indian national digital library in engineering science and technology (indest): a proposal for...

Intl. Inform. & Libr. Rev. (2001), 33, 149^165doi:10.1006/iilr.2001.0165Available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

Indian National Digital Library inEngineering Science and Technology(INDEST): A Proposal for StrategicCo-operation for Consortia-based Accessto Electronic Resources

JAGDISH ARORA*

ABSTRACT

Co-operation amongst institutions for sharing their libraryresources has been practiced for decades. However, themode of co-operation has gone through a transformationwith the infusion of new information technology. The emer-gence of the Internet, particularly, theWorld WideWeb as anew media of information delivery triggered proliferation ofweb-based full-text on-line resources. An increasing numberof publishers are using the Internet as a global way to o¡ertheir publications to the international community of scien-tists and technologists. The libraries and information cen-tres, as heavy consumers of electronic journals and on-linedatabases, stand to bene¢t greatly from this technology-driven revolution. The proli¢ration of electronic resourcesin the networked society has resulted in development of‘‘shared subscription’’ or ‘‘constortia-based subscription’’ tojournals everywhere in the world. Shared-subscription toelectronic resources through the consortia of libraries is afeasible strategy to meet pressures such as diminishing bud-get, increased user’s demand and rising cost of journals. Thearticle outlines e¡orts made by Indian libraries and institu-tions towards formation of consortia of libraries for buyingaccess to electronic resources. The proposed strategic coop-eration called the ‘‘Indian National Digital Library in Engi-neering Science and Technology’’ (INDEST) is based on ¢veproject proposals submitted to three major Ministries/Departments of Government of India, namely the Ministry

*Computer Applications Division, Central Library, Indian Institute of Technology, Hauz Khas,New Delhi-110016, India. E-mail: [email protected]

1057^2317/01/020149+ 17 $35.00/0 # 2001 Academic Press

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of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Ministry of In-formation Technology (MIT) and Department of Biotech-nology. The INDEST is proposed to function as consortiumof engineering and technological libraries for building-upcore digital collection in engineering and technology. As aconsortia of libraries, the INDESTwould bring together in-stitutions receiving ¢nancial support from these three Minis-tries/Departments of Government of India. While theseMinistries/Departments would provide ¢nancial resourcesfor establishing the consortia and for obtaining core electro-nic resources, the participating institutions would contributefor consortia-based subscriptions. The INDESTwould host avariety of web-based digital resources including those avail-able through national and international agencies with con-sortia and national licenses to provide access to authorizedusers in India.

# 2001 Academic Press

INTRODUCTION

Co-operation amongst institutions for sharing their library resources hasbeen practiced for decades. Traditionally, the primary purpose of estab-lishing a library consortium was to share physical resources, includingbooks and periodicals, amongst members. However, the mode of co-operation has gone under a transformation with infusion of new infor-mation technology from a print-based environment to a digital environ-ment. The emergence of the Internet, particularly the World Wide Webas a new media of information delivery triggered proliferation of web-based full-text on-line resources. An increasing number of publishers areusing the Internet as a global way to o¡er their publications to the in-ternational community of scientists and technologists. The technologyprovides an unparalleled media for delivery of information with greaterspeed and economy. The libraries and information centres, as heavyconsumers of electronic journals and on-line databases, stand to bene¢tgreatly from this technology-driven revolution. The availability ofIT-based electronic information products are exerting ever-increasingpressure on libraries, which, in turn, are committing larger portionsof their budgetary allocation for either procuring or accessing web-based on-line full-text search services, CD-ROM products and on-linedatabases. The libraries with their diminishing or at best static ¢nancialallocations, have to consider new ways to consolidate global resourcesamongst them in order to maximize their limited ¢nancial resources.

INDEST: A PROPOSAL FOR STRATEGIC CO^OPERATION 151

The combination of these developments have resulted in the develop-ment of ‘‘shared subscription’’ or ‘‘constortia-based subscription’’ to jour-nals everywhere in the world. Shared subscription to electronic resourcesthrough consortia of libraries is a feasible strategy to meet the pressuressuch as diminishing budget, increased user’s demand and rising cost ofjournals.Libraries all over the world are forming consortia of all types and at

all levels with an objective to take advantage of current global networkto promote better, faster and more cost-e¡ective ways of providingelectronic information resources to the information seekers. GALILIO,1

OhioLINK,2 TexShare,3 VIVA4 and SUNYConnect5 are some of thewell-known library consortia.This article outlines e¡orts made by Indian libraries and institutions

towards the formation of a consortia of libraries for buying access toelectronic resources. The proposed strategic cooperation called the‘‘Indian National Digital Library in Engineering Science and Technol-ogy’’ (INDEST) is based on ¢ve project proposals submitted to threemajor Ministries/Departments of Government of India, namely theMinistry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Ministry ofInformation Technology (MIT) and Department of Biotechnology. TheINDEST is proposed to function as consortium of engineering and tech-nological libraries for building-up core digital collection in engineeringand technology. It is proposed as a central national resource of full-textdigital information in engineering and technology. As a consortia of li-braries, the INDEST would bring together institutions receiving ¢nan-cial support from these three Ministries/Departments of Government ofIndia. While these Ministries/Departments would provide ¢nancial re-sources for establishing the consortia and for obtaining core electronicresources, the participating institutions would contribute for consortia-based subscriptions. The contributions from participating institutionsare proposed to be diverted directly from funding agencies to theINDEST. The INDEST would host a variety of web-based digital re-sources including those available through national and internationalagencies with consortia and national licenses to provide access toauthorized users in India.

1Potter, W.G., Russel, C.E., Beard, C.E., Gaumond, G.R., Penson, M.S. & Williams, J.GALILEO: Georgia’s electronic library. Library Hi-tech, 14(2^3), 9^18, 1996.

2Kohl, D.F. Resource sharing in changing Ohio environment. Library Trends, 45(3), 435^447,1997.

3Martin, R.S. Texas: Library automation and connectivity: A land of contrast and diversity.Library Hi-tech, 14(2^3), 291^302, 1996.

4 Perry, K.A. VIVA’s ¢rst year.Virginia Librarian, 41(4), 14^16, 1995.5 SUNYConnect (http://www.sunyconnect.suny.edu/).

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RESOURCE SHARING IN DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT:A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Co-operation amongst libraries for the rationalization of journal sub-scription in print media and sharing of information resources as a cost-e¡ective and cost-bene¢cial solution is not a new concept. The mode ofco-operation has, however, gone through a sea of changes in the last fewdecades. Broadly, all activities relating to co-operation amongst librariesuntil 1980 revolved around acquisition and sharing of printed artifactsand their bibliographic records, i.e. books, journals in printed formsand their cataloguing information. The libraries worked with the tradi-tional practices and policies of buying and storing printed artifactsin anticipation of their use. Indexing and abstracting databases likeINSPEC, Compendex þ, MEDLINE, etc. were also acquired either onCD-ROM or on magnetic tapes and mounted for interactive public ac-cess by the libraries to supplement and complement their in-house data-bases. Most of the popular on-line databases were electronic version ofindexing and abstracting services containing bibliographic references toresearch articles and other documents. While these on-line databaseswere good and continue to be so at providing bibliographical details ofdocument or research articles, a user, however, had to depend on thelibraries for the actual document. In other words, co-operation amongstlibraries revolved around printed artifacts in one of the followingformats:

(1) Interlibrary loan;(2) On-site reciprocal borrowing privileges;(3) Cooperative collection development; and(4) Joint automation project.

The later part of the 1980s also witnessed development of shared cat-aloguing systems. These systems were exemplary to the use of computerand computer networking for collaboration and co-operation within thelibrary community and paved the way for other key developments.OCLC and Research Library Information Network (RLIN) are twomajor shared cataloguing systems in the USA.However, the 1990s brought a true revolution in digital library system

with availability of computing power that allowed parallel processing,multitasking, parallel consultation and parallel knowledge navigation.Coinciding with availability of hardware, software and networking tech-nology, the advent of World Wide Web paved the way for creation ofa global digital library. The advent of World Wide Web o¡ered acrucial advantage with the availability of ready-to-use, publicly avail-able, user-friendly graphical web-browser for all prevalent platforms.


These technologies, put together, brought-in a semblance of interactivityand arti¢cial intelligence necessary for developing a digital library.Availability of these technologies has triggered large-scale commercialand non-commercial digitization programmes the world over. Increas-ingly large numbers of STM electronic journals are now appearing onthe Web. The web-based electronic information product not only elimi-nate paper, physical storage and transportation costs, it also o¡er a hostsof other possibilities for incorporating multimedia and hyper-link fea-tures to electronic documents hitherto impossible on paper media.The availability of digital information resources including e-journals

not only triggered a shift in the acquisition process from the policy of‘‘just-in-case’’ to ‘‘access when you need’’, it also brought in the possibilityof ‘‘shared subscription’’ or ‘‘consortia subscription’’ amongst libraries. Anumber of attempts were made in India in past to bring scienti¢c andtechnical libraries together to form consortia so as to acquire better ser-vices and ¢nancial terms from the electronic publishers.

MAJOR INITIATIVES TOWARD FORMATION OF CONSORTIA OF

LIBRARIES IN INDIA

There has been a few national and regional e¡orts to provide sharedWWW-based electronic resources amongst scienti¢c and technical li-braries in India. Some of the major e¡orts are as follows:

Agreement of co-operation amongst IITs, BARC & TIFR (1998)The idea for a consortia of IITs in India was ¢rst mooted in 1995 forsubscription to printed journals in 1995 in the annual meeting of IIT Li-brarians at IIT Bombay. The librarians of Bhabha Atomic Research Cen-tre (BARC) and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) alsoparticipated in the meeting. Although rationalization of periodical sub-scription in the printed format had limited impact, it did trigger a highlyactive resource sharing programme amongst IITs, BARC and TIFR inIndia. However, in subsequent annual meetings of the IIT Librarians,decision for consortia-based subscription of electronic journals was takenand an ‘‘Agreement of Co-operation’’ was signed to realize the goal.The consortia of libraries of IITs, BARC & TIFR tried working out

consortia-based subscription to electronic journals through a number ofpublishers including Elsevier Science (ScienceDirect), JohnWiley (WileyInterscience), Springer Verlag (Link Information Services), andAcademic Press (Project Ideal) for the year 2000 but without muchsuccess. Initiatives are being taken for the consortia-based subscriptionfor the year 2001.

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STI Network for resource sharing amongst S & T libraries (1999)The proposal for formation of ‘‘STI Network’’ was initiated at a meetingof the heads of major science and technology libraries held at theDefence Scienti¢c Information and Documentation Centre (DESIDOC)in May, 1999. The ‘‘STI Network’’ has 20 major libraries in India as sig-natory to its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a provisionto induct additional members. Resource sharing in all modes andsubscription to electronic resources as a consortia of libraries are majorobjectives of the STI Network. The STI Network is an initiatives whichis lying dormant at this stage.

J-GATE from Informatics IndiaThe J-GATE interface, launched recently by the Informatics India, pro-poses to serve as an electronic aggregator, third-party gateway and elec-tronic archival facility for several thousand scienti¢c journals. J-GATE,like Crossref 6 proposes to host a large database consisting of biblio-graphic references and abstracts of journal articles, with links to theirfull-text articles at the publisher’s site. J-GATE would provide web-basedaccess to full-text of journals to the libraries, wherever applicable, if theirprint versions are subscribed through them. User’s authentication will bedone by the J-GATE interface. The J-GATE would also facilitate and in-itiate formation of consortia of libraries by bringing subscribers of jour-nals from a given publisher together.

WHY THE CONSORTIA INITIATIVES DID NOT WORK IN INDIA

SO FAR?

India does not have a very rich tradition of resource sharing amongstlibraries. However, things ought to change now with the network-basedsharing possibilities that web-based electronic resources o¡er. A closerlook at the functioning of participating libraries and their institutionsrevealed a number of reasons as to why the initiatives listed above couldnot materialized. Some of the important reasons are:

Lack of understandingLibrarians in India do not fully comprehend the concept of consortia-based subscription to electronic resources. Consortia-based subscriptionin India is generally taken as a method for cost saving, dropping of du-plicate subscriptions, etc. Because of lack of understanding of the con-cept, the librarians are not very keen to go whole-heartedly for

6 Crossref.org (URL: http://www.crossref.org/).


formation of consortia of libraries. There is a need for the librarians inIndia to understand the bene¢t and liability of consortia-based subscrip-tion to electronic resources.

Paucity of fundsInformation in electronic format has numerous advantages, but cost sav-ing is not one of them. In most cases, subscription to electronic journalsare linked to their printed counterparts and a subscribing library or aconsortia of libraries need to pay additional charges for buying electron-ic access to journals they subscribe in print. These additional chargescan be very high if the access has to be provided campus-wide in aninstitution to multiple number of users. The librarians are in a dilemmato commit additional amounts on a continuing basis for journals thatthey are already subscribing in print media. It has also been observedthat special allocation of funds made for enriching the collection of thelibrary or for IT infrastructure by the funding agencies, get diverted to-wards other activities. Institutions need to commit additional funds ifthe libraries are going for electronic resources either as an individuallibrary or as a member of consortia of libraries.

Consortia as a Legal EntityThe consortia of libraries so formed need to be a legal entity since itwould be involved in collecting subscription amount from the participat-ing libraries so as to make payments to the electronic publishers. In theprocess, the consortia has to deal with banking organizations likethe Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for arranging foreign exchange on be-half of the participating libraries. As such, consortia of libraries need tohave a legal entity with permission and authority to deal with institu-tions like banks.

Problems in transfer of fundsThe funds required for the running of consortia need to be pooled to-gether from various participating libraries for e¡ecting consortia-basedsubscription. However, administrative problems are involved in transferof funds from various participating libraries to the consortia.

Geographical distancesThe six IITs, participating in the consortia are geographically dispersedat distant locations in the country. The IIT Delhi & IIT Kanpur are inthe northern part of India, IIT Bombay is in the western-end, IITMadras is in the extreme south. IIT Kharagpur and IIT Guwahati arein the extreme east. Similarly, institutions participating in the STI Net-work are located at far o¡ distances from each other. Co-ordination

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amongst the participating libraries become di⁄cult due to geographicaldistances between participating institutions. These problems need to beaddressed and redressed for formation of consortia of libraries and forimplementation of consortia-based subscriptions.

INDIAN NATIONAL DIGITAL LIBRARY IN ENGINEERING SCIENCE

AND TECHNOLOGY: A PROPOSAL

Some of the problems listed above can be solved with mediated talks,training and awareness programmes for librarians and other decisionmaking authorities at Institute level. While librarians can be convincedto join a consortia of libraries for the bene¢ts it will provide, they maynot be in a position to command additional funds or in providing legalstatus to the consortia that they have formed. It was thus consideredappropriate to submit project proposals to various Departments orMinistries of the Government of India with formation of consortia oflibraries and subscription to electronic resources as its central theme.The following ¢ve proposals were submitted during one year to threedi¡erent Ministries/Departments of the Government of India with theauthor of this paper as Principal Investigator considering the fact thateach of these Ministries/Departments have a number of institutionsworking under them as autonomous institutions receiving ¢nancial sup-port for their activities. Simultaneous and coherent execution of theseproject proposals submitted to the three Ministries/Departments ondeveloping digitized collections, put together would constitute ‘‘IndianNational Digital Library in Engineering Science and Technology(INDEST)’’.

Developing network-enabled digitized collection in biotechnology at the IIT Delhi:Proposal submitted to the Department of Biotechnology (DBT)The project proposal entitled ‘‘Developing Network-enabled DigitizedCollection in Biotechnology at the IIT Delhi’’ was submitted to the De-partment of Biotechnology, Govt of India. The department supports‘‘Biotechnology Information System (BTIS)’’ comprising of 10 Distribu-ted Information Centres (DIC) and 42 sub-Distributed InformationCentres located in universities and research institutes of national impor-tance. The department of Biotechnology provides ¢nancial support tothese DICs and sub-DICs for running their activities which include pro-vision for subscription of journals.Since the Department of Biotechnology provide ¢nancial assistance to

52 institutions (10 DICs and 42 sub-DICs), there is a possibility to gofor consortia-based subscription to electronic resources involving all 52


institutions dealing in di¡erent aspects of biotechnology. The consortiamay start as a project which can later be managed through the BTISheadquarters. Finances required for subscription to electronic resourcescan be diverted to the consortia from the budget allocated to the DICsand sub-DICs. The department can provide additional funds involved inrunning the consortia. The digital collection development to be under-taken in the project are dealt separately in this article. The project hasbeen sanctioned and a ¢nancial grant of Rs. 24�00 lakhs is being re-leased by the Department of Biotechnology.

Proposal submitted to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD)The following two project proposals were submitted to Ministry ofHuman Resource Development. Govt of India. The MHRD provides¢nancial support to all the six Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs),Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Regional Engineering Colleges(RECs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and several othereducational institutions including universities through University GrantsCommission (UGC). Since the MHRD is central source of funding forseveral institutions including those in engineering and technological¢elds, there is a strong possibility of implementating consortia-basedsubscription to electronic resources involving institutions in engineeringand technological ¢elds.

Developing network-enabled digitized collections in engineering and technology at theIIT Delhi. With a recent decision taken by the Government of India toincrease, enhance and enrich engineering and technological educationavailable in the country, there is a need to implement programmes forsharing of resources amongst existing engineering and technologicalinstitutions. Implementation of shared-subscription can be worked outwith either consortia of libraries or with national licenses for all engi-neering and technological educational institutions in India. The digitalcollection development to be undertaken in the project are dealt sepa-rately in this article.

Digital library consisting of scanned images of PhD theses submitted to the IITDelhi. The project proposes to establish a digital library consisting ofscanned images of old volumes of journals and PhD theses submittedto the IIT Delhi. The project also envisage submission of PhD theseselectronically and host them on the Web as per the guidelines of Net-worked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD). TheCentral Library has more than 3000 PhD theses submitted to the IITDelhi and 100 theses are added every year.

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Subsequent to the submission of two projects mentioned above, it wasproposed that the project proposal involving electronic theses and disser-tation and other digital library including on-line learning, etc. should beinitiated at each of the six IITs, IIMs and IISc, Bangalore. Accordinglya detailed project proposal of collaborative nature was submitted to theMinistry with Virtual Centres of Technology Enhanced Learning(VCTEL) of Carnegie Mellon University as collaborative partners.The project is under active consideration of the Ministry.

Project Proposals submitted to Ministry of InformationTechnology (MIT)The Ministry of Information Technology (MIT) deals with policy mat-ter relating to the information technology and co-ordinate developmentof activities in the ¢eld of information technology. There are 17 institu-tions attached to the Ministry of InformationTechnology including pub-lic undertakings, autonomous bodies and a⁄liated o⁄ces. The followingtwo proposals were submitted to the Ministry of InformationTechnology(MIT).

Web-based directory of on-line interactive courseware. A web-based ‘‘On-lineInteractive Courseware Directory in Information Technology’’ has beendeveloped and is being maintained under the project entitled ‘‘On-lineInteractive Courseware in Information Technology available on the In-ternet’’ sanctioned by the Ministry. The directory, available at http://www.iitd.ac.in/courses/, provide an organized and structured access tothe interactive courseware available on the Internet with an aim to pro-mote distant and continuing education in information technology. Theweb-site facilitate a virtual forum for on-line teaching and learning in-formation technology. The directory lists more than 4000 courseware inITavailable on the Internet.

Indian National Digital Library in IT (IND-IT). The National DigitalLibrary in Information Technology (IND-IT) is proposed to functionas a consortium of scienti¢c libraries for building-up core digital collec-tion in IT. The IND-IT is proposed as a central national resource offull-text digital information in areas of information technology. TheIND-IT would host a variety of web-based digital resources includingthose available through national and international agencies in the ¢eldof IT with consortia and national licenses to provide access to author-ized users in India. The IND-IT would speci¢cally concentrate on ac-quisition, access and delivery of information in IT related areaselectronically via the world wide web, thereby enhancing its availabilityand visibility across the nation. The proposal is under consideration ofthe Ministry of InformationTechnology.


BUILDING-UP DIGITAL COLLECTION FOR THE INDIAN NATIONAL

DIGITAL LIBRARY IN ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

(INDEST)

The project proposals submitted to the Department of Biotechnology,Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Informa-tion Technology, Government of India on developing digitized collec-tions provide for the following digital components, albeit, in di¡erentdisciplines. Put together, these resources would constitute ‘‘IndianNational Digital Library in Engineering Science and Technology(INDEST)’’. Figure 1 is a pictorial representation of building-up digitalcollection for the INDEST.Besides arranging national and consortial licensing for electronic re-

sources, the INDEST would also provide document delivery services,creat and archive digital collection, facilitate shared storage and preser-vation, adopt common bibliographic formats to facilitate data exchangeand promote common library system.

Acquisition of collections available in digital formatsAvailability of CD-ROM, and more recently DVD-ROM, as a mediawith high-storage capacity, longitivity and ease of transportation, trig-gered production of several CD ROM-based information products in-cluding several bibliographic databases which were earlier availableonly through on-line vendors or as abstracting and indexing servicesin printed format. Thousands of CD-ROM databases are currently

FIGURE 1. Building-up Digital Collections in INDEST.

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available from multitude of CD-ROM producers including Silver Platterwhich alone produces more than 250 CD-ROM information products.Moreover, several full-text databases also started appearing in late 1980sand early 1990s launching the beginning of a new digital era. Some ofthe important full-text digital collections available on CD-ROM include:ADONIS, IEEE/IEE Electronic Library (IEL), ABI/INFO, UMI’s Inter-national Business Database, UMI’s General Reference Periodicals,Espace World, US Patents, etc. CD-ROM networking technology is nowavailable for providing web-based simultaneous access to CD-ROM da-tabases on the Local Area Network (LAN) as well as onWide Area Net-work (WAN). More evolved technology allows o¥oading and integrationof entire contents of CD-ROMs/DVD-ROMs on to a server, which, inturn, provides web-based simultaneous and faster access to the informa-tion contents of CD-ROMs/DVD-ROMs. The libraries have an option tosubscribe to these full-text databases as a part of their digital library.Although most of the information products available on CD-ROM arealso hosted on the web, possibility of acquiring selected full-text collec-tions on CD-ROMs/DVD-ROMs with licenses for document deliverywould be considered for implementation of ‘‘Indian National DigitalLibrary in Engineering Science and Technology’’ (INDEST).

Buying access to digital collections: electronic journalsThe Internet has long been a favourite medium for experimenting withelectronic publishing and delivery. The technology is now available thatallows creation of fully digitized multimedia products and their accessi-bility through the Internet. Technological changes, especially the Inter-net and web technology, continue to attract more and more traditionalplayers to adopt it as a global way to o¡er their publications to the in-ternational community of scientists and technologists. Most of theimportant publishers now have their web-based interfaces to o¡erfull-texts of their journals.Total number of electronic journals, one of the corner stone of the

digital library, available on the Web has grown steadily from lessthan 10 in 1989 to more than 8500 in April 2000. These journals aremade available through theWeb at varying price models. The electronicsubscription to journals in most of the cases are linked to its printedcounterparts, i.e. it may be o¡ered free with print subscription (e.g. pub-lications of American Society for Physics and ASCE) or priced at a¢xed percentage over the print subscriptions (e.g. journals published byElsevier Science, Springer Verlag and IEEE) or it may also be o¡eredexclusively in electronic media. The INDESTwould subscribe to a coreset of electronic journals against national licenses and to others againstconsortia licenses.


Buying access to digital collections: other web-based information productsBesides electronic journals, there are several on-line databases that arenow available through the Web including MEDLINE (several versions).AGRICOLA, ERIC, INSPEC and COMPENDEX Plus, some of themare free while others are priced. Most of the on-line databases, earlieravailable through on-line search services are now available through theWeb. Reference works like encyclopedia, dictionaries, handbooks, at-lases, etc. are also making their electronic appearance on theWeb. How-ever, amongst electronic resources created exclusively for the Web,embibing all features and facilities o¡ered by the new technology, in-clude web-based educational tutorials called ‘‘on-line courseware’’. Theon-line courseware are proliferating the Web as a strong contender fordistant education. Telecampus, Canada (www.telecampus.edu/) listsmore than 12000 on-line courseware available on the Web. Moreover,highly specialized web-sites are now coming-up in various disciplineswhich o¡er information in totality including all kinds of resources inelectronic format, EI Engineering Village (http://www.ei.org/), ISIElectronic Library (http://www.isinet.com), IEEE/IEE ElectronicLibrary (http://www.ieee.org/), Engineering Sciences Data Unit(http://www.esdu.com) are some of the important examples. It is pro-posed to arrange national licenses for important databases like INSPECand COMPENDEX Plus. Other databases can be subscribed againstthe consortia licenses.

Conversion of existing print media into digital formatSeveral digital library projects are concerned with providing digital ac-cess to materials that already exist with traditional libraries in printedmedia. Scanned page images are practically the only reasonable solu-tions for institutions such as libraries for converting existing paper col-lection without having access to the original data in computerprocessible formats convertable into HTML/SGML or in any otherstructured or unstructured text. Scanned page images are natural choicefor large-scale conversions for major digital library initiatives. An im-age-based implementation requires a large space for data storage andtransmission. There are several large projects using page images as theirprimary storage format, including project JSTOR (www.jstor.org/) atPrinceton University funded by the Mellon Foundation. Capturing pageimage format is comparatively easy and inexpensive, it is a faithfulreproduction of its original maintaining page integrity and originality.The scanned textual images, however, are not searchable unless it isOCRed which in itself is highly error prone process specially when itinvolves scienti¢c texts.

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It is proposed to scan old and deteriorating volumes of journals andPhD theses submitted to the IIT Delhi as a pilot project. IIT Delhi hasalready scanned 25000 pages of old volumes of journals and hosted themon to an Intranet server under a project sanctioned by the All IndiaCouncil for Technical Education (AICTE). Access is provided throughthe content pages of journals coded in HTML. Permissions were soughtfrom the publishers for scanning of these journals. Similar scanning pro-jects can be initiated at other libraries participating in the consortia.

Creating portal sites or gateways to the electronic collections available on theWebThe Web has become the most successful networked multimedia hyper-text-based system that allows rapid access to a wide variety of networkedinformation resources. The Web, being a hypermedia-based system, al-lows linking amongst electronic resources stored on servers dispersedgeographically on distant locations. The portal sites or gateways redirecta user to the holders of the original digital material. A gateway mayprovide its own indexing and search services and it may combine origi-nal resources from a number of di¡erent providers. The portal sites orthe gateways restrict their operation to providing linkages to indepen-dent third party sources. Home pages of all the major education andresearch institutions, specially in developed world, provide an organizedand structured guide to electronic resources available on the Internet.Some of the major portal sites or gate-ways that provide access to elec-tronic resources on the Internet are as follows:

. WWW Virtual Library http://www.edoc.com/

. Internet Public Library http://www.ipl.org/

. Michigan Electronic Library http://mel.lib.mi.us/

. Penn Electronic Library http://www.library.upenn.edu/resources/

. BUBL Information Service http://bubl.ac.uk/

. Argus Clearing House http://www.clearinghouse.net/

. Internet Index http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/InternetIndex/

The INDEST would host a comprehensive portal site facilitatingstructured and organized guide to resources available on the Internetin engineering and technology.

LICENSING STRATEGIES, DATABASE ACCESS APPROACH AND

TERMS OF LICENSING

Licensing strategiesConsortia provide union strength to negotiate with electronic pub-lishers for the best possible price and rights. INDEST would adopt


one of the following licensing strategies for subscription to electronicresources:

Consortium licensing. The consortia members would pay the subscriptionfee with their own budgets. Sub-consortia may be formed to handle di-verse requirements of participating institutions who may join one ormore sub-consortia to ful¢ll their requirements.

National licensing. The INDEST would pay for the electronic resourcesfrom the funds provided by ministries/departments involved in promot-ing the consortia activity. The databases like INSPEC and COMPEN-DEX Plus can be taken against national licenses.

Database access approach. Consortia members would be able to accesslicensed collections either from the mirror site created locally on theservers at IIT Delhi or from publisher’s site through the Internet.The choice of mirror site or access through the Internet would dependon several factors including cost, communication and connection speedfrom the mirror site, number of participating institutions and their geo-graphical locations within the country, etc.

Terms of licensing. The INDEST, through its National CoordinationCommittee, would negotiate for the best terms and conditions of licen-sing keeping in view the issues like archiving options, frequency of dataupdate, price protection, prevailing pricing models, etc.

IMPLEMENTATION

Implementation of a project of this depth and dimension require a greatdeal of planning and consultation. Recognizing the bene¢t that thistechnology-driven revolution can bring to the libraries, information cen-tres and their users in India, the Ministry of Human Resource Devel-opment (MHRD), realized that there is a need to evaluate both theexisting network infrastructure and information systems and servicesavailable in the country and to identify gaps that exist therein. Theministry realized that there is a need for providing much required im-petus to the formation of consortia of scienti¢c and technical librariesin India. With this background, a ‘‘National Seminar on KnowledgeNetworking in Engineering & Technology Education and Research’’was organized at the IIT Delhi from December 1^2, 2000 under theaegis of Knowledge Networking Initiatives of the Ministry of Human

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Resource Development (MHRD) as a precursor to the implementationof project proposals with the following objectives:

(1) evaluate present status of network infrastructure available in thecountry and to identify gaps for providing reliable connectivity;

(2) to evaluate options available for accessing the full-text electronicinformation in engineering & technology in a consortia mode;

(3) to assess possibilities of co-operative electronic content creationfor shared use amongst leading engineering and technologyinstitutions;

(4) to study strengths and weaknesses of existing information servicesand facilities hosted at libraries of various leading engineeringand technology institutions in the country.

The seminar had evaluative presentations followed by paneldiscussion on the options available for accessing the full-text electronicinformation in engineering and technology in a consortia mode.The recommendations made by the seminar are available athttp://www.iitd.ac.in/new/knet.html and is under active considerationof the Ministry of InformationTechnology.

CONCLUSION

The Internet and Web technology has established itself as a powerfulmedia for delivery of electronic information resources. An increasingnumber of publishers are using the Internet as a global way to o¡ertheir publications to the international community of scientists and tech-nologists. Libraries as heavy consumers of electronic journals and on-line databases, stand to bene¢t greatly from this technology-drivenrevolution. The availability of IT-based electronic information productsare exerting ever-increasing pressure on libraries, which, in turn, are com-mitting larger portions of their budgetary allocation for either procuringor accessing web-based on-line full-text search services, CD-ROM pro-ducts or on-line databases. The libraries and information centres, withtheir diminishing or at best static ¢nancial allocations, have to considernew ways to consolidate global resources amongst them in order to max-imize their limited ¢nancial resources. The combination of these devel-opments have resulted in development of ‘‘shared subscription’’ or‘‘consortia-based subscription’’ to journals everywhere in the world.The consortia, called ‘‘Indian National Digital Library in Engineer-

ing Science and Technology’’ (INDEST), outlined in this article arebased on ¢ve project proposals submitted to three major Ministries/Departments of Government of India, namely the Ministry of Human


Resource Development (MHRD), Ministry of Information Technology(MIT) and Department of Biotechnology. As a consortia of libraries,the INDEST is expected to bring together institutions receiving ¢nan-cial support from these three Ministries/Departments of Government ofIndia. The contributions from participating institutions is proposed to bediverted directly from funding agency to the INDEST. This approach ofconsortia is proposed to circumvent di⁄culties that the earlier e¡ortstowards formation of consortia had encountered.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The author thankfully acknowledges the research grants received fromthe Ministry of Information Technology, Ministry of Human ResourceDevelopment, Department of Biotechnology and All India Council forTechnical Education (AICTE).

indian national digital library in engineering science and technology (indest): a proposal for...

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