After Information Technology and Biotechnology, is the new mantra going to be Library Technology (LT)? Library Technology seems to be all set to hit our country in a big way and, the libraries and librarians in India will soon have their services and job profiles redefined with technology revolution seeping through this segment as well.
This changed library scenario will demand a considerable amount of reskilling and upgradation initiatives from conventional librarians in order to fit into the new requirement.
The country has over 400 large (employing nearly 10,000 people) and thousands of small and medium libraries. The entire library (content storage and management) segment awaits a total makeover as the way information is handled, stored and retrieved today is going to be completely changed.
According to H S Siddamalliah, president of Karnataka State Libriarians’ Association, the definition of libraries has changed with technology having started to facilitate easy access to "tailor-made or micro-information." This changes the overall profile of librarians, he says.
From mere book keepers and journal managers they are now transforming into publishers, editors, digitalisers, converters, compilers, categorisers, aggregators, collectors, collators, indexers and consolidators of content.
"Online content is growing rapidly along with multimedia learning materials. As classroom-centric teaching practices are becoming library-centric, our librarians need to be tech-savvy. Librarians should be familiar with content management software products and solutions."
While there is a lot of awareness among librarian attached to research agencies, defence departments or private library outfits, says Siddamalliah, but librarians working in the government segment - universities and other educational outfits - remain largely unaware of the technological revolution sweeping their field.
T B Rajasekhar, Associate Chairman, National Centre for Science Information (NCSI) IISc, Bangalore, says that digitalisation of library is all about a system that manages and preserves documents intelligently and makes them easily accessible.
"These open online archives should be able to talk to each other," he says elaborating on the magic of technology.
Waikanto University of New Zealand has developed an open source software - GreenStone - tool that helps in managing, searching and retrieving specific content from digital libraries. IISc will start using the software from April and it is also planning workshops to educate the librarian fraternity, he informs.
"The challenge in front of librarians is that they should be able to use technology to enhance the content management, online publishing and content refreshing," Rajasekhar says.
Says IRN Gouda, head, Information Centre of National Aeronautic Laboratories (NAL), "These are the digital counterparts of traditional libraries. The content will include a whole lot of printed stuff, images, audio, video, music, movies, art objects, etc."
According to him, digital libraries are all about Knowledge Management (KM), which is currently being treated as a discipline by itself. Gauda says traditional librarians have been all along managing the print versions of content, and, quoting a recent study, he says in India the ratio between off and online content will reach 50:50 from the current 75:25 by the year 2005.
"Digitalisation will also boost other areas like telecom, networking, systems integration. In a sea of information in the future, librarians will not be those who provide the water, but those who navigate the ship," Gouda claims.
Even conventional librarians are slowly seeing the advantages of digitalisation. Putta Basavaiah, deputy librarian at IISc says, "Digital libraries offer many advantages. Information is accessible wherever you are unlike the conventional libraries which were constrained by location and space. Digital libraries provide seamless content sharing (multi-user) facility. Librarians need to take up this new challenge by upgrading their knowledge base and reskilling themselves in selecting, collating, editing and managing the matter online."
Courses in digital library sciences
• National Informatics Centre runs a crash course
• Funded by UGC, NSCI offers a one-year training programme for library science graduates on technology and e-content management.
• Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has formed a standard-Indian Script Code for Information Interchange (ISCII) that helps digitalisation.
• Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, under the ministry of IT, has a cell called Technology Department for Indian Languages (TDIL) to develop tools for digitisation of various Indian language materials.
• Asian Digital Libraries, a body that research problems related to digitalising Asian cultural heritage and languages.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
ABCD-Automation of Libraries and Documentation Centers
long awaited ground breking library management software
1ST NUGGET
ABCD is a long held aspiration for the ISIS community, since the first MS-DOS version came out more than 20 years ago. Finally, this aspiration is about to come true.
ABCD is an integrated library management software comprising the main basic library functions:
Definition of any number of new databases (similar to Winisis), which includes: FDT, PFT, FST, and worksheets directly on the Web, or copying from existing ones either from the Web or from Winisis on a local hard disk,
cataloguing of books and serials, independently of the format: MARC, LILACS, AGRIS, etc.
end-user searching (OPAC),
loans circulation,
acquisitions,
statistics,
library services like SDI, barcode printing, quality control, etc.
The software will be compatible with CDS/ISIS database technology for the bibliographic databases, i.e. reading ISIS-databases and making use of ISIS Formatting Language (or something functionally similar) for producing output (PFT) and indexing (FST) of records;
1The software will run on both Windows and Linux platforms;
2The software will allow the use of MARC-21 cataloging formats and other current standards or protocols (Dublin Core, METS, Z39.50...);
3The software will be published as Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) with the accompanying tools for the developer community;
4The software will be intrinsically multi-lingual, with English, Spanish, Portuguese and French interfaces being available by the end of 2008;
5The software will be fully documented for system-managers in at least one language, preferably English, by the end of 2008;
6UNICODE-compatibility will at least be envisaged and prepared, if not in the actual version then for an upcoming future version, which is part of the ISIS-NBP paralell project;
A testing version will be ready by September 2008 to be presented in the 3rd World Isis Meeting;
This version and manuals will be used as training materials for an international Training Workshop on the software in March 2009.
2ND NUGGET OF ABCD
ABCD is alligned with the CISIS/1660 version 5.2 platform, and will eventually be made compatible with later versions. This means that the inverted file entries are 60 characters long, and will increase in length in the ISIS-NBP based version.
ABCD is compatible with programming languages accepted by the GNU licences, i.e. PHP, Java, Javascript, Python, etc. The current version of ABCD is written in PHP v.5.
The system is totally language independent. The product will be made available in Spanish, English, French and Portuguese by end of 2008, and can be translated into other languages in the same way the CDS/ISIS applications always were.
Cataloguing module
The main feature of the cataloguing module is that it accepts different database structures in a transparent way. Each database has its own configuration files which ABCD interprets in order to apply the necessary procedures to manage each information structure. This follows the same philosophy as CDS/ISIS. Each database has its own FDT (Field Definition Table), etc.
The first version of ABCD has the following functions available:
User control through a database defining username, login, password, user level (Administrator, Operator, Librarian, End user, etc.), where specific information sources and access rights are established.
Database creation in three modalities:
Creating new databases in the traditional, four-step CDS/ISIS way: defining the FDT, a worksheet, a display format (PFT) and an indexing format (FST). ABCD generates the necessary environment files and creates the database in the Web server.
Copying an existing database from the Web server, and making changes afterwards.
Creating a database in the Web server based on a Winisis database available on the local machine. The ABCD system performs all the necessary conversions for the change of operative environment.
Management of multiple structures, providing templates for the separate entry of subfields. The structures can be based on MARC21, UNIMARC, LILACS, CEPAL, AGRIS, or any other ad-hoc structure that the user prefers. ABCD gives the user an extraordinarily wide capacity to define the FDT. It is possible to use repeatable subfields, to give names to subfields and to associate special help messages, pick-lists, etc. to each of them.
Dynamic building of data entry worksheets based on specifications given in the FDT. This table contains not only the specification of the ISIS fields proper, but also the characteristics which the fields will deploy in the worksheets (textbox, select, checkbox options, html area, text area), as well as the facilities to present controlled vocabularies related to the fields.
Capture of controlled vocabulary through authority files, obtained from the same or external databases. This feature is managed through inverted files.
Capture of controlled vocabulary through tables defined in TXT files.
Identification of fields requiring association to external resources (images, pdf, xls, etc) in order to upload these to the server.
Management of different kinds of records in each database, presenting the adequate worksheet for each type.
Management of multiple worksheets, dynamically defined by the user.
Access to records through the MFN, advanced search or alphabetical listing of a field defined as the main entry.
Creation, editing and deletion of records.
Presentation of search results using various display formats.
Printing module allowing different print formats and sorting criteria (depending on the number of records). Facilities for sending the results to wordprocessors or spreadsheets.
A module for the generation of lists and indexes.
Generation of scripts for real-time quality control during data entry.
1ST NUGGET
ABCD is a long held aspiration for the ISIS community, since the first MS-DOS version came out more than 20 years ago. Finally, this aspiration is about to come true.
ABCD is an integrated library management software comprising the main basic library functions:
Definition of any number of new databases (similar to Winisis), which includes: FDT, PFT, FST, and worksheets directly on the Web, or copying from existing ones either from the Web or from Winisis on a local hard disk,
cataloguing of books and serials, independently of the format: MARC, LILACS, AGRIS, etc.
end-user searching (OPAC),
loans circulation,
acquisitions,
statistics,
library services like SDI, barcode printing, quality control, etc.
The software will be compatible with CDS/ISIS database technology for the bibliographic databases, i.e. reading ISIS-databases and making use of ISIS Formatting Language (or something functionally similar) for producing output (PFT) and indexing (FST) of records;
1The software will run on both Windows and Linux platforms;
2The software will allow the use of MARC-21 cataloging formats and other current standards or protocols (Dublin Core, METS, Z39.50...);
3The software will be published as Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) with the accompanying tools for the developer community;
4The software will be intrinsically multi-lingual, with English, Spanish, Portuguese and French interfaces being available by the end of 2008;
5The software will be fully documented for system-managers in at least one language, preferably English, by the end of 2008;
6UNICODE-compatibility will at least be envisaged and prepared, if not in the actual version then for an upcoming future version, which is part of the ISIS-NBP paralell project;
A testing version will be ready by September 2008 to be presented in the 3rd World Isis Meeting;
This version and manuals will be used as training materials for an international Training Workshop on the software in March 2009.
2ND NUGGET OF ABCD
ABCD is alligned with the CISIS/1660 version 5.2 platform, and will eventually be made compatible with later versions. This means that the inverted file entries are 60 characters long, and will increase in length in the ISIS-NBP based version.
ABCD is compatible with programming languages accepted by the GNU licences, i.e. PHP, Java, Javascript, Python, etc. The current version of ABCD is written in PHP v.5.
The system is totally language independent. The product will be made available in Spanish, English, French and Portuguese by end of 2008, and can be translated into other languages in the same way the CDS/ISIS applications always were.
Cataloguing module
The main feature of the cataloguing module is that it accepts different database structures in a transparent way. Each database has its own configuration files which ABCD interprets in order to apply the necessary procedures to manage each information structure. This follows the same philosophy as CDS/ISIS. Each database has its own FDT (Field Definition Table), etc.
The first version of ABCD has the following functions available:
User control through a database defining username, login, password, user level (Administrator, Operator, Librarian, End user, etc.), where specific information sources and access rights are established.
Database creation in three modalities:
Creating new databases in the traditional, four-step CDS/ISIS way: defining the FDT, a worksheet, a display format (PFT) and an indexing format (FST). ABCD generates the necessary environment files and creates the database in the Web server.
Copying an existing database from the Web server, and making changes afterwards.
Creating a database in the Web server based on a Winisis database available on the local machine. The ABCD system performs all the necessary conversions for the change of operative environment.
Management of multiple structures, providing templates for the separate entry of subfields. The structures can be based on MARC21, UNIMARC, LILACS, CEPAL, AGRIS, or any other ad-hoc structure that the user prefers. ABCD gives the user an extraordinarily wide capacity to define the FDT. It is possible to use repeatable subfields, to give names to subfields and to associate special help messages, pick-lists, etc. to each of them.
Dynamic building of data entry worksheets based on specifications given in the FDT. This table contains not only the specification of the ISIS fields proper, but also the characteristics which the fields will deploy in the worksheets (textbox, select, checkbox options, html area, text area), as well as the facilities to present controlled vocabularies related to the fields.
Capture of controlled vocabulary through authority files, obtained from the same or external databases. This feature is managed through inverted files.
Capture of controlled vocabulary through tables defined in TXT files.
Identification of fields requiring association to external resources (images, pdf, xls, etc) in order to upload these to the server.
Management of different kinds of records in each database, presenting the adequate worksheet for each type.
Management of multiple worksheets, dynamically defined by the user.
Access to records through the MFN, advanced search or alphabetical listing of a field defined as the main entry.
Creation, editing and deletion of records.
Presentation of search results using various display formats.
Printing module allowing different print formats and sorting criteria (depending on the number of records). Facilities for sending the results to wordprocessors or spreadsheets.
A module for the generation of lists and indexes.
Generation of scripts for real-time quality control during data entry.
ABCD-Automation of Libraries and Documentation Centers
LONG AWAITED GROUND BREAKING LIBRARY MANAGEMANT SOFTWARE
NUGGET 1ST
Definition of any number of new databases (similar to Winisis), which includes: FDT, PFT, FST, and worksheets directly on the Web, or copying from existing ones either from the Web or from Winisis on a local hard disk,
cataloguing of books and serials, independently of the format: MARC, LILACS, AGRIS, etc.
end-user searching (OPAC),
loans circulation,
acquisitions,
statistics,
library services like SDI, barcode printing, quality control, etc.
The software will be compatible with CDS/ISIS database technology for the bibliographic databases, i.e. reading ISIS-databases and making use of ISIS Formatting Language (or something functionally similar) for producing output (PFT) and indexing (FST) of records;
The software will run on both Windows and Linux platforms;
The software will allow the use of MARC-21 cataloging formats and other current standards or protocols (Dublin Core, METS, Z39.50...);
The software will be published as Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) with the accompanying tools for the developer community;
The software will be intrinsically multi-lingual, with English, Spanish, Portuguese and French interfaces being available by the end of 2008;
The software will be fully documented for system-managers in at least one language, preferably English, by the end of 2008;
UNICODE-compatibility will at least be envisaged and prepared, if not in the actual version then for an upcoming future version, which is part of the ISIS-NBP paralell project;
A testing version will be ready by September 2008 to be presented in the 3rd World Isis Meeting;
This version and manuals will be used as training materials for an international Training Workshop on the software in March 2009.
NUGGET 2ND
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
what librarian can do for open acccess
EXCERPETD FROM PETER SUBER,S BLOG
1;Launch an open-access, OAI-compliant institutional eprint archive, for both texts and data.
The main reason for universities to have institutional repositories is to enhance the visibility, retrievability, and impact of the research output of the university. It will raise the profile of the work, the faculty, and the institution itself.
A more specific reason is that a growing number of journals allow authors to deposit their postprints in institutional but not disciplinary repositories. Even though this is an almost arbitrary distinction, institutions without repositories will leave some of their faculty stranded with no way to provide OA to their work.
"OAI-compliant" means that the archive complies with the metadata harvesting protocol of the Open Archives Initiative (OAI). This makes the archive interoperable with other compliant archives so that the many separate archives behave like one grand, virtual archive for purposes such as searching. This means that users can search across OAI-compliant archives without visiting the separate archives and running separate searches. Hence, it makes your content more visible, even if users don't know that your archive exists or what it contains.
There are almost a dozen open-source packages for creating and maintaining OAI-compliant archives. The four most important are Eprints (from Southampton University), DSpace (from MIT), CDSWare (from CERN), and FEDORA (from Cornell and U. of Virginia).
When building the case for an archive among colleagues and administrators, see The Case for Institutional Repositories: A SPARC Position Paper, by Raym Crow.
When deciding which software to use, see the BOAI Guide to Institutional Repository Software.
When implementing the archive, see the SPARC Institutional Repository Checklist & Resource Guide.
Configure your archive to facilitate crawling by Google and other search engines.
If your institution wants an archive but would prefer to outsource the work, then consider the Open Repository service from BioMed Central or the DigitalCommons@ service from ProQuest and Bepress.
Help faculty deposit their research articles in the institutional archive.
Many faculty are more than willing, just too busy. Some suffer from tech phobias. Some might need education about the benefits.
For example, some university libraries have dedicated FTE's who visit faculty, office by office, to help them deposit copies of their articles in the institutional repository. (This is not difficult and could be done by student workers.) The St. Andrews University Library asks faculty to send in their articles as email attachments and library staff will then deposit them in the institutional repository.
Consider publishing an open-access journal.
Philosophers' Imprint, from the University of Michigan, is a peer-reviewed OA journal whose motto is, "Edited by philosophers. Published by librarians. Free to readers of the Web." Because the editors and publishers (faculty and librarians) are already on the university payroll, Philosophers' Imprint is a university-subsidized OA journal that does not need to charge upfront processing fees.
The library of the University of Arizona at Tucson publishes the OA peer-reviewed Journal of Insect Science. For detail and perspective on its experience, see (1) Henry Hagedorn et al., Publishing by the Academic Library, a January 2004 conference presentation, and (2) Eulalia Roel, Electronic journal publication: A new library contribution to scholarly communication, College & Research Libraries News, January 2004.
The Boston College Libraries publish OA journals edited by BC faculty. See their press release from December 16, 2004.
The OA Journal of Digital Information is now published by the Texas A&M University Libraries.
See the BOAI Guide to Business Planning for Launching a New Open Access Journal.
See SPARC's list of journal management software.
See the list of what journals can do, below.
Consider rejecting the big deal, or cancelling journals that cannot justify their high prices, and issue a public statement explaining why.
See my list of other universities that have already done so. If they give you courage and ideas, realize that you can do the same for others.
Give presentations to the faculty senate, or the library committee, or to separate departments, educating faculty and adminstrators about the scholarly communication crisis and showing how open access is part of any comprehensive solution. You will need faculty and administrative support for these decisions, but other universities have succeeded in getting it.
Help OA journals launched at the university become known to other libraries, indexing services, potential funders, potential authors, and potential readers.
See Getting your journal indexed from SPARC.
Include OA journals in the library catalog.
The Directory of Open Access Journals offers its journal metadata free for downloading. For tips on how to use these records, see the 2003 discussion thread on the ERIL list (readable only by list subscribers) or Joan Conger's summary of the thread (readable by everyone).
Take other steps to insure that students and faculty doing research at your institution know about OA sources, not just traditional print and toll-access sources.
Offer to assure the long-term preservation of some specific body of OA content.
OA journals suffer from the perception that they cannot assure long-term preservation. Libraries can come to their rescue and negate this perception. For example, in September 2003 the National Library of the Netherlands agreed to do this for all BioMed Central journals. This is a major library offering to preserve a major collection, but smaller libraries can do the same for smaller collections.
Undertake digitization, access, and preservation projects not only for faculty, but for local groups, e.g. non-profits, community organizations, museums, galleries, libraries. Show the benefits of OA to the non-academic community surrounding the university, especially the non-profit community.
Negotiate with vendors of priced electronic content (journals and databases) for full access by walk-in patrons.
A September 2003 article in Scientific American suggests that only a minority of libraries already do this.
Annotate OA articles and books with their metadata.
OA content is much more useful when it is properly annotated with metadata. University librarians could start by helping their own faculty annotate their own OA works. But if they have time (or university funding) left over, then they could help the cause by annotating other OA content as a public service.
Inform faculty in biomedicine at your institution about the NIH public-access policy.
SPARC has put together a good page on the benefits for researchers in complying with the NIH policy and suggestions on how to do so in the most effective way, and another page for librarians on ways to help faculty understand the policy and realize its benefits.
Help design impact measurements (like e.g. citation correlator) that take advantage of the many new kinds of usage data available for OA sources.
The OA world needs this and it seems that only librarians can deliver it. We need measures other than the standard impact factor. We need measures that are article-based (as opposed to journal or institution based), that can be automated, that don't oversimplify, and that take full advantage of the plethora of data available for OA resources unavailable for traditional print resources.
Librarians can also help pressure existing indices and impact measures to cover OA sources.
Join SPARC, a consortium of academic libraries actively promoting OA.
Join the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, a coalition of U.S.-based non-profit organizations working for OA to publicly-funded research. See the existing members of the ATA. If you can persuade your university as a whole to join the ATA, then do that as well.
1;Launch an open-access, OAI-compliant institutional eprint archive, for both texts and data.
The main reason for universities to have institutional repositories is to enhance the visibility, retrievability, and impact of the research output of the university. It will raise the profile of the work, the faculty, and the institution itself.
A more specific reason is that a growing number of journals allow authors to deposit their postprints in institutional but not disciplinary repositories. Even though this is an almost arbitrary distinction, institutions without repositories will leave some of their faculty stranded with no way to provide OA to their work.
"OAI-compliant" means that the archive complies with the metadata harvesting protocol of the Open Archives Initiative (OAI). This makes the archive interoperable with other compliant archives so that the many separate archives behave like one grand, virtual archive for purposes such as searching. This means that users can search across OAI-compliant archives without visiting the separate archives and running separate searches. Hence, it makes your content more visible, even if users don't know that your archive exists or what it contains.
There are almost a dozen open-source packages for creating and maintaining OAI-compliant archives. The four most important are Eprints (from Southampton University), DSpace (from MIT), CDSWare (from CERN), and FEDORA (from Cornell and U. of Virginia).
When building the case for an archive among colleagues and administrators, see The Case for Institutional Repositories: A SPARC Position Paper, by Raym Crow.
When deciding which software to use, see the BOAI Guide to Institutional Repository Software.
When implementing the archive, see the SPARC Institutional Repository Checklist & Resource Guide.
Configure your archive to facilitate crawling by Google and other search engines.
If your institution wants an archive but would prefer to outsource the work, then consider the Open Repository service from BioMed Central or the DigitalCommons@ service from ProQuest and Bepress.
Help faculty deposit their research articles in the institutional archive.
Many faculty are more than willing, just too busy. Some suffer from tech phobias. Some might need education about the benefits.
For example, some university libraries have dedicated FTE's who visit faculty, office by office, to help them deposit copies of their articles in the institutional repository. (This is not difficult and could be done by student workers.) The St. Andrews University Library asks faculty to send in their articles as email attachments and library staff will then deposit them in the institutional repository.
Consider publishing an open-access journal.
Philosophers' Imprint, from the University of Michigan, is a peer-reviewed OA journal whose motto is, "Edited by philosophers. Published by librarians. Free to readers of the Web." Because the editors and publishers (faculty and librarians) are already on the university payroll, Philosophers' Imprint is a university-subsidized OA journal that does not need to charge upfront processing fees.
The library of the University of Arizona at Tucson publishes the OA peer-reviewed Journal of Insect Science. For detail and perspective on its experience, see (1) Henry Hagedorn et al., Publishing by the Academic Library, a January 2004 conference presentation, and (2) Eulalia Roel, Electronic journal publication: A new library contribution to scholarly communication, College & Research Libraries News, January 2004.
The Boston College Libraries publish OA journals edited by BC faculty. See their press release from December 16, 2004.
The OA Journal of Digital Information is now published by the Texas A&M University Libraries.
See the BOAI Guide to Business Planning for Launching a New Open Access Journal.
See SPARC's list of journal management software.
See the list of what journals can do, below.
Consider rejecting the big deal, or cancelling journals that cannot justify their high prices, and issue a public statement explaining why.
See my list of other universities that have already done so. If they give you courage and ideas, realize that you can do the same for others.
Give presentations to the faculty senate, or the library committee, or to separate departments, educating faculty and adminstrators about the scholarly communication crisis and showing how open access is part of any comprehensive solution. You will need faculty and administrative support for these decisions, but other universities have succeeded in getting it.
Help OA journals launched at the university become known to other libraries, indexing services, potential funders, potential authors, and potential readers.
See Getting your journal indexed from SPARC.
Include OA journals in the library catalog.
The Directory of Open Access Journals offers its journal metadata free for downloading. For tips on how to use these records, see the 2003 discussion thread on the ERIL list (readable only by list subscribers) or Joan Conger's summary of the thread (readable by everyone).
Take other steps to insure that students and faculty doing research at your institution know about OA sources, not just traditional print and toll-access sources.
Offer to assure the long-term preservation of some specific body of OA content.
OA journals suffer from the perception that they cannot assure long-term preservation. Libraries can come to their rescue and negate this perception. For example, in September 2003 the National Library of the Netherlands agreed to do this for all BioMed Central journals. This is a major library offering to preserve a major collection, but smaller libraries can do the same for smaller collections.
Undertake digitization, access, and preservation projects not only for faculty, but for local groups, e.g. non-profits, community organizations, museums, galleries, libraries. Show the benefits of OA to the non-academic community surrounding the university, especially the non-profit community.
Negotiate with vendors of priced electronic content (journals and databases) for full access by walk-in patrons.
A September 2003 article in Scientific American suggests that only a minority of libraries already do this.
Annotate OA articles and books with their metadata.
OA content is much more useful when it is properly annotated with metadata. University librarians could start by helping their own faculty annotate their own OA works. But if they have time (or university funding) left over, then they could help the cause by annotating other OA content as a public service.
Inform faculty in biomedicine at your institution about the NIH public-access policy.
SPARC has put together a good page on the benefits for researchers in complying with the NIH policy and suggestions on how to do so in the most effective way, and another page for librarians on ways to help faculty understand the policy and realize its benefits.
Help design impact measurements (like e.g. citation correlator) that take advantage of the many new kinds of usage data available for OA sources.
The OA world needs this and it seems that only librarians can deliver it. We need measures other than the standard impact factor. We need measures that are article-based (as opposed to journal or institution based), that can be automated, that don't oversimplify, and that take full advantage of the plethora of data available for OA resources unavailable for traditional print resources.
Librarians can also help pressure existing indices and impact measures to cover OA sources.
Join SPARC, a consortium of academic libraries actively promoting OA.
Join the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, a coalition of U.S.-based non-profit organizations working for OA to publicly-funded research. See the existing members of the ATA. If you can persuade your university as a whole to join the ATA, then do that as well.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Step-by-step installation guide of media wiki
Requirements
* Apache Version 2.2.2
* MySQL Community Edition Version 5.0.21
* PHP Version 5.1.3
* Mediawiki Version 1.6.7 or later
While not necessary, phpMyAdmin Version 2.8.0.3 is an extremely useful utility for management of the database created for your wiki.
[edit] Apache
Here we assume you don't want to compile the sources yourself, so just go to any Apache download mirror (e.g. this one), select the appropriate platform and then the file you want (see version number etc). Version 2.2.2 without SSL was used here. It is 4.2 MB in size.
1. Download the file and execute it. Use the following settings in the installation wizard:
* installed as a service,
* any domain in the domain field, any server name in servername and an appropriate email-address in the email field.
* Select "typical installation", for all users, as a service,
* install to e.g. C:\Program Files\apache\apache2.2\ (from here on, we will refer to this folder as.
* Note Note: A few users have had installation issues with filepaths that contain spaces, but others have not, so it is a good idea to not use spaces in the file directories.
[edit] MySQL
Use the MySQL 5.0 Community Edition — the installer file for Windows is 16.4 MB, and it was the version used in this installer.
1. Make sure to turn off any firewalls or anti-virus software. These will make your life impossible and not let you install things correctly.
2. Run the installer, and make sure you use the typical installation to e.g. D:\programme\MySQL\MySQLServer5.0.
3. Immediately after the installation finishes, the wizard offers you the opportunity to configure. Use it, and use the following settings:
* Standard configuration (no other MySQL on this computer)
* Run as a service
* don't check bin paths,
Note:
Other guides (e.g. http://oss.segetech.com/wamp.html) suggest that it is absolutely necessary to check bin paths. My setup was not working (I got the "Could not find a suitable database driver!" error) and reconfigured MySQL to check bin paths; after a restart it worked. Unfortunately I had changed other settings so I can't be sure this was the problem.
* Enter a root password
Note:
The root user must retain the name "root", as otherwise MediaWiki's installation script has problems during the initial installation.
* no anonymous account
* At the end, let MySQL's do its processing of the configuration.
Note:
Port 3306 has to be open for the current subnet, as otherwise the configuration can't be done. The wizard can remain open while opening the port and the processing started again afterwards. MySQL then uses about 57 MB of disk space.
4. Test your installation by opening the MS-DOS command prompt (not MySQL's!), starting and stopping the MySQL server service by typing NET START MYSQL, followed by NET STOP MYSQL.
[edit] PHP
Make a manual installation using the zipped snapshot version (9 MB, 20 MB unzipped). While the CGI script can work, the zipped version contains all the necessary files, and does not require any additional downloads, so it is recommended.
1. Just unzip to a local folder—e.g. D:/programme/php (from here on called)
2. Rename the file php.ini-recommended in to php.ini
Note:
My experience installing under Windows XP was that the following needed to be performed also:
Copy php.ini-recommended to [Apache installation path]\conf\php.ini
--Myscha (novawoman@hotmail.com)
3. Open the php.ini file:
1. Near the middle of the file, change the extension_dir directive line, so it reads extension_dir = "./ext/" (or a different value if you installed your extensions in a different folder)
2. Uncomment the php_mysql.dll and php_mysqli.dll extensions by removing the semicolons that begin their respective lines (quite far at the back, under the heading "Windows extensions")
4. In order to connect PHP to the Apache server as a module, you have to change the httpd.conf (in/conf) by adding the following text to the end of the file:
# Connect PHP Module
LoadModule php5_module "/php5apache2_2.dll"
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
#configure the path to php.ini
PHPIniDir ""
5. In httpd.conf file,the entry DirectoryIndex index.html needs to be expanded to: DirectoryIndex index.html index.php index.php3 index.php4 index.php5
6. Expand the system variable PATH by the adding a semicolon, followed by the PHP directory To do this, you can right-click on "My Computer" and select 'Properties' menu, which will bring up the System Control Panel dialog box, if you do this, you can directly go to substep three below:
1. Open the Start Menu, and point to Settings/Control Panel.
2. Select "System" from the Classic view.
3. Select the "Advanced" tab.
4. Click on "Environmental variables"
5. On the "System" section, look for the PATH variable.
6. Click on "edit"
7. Add the PHP entry to the variable, by entering ;, as described above.
7. Restart the computer, as it is necessary at this point.
[edit] phpMyAdmin
While not necessary, phpMyAdmin is an extremely useful utility for management of the database created for your wiki.
1. Download the installation file.
2. Unzip to/htdocs (or whatever folder you configured as the Apache server's document root)(henceforth ).
3. You can rename the new directory to something easier to remember, such as e.g. /phpmyadmin (). The zip has 3.7MB, 12.5 MB unzipped
4. For using phpMyAdmin, open a browser of your choice and type the phpMyAdmin URL (if your apache server is running as http://localhost for example, then type http://localhost/phpmyadmin).
Note Note: phyMyAdmin tries to login to user 'root' without any password so if a password is given for 'root' user during MySQL installation then go to and rename 'config.sample.inc.php' file to 'config.inc.php' file and open it and change 'blowfish_secret' from blank to any non-blank string and then browse the url, now it will ask for user name and password.
[edit] MediaWiki
Download a release of MediaWiki. If you're looking to provide patches and help in development, use the version from SVN; if you are going to be an end user, and are not very concerned with having the latest features, download a stable release.
1. Unzip your downloaded copy into a folder and then copy the folder to/htdocs (one can also directly unzip to /htdocs). Unzipping is usually done with software such as 7-Zip (free), WinZip, WinRAR or IZArc (free).
2. Rename the new directory created under/htdocs to whatever you would like to have in the URL. If your apache server is running as http://localhost for example, unzipping/installing MediaWiki to /testwiki/ directory would mean you would access your wiki at http://localhost/testwiki which will lead to http://localhost/testwiki/index.php/Main_Page or http://localhost/testwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page (PHP running as a CGI module) kind of URL.
Note Note: If you want to have short/pretty URL like Wikipedia see Short URL for details.
3. Now setup needs to be done to do that open a browser of your choice and type in the URL from above, a page will appear that tells you to Please set up the wiki first as a link.
4. Clicking the link will open a page having a form. Fill the form and then click Install MediaWiki! button at the bottom of the form. The rest is done automatically (see Manual:Config script for details on filling up the form).
5. After the setup, you are told to move a configuration file.
Eureka, the Wiki is installed!
Timespan: if everything goes well, 30 minutes, including download (on a good connection ;-))
[edit] Troubleshooting
* If you receive the error "Could not find a suitable database driver! * For MySQL, compile PHP using --with-mysql, or install the mysql.so module" then make sure that the php_mysql.dll and libmysql.dll files are accessible to Apache. One way to do this is to place them in the directory\bin. Another way to do this is to copy libmysql.dll to the system directory. (C:\Windows)
* If Apache cannot find php.ini, it may be because it was placed in the Windows folder in your hard drive and not in the Apache bin directory.
* If you are using Windows XP, you may need to add the directory in which you installed PHP to the Path environment variable, as described on the PHP section of this page.
* If you encounter the error "Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_NAMESPACE, expecting T_STRING in C:\Programfiler\ApacheSoftwareFoundation\Apache2.2\htdocs\InnovitWiki\includes\Namespace.php on line 44" (this is a known bug, introduced with PHP 5.3's newly reserved word namespace), one possible solution is to rename "class Namespace" in Namespace.php to "class Namespace2" and change all occurrences of Namespace:: in all MediaWiki php files to Namespace2:: (Warning: not extensively tested; undiscovered side effects possible!).
* Are the necessary ports open? (80 for Apache, 3306 for MySQL)
* Is Apache installed to a path that doesn't include any whitespace?
* Did you empty your browser cache and refresh the wiki page?
[edit] Easy simple "lazy man's" setup (using XAMPP)
(This method has been verified to work on Windows Vista, using xampp-win32-1.6.6a-installer and MediaWiki 1.11.2.)
1. XAMPP includes Apache, MSQL, and PHP all in one integrated package. Just download and run the XAMPP installer and the database and server should be installed and running.
* XAMPP requires port 80 and 443 to be free. Even if you have no special server software running, Skype may be using these ports. Before installing XAMPP, quit Skype for the time of installation. Once Apache is running, Skype can be used without problems again.
* XAMPP provides instructions how to secure the installation. It is a good idea to secure it now, especially with a root password for mysql, since this password will be used in the MediaWiki setup. Point your browser to http://localhost, click on Security, and follow instructions.
2. Download MediaWiki and extract it.
3. Find the web root folder (xampp/htdocs/) and add the extracted MediaWiki folder to it. You might want to rename the directory from "mediawiki-X.X.X" to "wiki" or something else easy to type. Then open a browser to http://localhost/mediawiki-X.X.X/index.php where "mediawiki-X.X.X" is the name of the wiki directory and run the web-based installation script.
* You do not have to create a MySQL database or MediaWiki DB user manually, the MediaWiki installation script will do everything for you!
* See the main installation manual and m:MySQL_config for more information on setting up the database during the installation.
4. Once the configuration is completed, follow the instructions on the page: "To complete the installation, move config/LocalSettings.php to the parent directory." Move the file ....\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki-X.X.X\config\LocalSettings.php to the ....\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki-X.X.X directory.
Note Note: XAMPP provides MediaWiki-specific help at http://www.nat32.com/xampp/wiki.htm.
* Apache Version 2.2.2
* MySQL Community Edition Version 5.0.21
* PHP Version 5.1.3
* Mediawiki Version 1.6.7 or later
While not necessary, phpMyAdmin Version 2.8.0.3 is an extremely useful utility for management of the database created for your wiki.
[edit] Apache
Here we assume you don't want to compile the sources yourself, so just go to any Apache download mirror (e.g. this one), select the appropriate platform and then the file you want (see version number etc). Version 2.2.2 without SSL was used here. It is 4.2 MB in size.
1. Download the file and execute it. Use the following settings in the installation wizard:
* installed as a service,
* any domain in the domain field, any server name in servername and an appropriate email-address in the email field.
* Select "typical installation", for all users, as a service,
* install to e.g. C:\Program Files\apache\apache2.2\ (from here on, we will refer to this folder as
* Note Note: A few users have had installation issues with filepaths that contain spaces, but others have not, so it is a good idea to not use spaces in the file directories.
[edit] MySQL
Use the MySQL 5.0 Community Edition — the installer file for Windows is 16.4 MB, and it was the version used in this installer.
1. Make sure to turn off any firewalls or anti-virus software. These will make your life impossible and not let you install things correctly.
2. Run the installer, and make sure you use the typical installation to e.g. D:\programme\MySQL\MySQLServer5.0.
3. Immediately after the installation finishes, the wizard offers you the opportunity to configure. Use it, and use the following settings:
* Standard configuration (no other MySQL on this computer)
* Run as a service
* don't check bin paths,
Note:
Other guides (e.g. http://oss.segetech.com/wamp.html) suggest that it is absolutely necessary to check bin paths. My setup was not working (I got the "Could not find a suitable database driver!" error) and reconfigured MySQL to check bin paths; after a restart it worked. Unfortunately I had changed other settings so I can't be sure this was the problem.
* Enter a root password
Note:
The root user must retain the name "root", as otherwise MediaWiki's installation script has problems during the initial installation.
* no anonymous account
* At the end, let MySQL's do its processing of the configuration.
Note:
Port 3306 has to be open for the current subnet, as otherwise the configuration can't be done. The wizard can remain open while opening the port and the processing started again afterwards. MySQL then uses about 57 MB of disk space.
4. Test your installation by opening the MS-DOS command prompt (not MySQL's!), starting and stopping the MySQL server service by typing NET START MYSQL, followed by NET STOP MYSQL.
[edit] PHP
Make a manual installation using the zipped snapshot version (9 MB, 20 MB unzipped). While the CGI script can work, the zipped version contains all the necessary files, and does not require any additional downloads, so it is recommended.
1. Just unzip to a local folder—e.g. D:/programme/php (from here on called
2. Rename the file php.ini-recommended in
Note:
My experience installing under Windows XP was that the following needed to be performed also:
Copy php.ini-recommended to [Apache installation path]\conf\php.ini
--Myscha (novawoman@hotmail.com)
3. Open the php.ini file:
1. Near the middle of the file, change the extension_dir directive line, so it reads extension_dir = "./ext/" (or a different value if you installed your extensions in a different folder)
2. Uncomment the php_mysql.dll and php_mysqli.dll extensions by removing the semicolons that begin their respective lines (quite far at the back, under the heading "Windows extensions")
4. In order to connect PHP to the Apache server as a module, you have to change the httpd.conf (in
# Connect PHP Module
LoadModule php5_module "
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
#configure the path to php.ini
PHPIniDir "
5. In httpd.conf file,the entry DirectoryIndex index.html needs to be expanded to: DirectoryIndex index.html index.php index.php3 index.php4 index.php5
6. Expand the system variable PATH by the adding a semicolon, followed by the PHP directory
1. Open the Start Menu, and point to Settings/Control Panel.
2. Select "System" from the Classic view.
3. Select the "Advanced" tab.
4. Click on "Environmental variables"
5. On the "System" section, look for the PATH variable.
6. Click on "edit"
7. Add the PHP entry to the variable, by entering ;
7. Restart the computer, as it is necessary at this point.
[edit] phpMyAdmin
While not necessary, phpMyAdmin is an extremely useful utility for management of the database created for your wiki.
1. Download the installation file.
2. Unzip to
3. You can rename the new directory to something easier to remember, such as e.g. /phpmyadmin (
4. For using phpMyAdmin, open a browser of your choice and type the phpMyAdmin URL (if your apache server is running as http://localhost for example, then type http://localhost/phpmyadmin).
Note Note: phyMyAdmin tries to login to user 'root' without any password so if a password is given for 'root' user during MySQL installation then go to
[edit] MediaWiki
Download a release of MediaWiki. If you're looking to provide patches and help in development, use the version from SVN; if you are going to be an end user, and are not very concerned with having the latest features, download a stable release.
1. Unzip your downloaded copy into a folder and then copy the folder to
2. Rename the new directory created under
Note Note: If you want to have short/pretty URL like Wikipedia see Short URL for details.
3. Now setup needs to be done to do that open a browser of your choice and type in the URL from above, a page will appear that tells you to Please set up the wiki first as a link.
4. Clicking the link will open a page having a form. Fill the form and then click Install MediaWiki! button at the bottom of the form. The rest is done automatically (see Manual:Config script for details on filling up the form).
5. After the setup, you are told to move a configuration file.
Eureka, the Wiki is installed!
Timespan: if everything goes well, 30 minutes, including download (on a good connection ;-))
[edit] Troubleshooting
* If you receive the error "Could not find a suitable database driver! * For MySQL, compile PHP using --with-mysql, or install the mysql.so module" then make sure that the php_mysql.dll and libmysql.dll files are accessible to Apache. One way to do this is to place them in the directory
* If Apache cannot find php.ini, it may be because it was placed in the Windows folder in your hard drive and not in the Apache bin directory.
* If you are using Windows XP, you may need to add the directory in which you installed PHP to the Path environment variable, as described on the PHP section of this page.
* If you encounter the error "Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_NAMESPACE, expecting T_STRING in C:\Programfiler\ApacheSoftwareFoundation\Apache2.2\htdocs\InnovitWiki\includes\Namespace.php on line 44" (this is a known bug, introduced with PHP 5.3's newly reserved word namespace), one possible solution is to rename "class Namespace" in Namespace.php to "class Namespace2" and change all occurrences of Namespace:: in all MediaWiki php files to Namespace2:: (Warning: not extensively tested; undiscovered side effects possible!).
* Are the necessary ports open? (80 for Apache, 3306 for MySQL)
* Is Apache installed to a path that doesn't include any whitespace?
* Did you empty your browser cache and refresh the wiki page?
[edit] Easy simple "lazy man's" setup (using XAMPP)
(This method has been verified to work on Windows Vista, using xampp-win32-1.6.6a-installer and MediaWiki 1.11.2.)
1. XAMPP includes Apache, MSQL, and PHP all in one integrated package. Just download and run the XAMPP installer and the database and server should be installed and running.
* XAMPP requires port 80 and 443 to be free. Even if you have no special server software running, Skype may be using these ports. Before installing XAMPP, quit Skype for the time of installation. Once Apache is running, Skype can be used without problems again.
* XAMPP provides instructions how to secure the installation. It is a good idea to secure it now, especially with a root password for mysql, since this password will be used in the MediaWiki setup. Point your browser to http://localhost, click on Security, and follow instructions.
2. Download MediaWiki and extract it.
3. Find the web root folder (xampp/htdocs/) and add the extracted MediaWiki folder to it. You might want to rename the directory from "mediawiki-X.X.X" to "wiki" or something else easy to type. Then open a browser to http://localhost/mediawiki-X.X.X/index.php where "mediawiki-X.X.X" is the name of the wiki directory and run the web-based installation script.
* You do not have to create a MySQL database or MediaWiki DB user manually, the MediaWiki installation script will do everything for you!
* See the main installation manual and m:MySQL_config for more information on setting up the database during the installation.
4. Once the configuration is completed, follow the instructions on the page: "To complete the installation, move config/LocalSettings.php to the parent directory." Move the file ....\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki-X.X.X\config\LocalSettings.php to the ....\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki-X.X.X directory.
Note Note: XAMPP provides MediaWiki-specific help at http://www.nat32.com/xampp/wiki.htm.
Development of OAI-Based Institutional Research Repository Services in India
* Using ePrints:
1. ePrints@IAS, Indian Academy of Sciences
2. ePrints@NIAS, National Institute of Advanced Studies [Screenshot]
3. Open Access IR of Bangalore University, Bangalore [Screenshot]
4. ePrints@UAS(B), University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK Campus, Bangalore.[Screenshot]
5. ePrints@KU, Kuvempu University, Shimoga [Screenshot]
6. ePrints@IFIM-An Open Access Repository of Institute of Finance and International Management, Bangalore [Screenshot]
7. ePrints@IIMB-An Institutional Repository of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
8. ePrints@AIFD-Army Institute of Fashion and Design, Bangalore [Screenshot]
* Using Dspace:
1. BHELSpace@epd, Electroporcelains Division, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL), Bangalore [Screenshot]
2. DSpace@BVBCET, B.V. Bhoomaraddi College of Engineering and Technology, Hubli [Screenshot]
1. ePrints@IAS, Indian Academy of Sciences
2. ePrints@NIAS, National Institute of Advanced Studies [Screenshot]
3. Open Access IR of Bangalore University, Bangalore [Screenshot]
4. ePrints@UAS(B), University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK Campus, Bangalore.[Screenshot]
5. ePrints@KU, Kuvempu University, Shimoga [Screenshot]
6. ePrints@IFIM-An Open Access Repository of Institute of Finance and International Management, Bangalore [Screenshot]
7. ePrints@IIMB-An Institutional Repository of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
8. ePrints@AIFD-Army Institute of Fashion and Design, Bangalore [Screenshot]
* Using Dspace:
1. BHELSpace@epd, Electroporcelains Division, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL), Bangalore [Screenshot]
2. DSpace@BVBCET, B.V. Bhoomaraddi College of Engineering and Technology, Hubli [Screenshot]
List of OAI Repositories in India
Development of OAI-Based Institutional Research Repository Services in India
(sponsored by DSIR, Ministry of S&T, Govt. of India)
Home
List of OAI Repositories in India
* Catalysis Database (ePrints@NCCR IIT Madras)
* DRS at National Institute of Oceanography, Goa
* DSpace at ICFAI BUSINESS SCHOOL (IBS), Ahmedabad
* DSpace at IIMK, Kozhikode (177 Records)
* DSpace at National Chemical Laboratory, Pune
* DSpace at Vidyanidhi, Mysore
* DSpace@DRTC, Bangalore
* Dspace@nitr, Rourkela
* DU Eprint Archive, New Delhi
* ePrints@iisc, Bangalore
* ePrints@IIT Delhi
* ETD at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
* Indian Institute of Astrophysics,Bangalore
* ISI Library, Bangalore
* NAL Institutional Repository, Bangalore
* OneWorld South Asia Open Archive Initiative
* OpenMED@NIC, New Delhi
* RRI Digital Repository, Bangalore
source- National Centre for Science Information (NCSI).
(sponsored by DSIR, Ministry of S&T, Govt. of India)
Home
List of OAI Repositories in India
* Catalysis Database (ePrints@NCCR IIT Madras)
* DRS at National Institute of Oceanography, Goa
* DSpace at ICFAI BUSINESS SCHOOL (IBS), Ahmedabad
* DSpace at IIMK, Kozhikode (177 Records)
* DSpace at National Chemical Laboratory, Pune
* DSpace at Vidyanidhi, Mysore
* DSpace@DRTC, Bangalore
* Dspace@nitr, Rourkela
* DU Eprint Archive, New Delhi
* ePrints@iisc, Bangalore
* ePrints@IIT Delhi
* ETD at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
* Indian Institute of Astrophysics,Bangalore
* ISI Library, Bangalore
* NAL Institutional Repository, Bangalore
* OneWorld South Asia Open Archive Initiative
* OpenMED@NIC, New Delhi
* RRI Digital Repository, Bangalore
source- National Centre for Science Information (NCSI).
Friday, May 16, 2008
why xp bigger then microsoft....... amazing
Microsoft's decision to pull out Windows XP from the shelves has triggered an outpouring of support for the company's most popular operating system (OS). In fact, the withdrawal of XP has been causing huge concerns and evoked pleas from the enterprise and retail users alike. This has led to a belief that Redmond giant may eventually agree to extend the deadline for ceasing the retail sales beyond June 30, the official "kill" date. The company, however, remains tight-lipped on the issue. So far, XP fans have not been successful in persuading Microsoft. But there are indications that the `Save XP' noise may force Microsoft's top brass to change their mind. It has emerged that XP is clearly the biggest competitor for Microsoft's latest OS Vista. The decisions by the three biggest computer vendors Dell, HP and Lenovo has not exactly helped Microsoft steel its resolve. Hence, the silence. Though Microsoft may still streamroll the popular opinion and phase out sales of XP, we bring you up and close to the users' arguments for XP, as also prepare you to a scenario sans XP.
How To Publish Your Own E-Book In As Little As Seven Days
Recent EzineArticles from the Internet-and-Businesses-Online:E-Books Category:
How to Ramp Up Your E-Book Sales
Using Master Resell Rights Software Ebooks Scripts and Reports to Profit Online
Make Quick Money Online - The Importance Of Selling
E-Books - Five Things to Avoid When Selling Your First E-Book
How To Publish Your Own E-Book In As Little As Seven Days
How To Create An Ebook Product In A Week!
Writing An E-Book - An Overview
Automated Ebook Profits
How To Use Ebooks For Affiliate Promotion
Why Information is the Perfect Product
Ebook Marketing - The Secret Intelligence To Getting Rapid Results From Joint Ventures
Ebook Writing - How To Write An Ebook As Part Of Your Online Profit System
How To Write An Ebook - 7 Steps To Creating Your First Ebook
Why You Must Have Virtual Covers For Your Reports
Why A $7 Product Makes You More Than $7
How to Ramp Up Your E-Book Sales
Using Master Resell Rights Software Ebooks Scripts and Reports to Profit Online
Make Quick Money Online - The Importance Of Selling
E-Books - Five Things to Avoid When Selling Your First E-Book
How To Publish Your Own E-Book In As Little As Seven Days
How To Create An Ebook Product In A Week!
Writing An E-Book - An Overview
Automated Ebook Profits
How To Use Ebooks For Affiliate Promotion
Why Information is the Perfect Product
Ebook Marketing - The Secret Intelligence To Getting Rapid Results From Joint Ventures
Ebook Writing - How To Write An Ebook As Part Of Your Online Profit System
How To Write An Ebook - 7 Steps To Creating Your First Ebook
Why You Must Have Virtual Covers For Your Reports
Why A $7 Product Makes You More Than $7
Free lecture notes, exams, and videos from MIT.
Free lecture notes, exams, and videos from MIT. No registration required.
MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity.
What is MIT OpenCourseWare?MIT OpenCourseWare is a free publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.
OCW is not an MIT education.
OCW does not grant degrees or certificates.
OCW does not provide access to MIT faculty.
Materials may not reflect entire content of the course.
How do I register to use MIT OpenCourseWare?There is no registration or enrollment process because OCW is not a credit-bearing or degree-granting initiative.
Can I get a certificate?No. MIT OpenCourseWare is a publication of the course materials that support the dynamic classroom interactions of an MIT education; it is not a degree-granting or credit-bearing initiative. However, you should work through the materials at your own pace, and in whatever manner you desire.
How do I find what courses are available? How do I search your site?A site overview is available for MIT OpenCourseWare. You can also browse courses by department or use the advanced search to locate a specific course or topic.
High school students and educators should check out Highlights for High School.
What it takes to support this work
Each course we publish requires an investment of $10,000 to $15,000 to compile course materials from faculty, ensure proper licensing for open sharing, and format materials for global distribution. Courses with video content cost about twice as much, but your feedback about the significant value of these video materials helps to justify the cost. Learn more.
To learn more about OCW, we encourage you to:
Take a tour of the siteRead more about our historyRead more frequently asked questions
MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity.
What is MIT OpenCourseWare?MIT OpenCourseWare is a free publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.
OCW is not an MIT education.
OCW does not grant degrees or certificates.
OCW does not provide access to MIT faculty.
Materials may not reflect entire content of the course.
How do I register to use MIT OpenCourseWare?There is no registration or enrollment process because OCW is not a credit-bearing or degree-granting initiative.
Can I get a certificate?No. MIT OpenCourseWare is a publication of the course materials that support the dynamic classroom interactions of an MIT education; it is not a degree-granting or credit-bearing initiative. However, you should work through the materials at your own pace, and in whatever manner you desire.
How do I find what courses are available? How do I search your site?A site overview is available for MIT OpenCourseWare. You can also browse courses by department or use the advanced search to locate a specific course or topic.
High school students and educators should check out Highlights for High School.
What it takes to support this work
Each course we publish requires an investment of $10,000 to $15,000 to compile course materials from faculty, ensure proper licensing for open sharing, and format materials for global distribution. Courses with video content cost about twice as much, but your feedback about the significant value of these video materials helps to justify the cost. Learn more.
To learn more about OCW, we encourage you to:
Take a tour of the siteRead more about our historyRead more frequently asked questions
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Friday, May 09, 2008
New tools for School Librarianship
By-siba
New tools for School Librarianship
Tuesday May 20th 4 PM PDT
Join us to discuss tips to economize time spent in the library, and how to stretch resources when you're in-office. We will discuss using online tools for:
1. Projects & Research
2. Book Recommendations
3. Scheduling IMC Time
New tools for School Librarianship
Create a Wiki Textbook
Dr. Delta Cavner of Southern Baptist University found that her class textbooks were not only too expensive but quickly became obsolete.
To solve this problem she created a student-developed textbook using her class wiki. Dr. Cavner's class uses their wiki to:
1. Research and develop pages.
2. Vet information as a class.
3. Use wiki content as a study guide.
Each subsequent class adds to the wiki, updates, and corrects information.
Check out this innovate class wiki at http://homemadetextbook.pbwiki.com/.
New tools for School Librarianship
Tuesday May 20th 4 PM PDT
Join us to discuss tips to economize time spent in the library, and how to stretch resources when you're in-office. We will discuss using online tools for:
1. Projects & Research
2. Book Recommendations
3. Scheduling IMC Time
New tools for School Librarianship
Create a Wiki Textbook
Dr. Delta Cavner of Southern Baptist University found that her class textbooks were not only too expensive but quickly became obsolete.
To solve this problem she created a student-developed textbook using her class wiki. Dr. Cavner's class uses their wiki to:
1. Research and develop pages.
2. Vet information as a class.
3. Use wiki content as a study guide.
Each subsequent class adds to the wiki, updates, and corrects information.
Check out this innovate class wiki at http://homemadetextbook.pbwiki.com/.
Scaling New Heights with RFID
BY ANIL SHRMA /ConsultantLearning Resource CentreIndian School of Business (ISB)GachibowliHyderabad -
Sanjay Sarma is a luminary credited with developing many standards and technologies that form the basis of the commercial RFID industry. RFID technology allows manufacturers, retailers, logistics providers and other organisations to "tag" physical goods with tiny radio transponders that can then be used to identify the goods without having to visually inspect them. This could mean a good deal of savings for companies annually. Popularly known as the 'father of RFID', he speaks to Professor N Viswanadham, Clinical Professor and Executive Director of the Centre for Global Logistics and Manufacturing Strategies, about how he commenced on the idea of RFID, his research, and the results. Here are excerpts from the interview.
Professor N Viswanadham: Can you tell us how you got initiated into the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)?
Professor Sanjay Sarma: The credit for this idea goes, not to me, but my colleague David Brock. Earlier the entire data was put on the chip, which made it expensive. His idea to put the data on the network instead made us to look at the ways and means to do that. By putting the idea on a chip, how can you take advantage of it to make a two dollar tag a five cent tag? If you put the data on the network then what sort of bandwidth implications follow, and how do you locate this information. The real trigger was when David and I presented this concept in a couple of places, the chip persons thought it was impossible.
Professor Viswanadham: So how did you proceed?
Professor Sarma We perpetuated three or four years of aggressive research. We had to fundamentally question the way RFID tags were made and the way the protocols were designed. We started designing our own protocols. The next challenge was to find a start up company, because some of the big companies found us a threat to work with. We generated the first Gen one protocol, based on communication theory. We started with very small chips with regard the chip design and the chip manufacturing. On the software side we had to come up with protocols for finding the data and the repositories. Then we developed something called the Object Means System and we invented the concept of middleware because some of the software vendors found us threatening. That's when the middleware industry took off. We invented new data structures known as Physical Mark Up, and eventually it morphed into what we call EPCIS, which is offered by Wal-Mart
Professor Viswanadham: The 96 bit?
I am quite optimistic about RFID market. The market is bound to grow.
Professor Sarma: EPC was a 96 bit number. EPCIS is XLR schema for offering this data on the network. What followed were four or five years of brainstorming and coming up with concepts to solve problems, and these concepts were often out-of-the-box and radically different from anything the commercial industry was offering. One of the advantages of being in a place such as MIT is we are encouraged to say things that we think are right regardless of the resentment. Eventually people like Wal-Mart, Gillette, etc. supported us.
Professor Viswanadham: So when did you start this Auto ID Lab?
Professor Sarma David and I started it in 1998. By 1999 we were contacted by Kevin Ash from Procter & Gamble. He got excited about the project. I invited him to come and sit at MIT and help us out in getting other sponsors.. We got Gillette, then the Uniform Codes Council, the people who designed bar codes, and eventually Wal-Mart and Target also joined. So that's how we set the ball rolling. Now we have five labs with one operational in Cambridge.
Professor Viswanadham: What do these labs do? How do you see this RFID percolating into retail and other industry segments like healthcare?
When RFID comes along, it fundamentally questions old business processes.
Professor Sarma: We realised very early that RFID can go deep into various systems and may change the way you buy bus passes, buy groceries, etc. It may change the way you design your house, change the way you organise your closet, for instance. We realised that this was a pervasive technology. It pervades many dimensions. While we focused on retail, geography was also equally important to us. We also wanted to harness worldwide intelligence on this. We first went to Cambridge and then to the other labs. That's how we are expanding. For instance the lab in Japan has Japanese sponsors. Japanese supply chain issues are very different and that really informed our thinking about how to progress research in this space. It also changed some of our standards.
Professor Viswanadham: How do you see this whole market developing? How much is the RFID market, if somebody wants to enter into it?
Professor Sarma: I am quite optimistic about the market. I have been in this market for the past ten years, and have seen the ups and the downs. With anything like RFID, media laps it up, and the whole thing gets hyped up. Venture capitalists pick it up and then industry catches up. We are in this phase right now, and I think, it is not going to stop now. The market is bound to grow.
Professor Viswanadham: You have spawned off a lot of companies, and one of them is Oat systems. What are the mandates for Oat systems? Do you take projects from the American or European companies and then do research for them? Are there any Indian companies for which you are doing research? Are there any implementation issues?
Professor Sarma: Oat systems is an international software product company. What it makes is a software product that takes advantage of RFID. Four years ago, we dint think India as a big market, but today we are actually working with many Indian companies. For example, one of the companies is Reliance. We are working with them on some of their pilots. Indian companies are doing innovative things, in fact ground breaking.
Professor Viswanadham: In your opinion, are there any RFID applications that will be unique for India to improve their productivity?
Professor Sarma: Absolutely. I have studied the Indian retail market in the last four years and I have become confident about the opportunities. First of all we don't have a legacy of old business processes. The big problem for retailers outside India is that they already have people who are trained in old business processes. When RFID comes along, it fundamentally questions that. And India doesn't have that burden of legacy. We don't have to bother in many cases with old business processes, we can just leap frog. But at the same time India has some unique challenges. For example, India is a very hot country. So, if you are shipping meat, then you need to know how much time the meat spent in hot temperature to see whether it went bad. The third thing is that the Indian economy has evolved in a very different way. We are a very creative country. Everything from gas cylinders including the CNG for powering autorickshaws in Delhi to the railway lines are very exciting to us. I think we will take advantage of RFID in a very savvy way.
Professor Viswanadham: Considering the cost and the lack of infrastructure, will it become main stream in India?
Professor Sarma: If you had asked me ten years ago if cell phone was going to be mainstream in India, I would have said no. They were expensive and Indians could not afford it. But now even a homeless person has a cell phone. I think for applications that I talked about like the cold chain will definitely take off. Reaching consumer items will take longer than in the US or Europe. The use of RFID will absolutely take off, and it might take off faster in India.
Sanjay Sarma is a luminary credited with developing many standards and technologies that form the basis of the commercial RFID industry. RFID technology allows manufacturers, retailers, logistics providers and other organisations to "tag" physical goods with tiny radio transponders that can then be used to identify the goods without having to visually inspect them. This could mean a good deal of savings for companies annually. Popularly known as the 'father of RFID', he speaks to Professor N Viswanadham, Clinical Professor and Executive Director of the Centre for Global Logistics and Manufacturing Strategies, about how he commenced on the idea of RFID, his research, and the results. Here are excerpts from the interview.
Professor N Viswanadham: Can you tell us how you got initiated into the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)?
Professor Sanjay Sarma: The credit for this idea goes, not to me, but my colleague David Brock. Earlier the entire data was put on the chip, which made it expensive. His idea to put the data on the network instead made us to look at the ways and means to do that. By putting the idea on a chip, how can you take advantage of it to make a two dollar tag a five cent tag? If you put the data on the network then what sort of bandwidth implications follow, and how do you locate this information. The real trigger was when David and I presented this concept in a couple of places, the chip persons thought it was impossible.
Professor Viswanadham: So how did you proceed?
Professor Sarma We perpetuated three or four years of aggressive research. We had to fundamentally question the way RFID tags were made and the way the protocols were designed. We started designing our own protocols. The next challenge was to find a start up company, because some of the big companies found us a threat to work with. We generated the first Gen one protocol, based on communication theory. We started with very small chips with regard the chip design and the chip manufacturing. On the software side we had to come up with protocols for finding the data and the repositories. Then we developed something called the Object Means System and we invented the concept of middleware because some of the software vendors found us threatening. That's when the middleware industry took off. We invented new data structures known as Physical Mark Up, and eventually it morphed into what we call EPCIS, which is offered by Wal-Mart
Professor Viswanadham: The 96 bit?
I am quite optimistic about RFID market. The market is bound to grow.
Professor Sarma: EPC was a 96 bit number. EPCIS is XLR schema for offering this data on the network. What followed were four or five years of brainstorming and coming up with concepts to solve problems, and these concepts were often out-of-the-box and radically different from anything the commercial industry was offering. One of the advantages of being in a place such as MIT is we are encouraged to say things that we think are right regardless of the resentment. Eventually people like Wal-Mart, Gillette, etc. supported us.
Professor Viswanadham: So when did you start this Auto ID Lab?
Professor Sarma David and I started it in 1998. By 1999 we were contacted by Kevin Ash from Procter & Gamble. He got excited about the project. I invited him to come and sit at MIT and help us out in getting other sponsors.. We got Gillette, then the Uniform Codes Council, the people who designed bar codes, and eventually Wal-Mart and Target also joined. So that's how we set the ball rolling. Now we have five labs with one operational in Cambridge.
Professor Viswanadham: What do these labs do? How do you see this RFID percolating into retail and other industry segments like healthcare?
When RFID comes along, it fundamentally questions old business processes.
Professor Sarma: We realised very early that RFID can go deep into various systems and may change the way you buy bus passes, buy groceries, etc. It may change the way you design your house, change the way you organise your closet, for instance. We realised that this was a pervasive technology. It pervades many dimensions. While we focused on retail, geography was also equally important to us. We also wanted to harness worldwide intelligence on this. We first went to Cambridge and then to the other labs. That's how we are expanding. For instance the lab in Japan has Japanese sponsors. Japanese supply chain issues are very different and that really informed our thinking about how to progress research in this space. It also changed some of our standards.
Professor Viswanadham: How do you see this whole market developing? How much is the RFID market, if somebody wants to enter into it?
Professor Sarma: I am quite optimistic about the market. I have been in this market for the past ten years, and have seen the ups and the downs. With anything like RFID, media laps it up, and the whole thing gets hyped up. Venture capitalists pick it up and then industry catches up. We are in this phase right now, and I think, it is not going to stop now. The market is bound to grow.
Professor Viswanadham: You have spawned off a lot of companies, and one of them is Oat systems. What are the mandates for Oat systems? Do you take projects from the American or European companies and then do research for them? Are there any Indian companies for which you are doing research? Are there any implementation issues?
Professor Sarma: Oat systems is an international software product company. What it makes is a software product that takes advantage of RFID. Four years ago, we dint think India as a big market, but today we are actually working with many Indian companies. For example, one of the companies is Reliance. We are working with them on some of their pilots. Indian companies are doing innovative things, in fact ground breaking.
Professor Viswanadham: In your opinion, are there any RFID applications that will be unique for India to improve their productivity?
Professor Sarma: Absolutely. I have studied the Indian retail market in the last four years and I have become confident about the opportunities. First of all we don't have a legacy of old business processes. The big problem for retailers outside India is that they already have people who are trained in old business processes. When RFID comes along, it fundamentally questions that. And India doesn't have that burden of legacy. We don't have to bother in many cases with old business processes, we can just leap frog. But at the same time India has some unique challenges. For example, India is a very hot country. So, if you are shipping meat, then you need to know how much time the meat spent in hot temperature to see whether it went bad. The third thing is that the Indian economy has evolved in a very different way. We are a very creative country. Everything from gas cylinders including the CNG for powering autorickshaws in Delhi to the railway lines are very exciting to us. I think we will take advantage of RFID in a very savvy way.
Professor Viswanadham: Considering the cost and the lack of infrastructure, will it become main stream in India?
Professor Sarma: If you had asked me ten years ago if cell phone was going to be mainstream in India, I would have said no. They were expensive and Indians could not afford it. But now even a homeless person has a cell phone. I think for applications that I talked about like the cold chain will definitely take off. Reaching consumer items will take longer than in the US or Europe. The use of RFID will absolutely take off, and it might take off faster in India.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
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