9th Entry - Discuss how open source and social software applications can serve to fill digital library roles

Features of the Open Source:

• Open source software is normally created and maintained by developers crossing institutional and national boundaries, collaborating by using internet-based communications and development tools

• Products are typically a kind of “free”, often through a license that specifies that applications and source code are free to use, modify, and redistribute as long as all uses, modifications, and redistributions are similarly licensed

• Successful applications are tend to be developed more quickly and with better responsiveness to the needs of users who can readily use and evaluate open source applications because they are free

• Social software lets libraries show a human face online, helping them communicate, educate, and interact with their communities. Provides librarians with the information and skills necessary to implement the most popular and effective social software technologies: blogs, RSS, wikis, social networking software, screen casting, photo-sharing, podcasting, instant messaging, gaming, and more

• Quality, not profit drives the open source developers who take personal pride in seeing their working solutions adopted.

• Social networking site are extremely popular across age groups and central forums for accessing and sharing information .librarian are responding to the popularity of social networking sites and their expanding role in the creation, use, and sharing of information by engaging them as a central medium for interacting with library patrons and providing services meet their information needs

• The social networking literate librarian is capable of articulating the nature and roles of online social networking site and their importance in scholarly research and communication and information cycle. Librarians should be familiar with a diversity of social networking site and social media including those most relevant it their patrons.

• Intellectual property rights to open source software belong to everyone who helps build it or simply uses it, not just the vendor or institution that created or the software

• Open-source software is computer software whose source code is available under a copyright license that permits users to study, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form. A source code consists of a set of instructions which are translated into binary codes so that the computer can understand the instructions. With the help of a source code of software a computer function. In case of the closed source programs such as Windows, oracle and etc. the source code is secret to the users. Whenever any problems appear the users have to depend upon the particular software developer to remove the problems.

Open source software used for building institutional repository

There are so many open source software with the application of which we can build IR. Every OSS has some special features and system requirements. The institute has to select the best OSS to be applied to build the IR of their institute. For checking which OSS will be more suitable for building the IR, they can go directly to the web address of the respective OSS and make a feasibility study, as they can be searched and used freely. Below a table is given where the developers, web address, system requirements and operating system of the different OSS are given

Conclusion

Open access movement is growing throughout the world and in the near future our imagination of availability of all information sources at a single point is definitely growing to be true. The institutional repository is no longer a concept. In Europe and USA the different project on IR had already started. In India also slowly setting up of IR has already started, especially by the leading academic institutions like IITs, IISc etc are coming forward. Traditionally, academicians usually publish the research outputs in their preferred print version of journals and presently some of the publisher is also bringing out simultaneously an electronic version of the same. But the publisher concerned in terms of subscription both again restricts the accessibility to such information for the individual as well as for the institution. Here the IR has opened up the most convenient, simple and democratic way to the students as well as the academicians to share and publish their research outputs.

References

1. http://www.opensource.org/

2. http://www.oss4lib.org