BLIE-229

(I)

(Q1) Explain the procedures involved in an automated circulation system

Ans) Library circulation or library lending comprises the activities around the lending of library
books and other material to users of a lending library. A circulation or lending department is
one of the key departments of a library.

The main public service point is the circulation desk or loans desk, usually found near the main
entrance of a library. It provides lending services and facilities for return of loaned items.
Renewal of materials and payment of fines are also handled at the circulation desk. [1]
Circulation staff may provide basic search and reference services, though more in-depth
questions are usually referred to reference librarians at the library reference desk. The
circulation desk is in most cases staffed by library support staff instead of professional
librarians.

Functions of the Circulation Desk Staff

 Lending materials to library users
 Checking in materials returned
 Monitoring materials for damage and routing them to the appropriate staff for repair or
replacement
 Troubleshooting circulation technology, i.e. library circulation software, scanners, printers, etc.
 Collecting statistics on library use, i.e. patron transactions, material checkouts, etc.
 Creation of borrowers pockets, i.e. when using The Brown issuing system
 Charging and receipting overdue fines.
 Send out overdue notices to borrower.
 Operating automated filing and recovery system and technology.
 Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
 Enjoy working with the public.
 Adapt to new software and equipment.
 Perform moderate physical work including the ability to carry, pull, and lift up to 30 pounds.
 Bend and stand for long periods of time.
 Ability to conduct/reconcile financial reports.
 Communicate via telephone, email.
 Ability to see and read materials.
 Assist patrons at the circulation and reserve desk.
 Assist Circulation supervisor with training student employee if it is an academic environment.
 Maintain the stacks by re-shelving materials in library by call number whether Dewey Decimal
system or Library congress system.
 Resolve issues, such as inappropriate patron conduct, including but not limited to cell phone
usages, open drink containers, and inappropriate noise levels.

(Q2) Discuss the generic parameters for evaluation library automation packages

Ans) In any endeavor in which we make a substantial investment of money, energy, and time or other
resources, we like to know what kind of return we are getting. The ability to evaluate the return on our
investment gives us the basis on which to choose between alternative. So an evaluation is basically a
judgment of worth. It is a matter of comparison of actual result with external standard, in the light of
existing institutional realities which may be relevant to evaluating the future trajectory of the program
or services and provide an objective basis for decision making.Software evaluation is quite a difficult
task; we have to consider the following procedure, features and aids to evaluate software packages.
Preliminary step

1. Consults other: You don't want software that stops unexpectedly, slows down on large network,
report error message, so consult with other who have already used the software in the same way you
intend to use the system or consult other who have already experienced on that software.
2. Who refer you: the reputation of person or the institution, his/her experienced on that particular
software should also be justified at this point.
3. Reputation of the manufacture and vendor the reputation of the manufacturer and vendor should
also be considered.
Documentation

1. Existing literature: go for the software after carefully examining the existing literature and
documentation on the particular software.
2. Training: does the company or authority of the particular software provide training? Where and how
the training is conducted, whether it is online, Onsite should also be consider.
3. Manual: does the training is accompanied by easy to follow supporting print material or manual. How
good the manual is?
General features of the software

1. Various computer platform: the various computer platform needed to run the software i.e. server,
wireless connectivity, hard disc space needed etc.
2. Multiple platform: does the software able to run in multiple platforms such as windows 2000, windows
N.T., windows98, 95 etc.
 3. Capacity: The restriction in total number of database /information /records in a database it can handle
effectively.
4. Speed: Speed of operation in different environment.
5. Flexibility: Flexibility to handle of records of variable sizes.
6. Standardize data format: Does it use standardize data form for importing and exporting of data.
7. De-bugging facility: De-bugging facility and scope of proper error message while executing the
software.
8. User friendliness:

1. Is the system easy to use?

2. Does the system empower the experienced user with shortcuts and flexible tools?

3. Is the system easy to learn?

4. Is the system menu driven? Are the commands mnemonic?

9. Effectiveness: Does the system meet the specification.
10. Reliability: Does the search give consistent result?
11. Expandability: Is the system permit addition
12. Total cost of the software: Does the system comes in different module i.e. available in only
circulation module, circulation plus cataloguing module. What is the total cost of the system?
13. Stream less movement of data: Does the database built on open standard technologies such as SQL,
cold fusion, or XML that allows different types of software to talk to each other. That means your
different system of the software can easily and automatically shares and updates any information

(Q3) Describe some major Digital library initiatives in India

Ans) Digital libraries play an important and indispensable role in educational and research development
of higher educational institutions such as colleges, universities, and institutes of an academic and
research nature. The aim of the digital library is to provide instant access to digitized information and
consists of a variety of information sources, paper to paperless including multimedia. Digitization implies
conversion of documents in text, sound, graphical, or pictorial form into the language of digits (zero and
one). Once the information sources are available in digital form, they can then be accessed, distributed,
and transmitted easily in almost no time with no cost to the end-users over the global information
network. It not only facilitates the library functions but also saves the time, strength, and energy of the
users. A databank of digital cultural heritage from libraries, archives, and museums has been established
with online service for national and worldwide users. The chapter highlights some features of digital
libraries and the Indian Scenario of Digital Libraries.

he emergence of digital technology and computer networking have provided means whereby
information can be stored, retrieved, disseminated, and duplicated in a very fast manner.
Digital libraries have made considerable advances, both in technology and its applications.
The digital library initiatives at international level are many, but in developing counties like
India they are still in a nascent stage. But with the initiative like Million Book Project, initiated
by Carnegie Mellon University, the culture of digital library has also made a beginning in India.

A digital library to be an electronic collection or virtual resources, which may also be available
elsewhere. A digital library may allow either online or offline access to the elements it organizes
and houses, and may include multimedia as well as multilingual data.

Borgman further opined that the first research-oriented definition of digital libraries came in
1992 when the phrase ‘electronic library’ was used. The phrase ‘electronic library’ is now used
as digital library (Chen, 2003).

Rosenberg defined digital library as one where users access resources by electronic means, and
where information is delivered to users electronically.

National Library of India

(www.nlindia.org)

The library preserves the scanning and archivesthe rare and brittle books and other documents
oncompact disc. The library will digitise the books anddocuments published before 1900 and
available Indianpublications prior to 1920. So far, 6,600 selectedbooks in Indian and English
languages have alreadybeen scanned and stored.

Kalasampada (http://www.ignca.gov.in/dgt_0001.htm)Recognising the need to encompass and

preservethe distributed fragments of Indian art and culture,the Indira Gandhi National Centre
for the Arts (IGNCA)in collaboration with Ministry of Communication andInformation
Technology, initiated a project, Kalasampda(digital library: resources of Indian cultural
heritage),for the development of databank of cultural heritage.

(II)

(Q1) Library Housekeeping Operations

Ans) Library automation is the general term for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that
are used to replace manual systems in the library. It is the use of computer based systems in libraries
for accessing, storing, organizing and managing information and for library management. This covers
usually housekeeping operations such as acquisition, serial control, cataloguing, circulation, and
administration work.

The word automation has been derived from a Greek word ‘Automate’ which means something which
has the power of spontaneous motion of self operations such as acquisition, cataloguing, circulation,
serial control, etc.
(Q2) ILS-DI recommendations

Ans) Today's libraries are outgrowing their traditional discovery tools. Information about the resources
available to library users is commonly maintained in an Integrated Library System (ILS) that manages
acquisitions, cataloging, circulation, and reporting. The ILS also provides a discovery interface
(commonly known as the Online Public Access Catalog or "OPAC") that enables patrons to search for
resources. The integrated functions of the ILS have helped streamline library operations, and the data
the ILS manages gives valuable information about a library's collections. In recent years, however, users
have grown to expect more. They want to be able to see resources available outside the scope of
traditional ILS holdings, including journal articles, resources available at nearby institutions, and
interactive forums. They want options for finding relevant content beyond traditional
author/title/subject searching or generic keyword searches. When they do find something of interest,
they want to use the library's services from wherever they are to obtain it. They want to integrate their
library research and discovery with the other ways they carry on research and education, which often
involve a wide variety of applications and online services.

(Q3) Bibliographic Control and Interoperability

Ans) Bibliographic control provides the philosophical basis of cataloging, defining the rules for
sufficiently describing information resources to enable users to find and select the most
appropriate resource.

interoperability is the ability of different information technology systems and software

applications to communicate, exchange data, and use the information that has been exchanged

(Q4) MARC 21

Ans) The MARC 21 formats are maintained by the Library of Congress in consultation with various user
communities.

1. Through maintenance and revision, content designation is added to and existing content designation
is made obsolete or deleted from formats. Content designation is made obsolete when it is found to be
no longer appropriate or when the data element involved is no longer needed. An obsolete content
designator may continue to appear in records created prior to the date it was made obsolete. Obsolete
content designators are not used in new records. A deleted content designator is one that had been
reserved in MARC 21 but had not been defined or one that had been defined but it is known with near
certainty that it had not been used.

2. The principles stated in this document have developed over time. The formats contain exceptions to
the principles due to early format development decisions. While many exceptions have been made
obsolete, others remain because of the need to maintain upward compatibility of the formats in current
development.

(Q5) Major features of NewGenLib package

Ans) NewGenLib has following main modules:

 Acquisitions
 Technical Processing
 Serials management
 Circulation
 Administration
 MIS Reports
 Task to do today (daily scheduler)
 OPAC

Some advanced functional features:

1. Android mobile and tablet capable

2. Integration with Twitter helping send messages of transactions directly to users’ Twitter
accounts.
3. Flexibility of defining own search field in OPAC.
4. Enhanced contents and interactive OPAC like Availability of Book jackets, Google preview,
Comments/ Book review, Tagging, Favorite reading list, etc.
5. Zotero compliant OPAC
6. RSS Feeds in OPAC
7. Faceted Browsing (Refining search results)
8. Suggestion for other books in the rack
9. RFID supports
10. Provision for frequently used predefined templates along with freedom of defining own
customized data entry template s in Cataloguing.

(Q6) SOUL Package

Ans)Provides hyphenatable spacing out (letter spacing), underlining, striking

out, etc.,. The package also provides a mechanism that can be used to imple-
ment similar tasks, that have to treat text syllable by syllable.

(Q7) WEBLIS

Ans) WEBLIS is a free-of-charge Web based Library Integrated System based on CDS/ISIS.
The system has been developed by the Institute for Computer and Information Engineering (ICIE),
Poland, based on their experience in building library systems for international organizations such as
FAO, IFAD and GTZ. WEBLIS runs through the WWW-ISIS engine, also developed by ICIE.

(Q8) Open Standards

Ans) Open Standards" are standards made available to the general public and are developed
(or approved) and maintained via a collaborative and consensus driven process. "Open
Standards" facilitate interoperability and data exchange among different products or services
and are intended for widespread adoption.

(Q9) Digitisation process of print documents

Ans) Digitization is the process of converting information into a digital format . In this format,
information is organized into discrete units of data (called bit s) that can be separately addressed
(usually in multiple-bit groups called byte s). This is the binary data that computers and many devices
with computing capacity (such as digital camera s and digital hearing aid s) can process.

Text and images can be digitized similarly: a scanner captures an image (which may be an image of text)
and converts it to an image file, such as a bitmap . An optical character recognition ( OCR ) program
analyzes a text image for light and dark areas in order to identify each alphabetic letter or numeric digit,
and converts each character into an ASCII code.

Audio and video digitization uses one of many analog-to-digital conversion processes in which a
continuously variable ( analog ) signal is changed, without altering its essential content, into a multi-level
(digital) signal. The process of sampling measures the amplitude (signal strength) of an analog waveform
at evenly spaced time markers and represents the samples as numerical values for input as digital data.

(Q10) GSDL Librarian’s interface.

Ans) The Greenstone Digital Library Software (GSDL) offers exciting ways to build and distribute digital
document collections. It helps us to publish digital collections on the Internet or on CD-ROM. Within a
few minutes time, one can build fulltext search indexes and browsing classifiers for any collection of
digital documents. Once initiated, the collection building process will take place mechanically, running
into several hours or days for a very large collection.

Downloading digital documents from World Wide Web, organizing them into focused collections and
making the materials accessible to others can be a prime application area of digital libraries.