirelessly.

802.11n: latest ratified wireless standards set to enable speeds in excess of 100 Mbps
OMA-DS: Data Synchronization technology that can let your administrator audit and configure mobile devices remotely. New avtaar of the SyncML standard.


More information on wireless technologies: http://www.winlab.rutgers.edu/pub/Links.html

New Services in Library:

i) SMS: SMS query, SMS catalogue search, Reserve book through SMS, Read e-books, Personalised information services.
ii) Fee based Information Services: Pre-paid Information Services, Post-paid Information services.
iii) Real time Information services
iv) LIC (library and Information center) call centers –provide 24x7 services to their clientele.
v) Live Reference(with help of Video telephony): live chat with
Reference librarian.


Live examples:


http://www2.selu.edu/Library/ServicesDept/referenc/textalibrarian.html
http://www.oli.tafe.qld.gov.au/library/contact/sms.html
http://www.altarama.com.au/refxsms.htm
http://library.curtin.edu.au/contact/sms.html

10th ECDL will be held in Alicante (Spain) in September 2006

The 10th ECDL will be held in Alicante (Spain) in September 2006. The ECDL has become the major European conference on digital libraries, and associated technical, practical, and social issues, gathering researchers, developers, content providers and users in the field.

The conference will include presentations and discussions about technical issues and other applications. Topics include (but are not limited to):

-Concepts of Digital Libraries and digital content.
-Collection building, management and integration.
-System architectures, integration and interoperability.
-Information organization, search and usage.
-Multilingual information Access and Multimedia Information Handling.
-User interfaces for Digital Libraries
-User studies and system evaluation.
-Digital archiving and preservation: methodological, technical and legal issues.

Digital Library applications in e-science, e-learning, e-government, cultural heritage, etc. The special topic of this edition of the ECDL Conference is "Towards the European Digital Library".

International Conference on Semantic Web and Digital Libraries

Documentation Research and Training Centre (DRTC), Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Bangalore, India, is organizing an International Conference on ~Semantic Web and Digital Libraries" February 21-23, 2007 at Bangalore, India.The themes and sub themes are listed at the conference website: http://drtc.isibang.ac.in/icsd. send your extended abstract or full paper before 30th September 2006 to:icsd[at]drtc.isibang.ac.in and/or icsd2007[at]gmail.com.