Washington: Nasa is preparing to launch next month the Kepler spacecraft with a new space telescope that for the first time will be capable of detecting Earth-like planets outside our solar system, project managers said. Kepler is scheduled for launch atop a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Florida, on March 6 at 0348 GMT. It will be the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s first mission in search of Earth-like planets orbiting suns similar to ours, at just the right distance and temperature for lifesustaining water to exist. “Kepler will push back the boundaries of the unknown in our patch of the Milky Way galaxy. And its discoveries may fundamentally alter humanity’s view of itself,” Jon Morse, astrophysics division director at the US space agency’s Washington headquarters, said. “The planetary census Kepler takes will be very important for understanding the frequency of Earth-size planets in our galaxy and planning future missions that directly detect and characterize such worlds around nearby stars,” he added. Equipped with the largest camera ever launched into space — a 95-megapixel array of charged couple devices, known as CCDs — the Kepler telescope is able to detect the faint, periodic dimming of stars that planets cause as they pass by. At a cost of close to $600 million, the Kepler mission will last three years and examine more than 100,000 sun-like stars in the regions of the Swan and Lyre constellations in the Milky Way. William Borucki, Kepler’s principal investigator based at Nasa’s Ames Research Center in California, said the project was about finding places where conditions are perfect for sustaining life. “What we’re interested in finding are planets that are not too hot and not to cold, but just right,” he said. AFP
ANYONE OUT THERE? An image of the spiral galaxy Messier 101. At a cost of $600 million, the Kepler mission will examine 100,000 sun-like stars
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
A crocodile with huge tusks
CHICAGO: Imagine meeting a crocodile with huge tusks like those of a wild boar.
Paleontologist Paul Sereno did meet one, or at least the remains of the ancient creature, and he gave a crowd of excited youngsters a first public glimpse yesterday. Sereno calls it boar-croc for its looks, since he hasn't yet published an article on it with a scientific name in the official literature. The University of Chicago researcher found the skull in the Sahara Desert, which many thousands of years ago was moist and supported all sorts of animals, crocodiles and even in the distant past dinosaurs. Boar-croc doesn't fit in any known order. It has a crocodile-like snout, but adds horns and three sets of canine teeth like those of a wild pig adapted for eating meat
, he explained. So why does a world-renowned paleontologist trot out his latest find before an official publication? Yesterday was family day at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Sereno couldn't resist the chance to try and interest youngsters in his line of work.
var zz=0;var sldsh=0;
var bellyaddiv = ' ';
var stindex=100;
var stp=150;
var taglen=0;
var tmp;
var tagcheck = new Array("div","span","br","font","a");
var storycontent = document.getElementById("storydiv").innerHTML;
var firstpara = storycontent.substring(0,storycontent.toLowerCase().indexOf("")).toLowerCase();
function findptt(cnt){
zz++;
if(zz == 10)return;
var xxx=-1,yyy=-1;
var ccnt = cnt;
for(ii=0; ii ");
if(yyy != -1){
taglen += yyy;
stp = stp + yyy;
yyy+=1;
}
break;
taglen = taglen + tagcheck[ii].length + 3;
}
}
if(xxx == -1 xxx >= 150){
return;
}else{
var tmp2 = ccnt.substring(0,xxx);
tmp2 += ccnt.substring((yyy+xxx),ccnt.length);
findptt(tmp2);
}
}findptt(firstpara);
if(firstpara.length ")){
}else{
tmpminus = tmpcon.length - tmpcon.lastIndexOf("
var RN = new String (Math.random());
var RNS = RN.substring (2,11);
b2 = ' ';
if (doweshowbellyad==1)
bellyad.innerHTML = b2;
Paleontologist Paul Sereno did meet one, or at least the remains of the ancient creature, and he gave a crowd of excited youngsters a first public glimpse yesterday. Sereno calls it boar-croc for its looks, since he hasn't yet published an article on it with a scientific name in the official literature. The University of Chicago researcher found the skull in the Sahara Desert, which many thousands of years ago was moist and supported all sorts of animals, crocodiles and even in the distant past dinosaurs. Boar-croc doesn't fit in any known order. It has a crocodile-like snout, but adds horns and three sets of canine teeth like those of a wild pig adapted for eating meat
, he explained. So why does a world-renowned paleontologist trot out his latest find before an official publication? Yesterday was family day at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Sereno couldn't resist the chance to try and interest youngsters in his line of work.
var zz=0;var sldsh=0;
var bellyaddiv = ' ';
var stindex=100;
var stp=150;
var taglen=0;
var tmp;
var tagcheck = new Array("div","span","br","font","a");
var storycontent = document.getElementById("storydiv").innerHTML;
var firstpara = storycontent.substring(0,storycontent.toLowerCase().indexOf("")).toLowerCase();
function findptt(cnt){
zz++;
if(zz == 10)return;
var xxx=-1,yyy=-1;
var ccnt = cnt;
for(ii=0; ii ");
if(yyy != -1){
taglen += yyy;
stp = stp + yyy;
yyy+=1;
}
break;
taglen = taglen + tagcheck[ii].length + 3;
}
}
if(xxx == -1 xxx >= 150){
return;
}else{
var tmp2 = ccnt.substring(0,xxx);
tmp2 += ccnt.substring((yyy+xxx),ccnt.length);
findptt(tmp2);
}
}findptt(firstpara);
if(firstpara.length ")){
}else{
tmpminus = tmpcon.length - tmpcon.lastIndexOf("
var RN = new String (Math.random());
var RNS = RN.substring (2,11);
b2 = ' ';
if (doweshowbellyad==1)
bellyad.innerHTML = b2;
Monday, February 9, 2009
Chained library
chained library is a library where the books are attached to their bookcase by a chain, which is sufficiently long to allow the books to be taken from their shelves and read, but not removed from the library itself. This practice was usual for reference libraries (that is, the vast majority of libraries) from the Middle Ages to approximately the 18th century, as books were extremely valuable during this period. The chains were used to provide sufficient security.
The Chained Library of Wimborne Minster is one of the few surviving examples in England.
It is standard for chained libraries to have the chain fitted to the corner or cover of a book. This is because if the chain were to be placed on the spine the book would suffer greater wear from the stress of moving it on and off the shelf. Because of the location of the chain attached to the book (via a ringlet) the books are housed with their spine facing away from the reader with only the pages' fore-edges visible (that is, the 'wrong' way round to people accustomed to contemporary libraries). This is so that each book can be removed and opened without needing to be turned around, hence avoiding tangling its chain.
The earliest example in England of a library to be endowed for use outside an institution such as a school or college was the Francis Trigge Chained Library in Grantham, Lincolnshire, established in 1598. The library still exists and can justifiably claim to be the forerunner of later public library systems. Marsh's Library in Dublin, built 1701, is another non institutional library which is still housed in its original building. Here it was not the books that were chained, but rather the readers were locked into cages to prevent rare volumes from 'wandering'. There is also an example of a chained library in the Royal Grammar School, Guildford.[citation needed]
[edit] Chained Libraries in Popular Culture
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of comic fantasy novels, the library of the magical Unseen University also has a number of chained books—however, in this case the purpose of the chains is to prevent the more vicious magical books from escaping or attacking passers-by.
David Williams has written a mystery, Murder in Advent, that features a chained library.
[edit] External links
The Chained Library of Wimborne Minster is one of the few surviving examples in England.
It is standard for chained libraries to have the chain fitted to the corner or cover of a book. This is because if the chain were to be placed on the spine the book would suffer greater wear from the stress of moving it on and off the shelf. Because of the location of the chain attached to the book (via a ringlet) the books are housed with their spine facing away from the reader with only the pages' fore-edges visible (that is, the 'wrong' way round to people accustomed to contemporary libraries). This is so that each book can be removed and opened without needing to be turned around, hence avoiding tangling its chain.
The earliest example in England of a library to be endowed for use outside an institution such as a school or college was the Francis Trigge Chained Library in Grantham, Lincolnshire, established in 1598. The library still exists and can justifiably claim to be the forerunner of later public library systems. Marsh's Library in Dublin, built 1701, is another non institutional library which is still housed in its original building. Here it was not the books that were chained, but rather the readers were locked into cages to prevent rare volumes from 'wandering'. There is also an example of a chained library in the Royal Grammar School, Guildford.[citation needed]
[edit] Chained Libraries in Popular Culture
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of comic fantasy novels, the library of the magical Unseen University also has a number of chained books—however, in this case the purpose of the chains is to prevent the more vicious magical books from escaping or attacking passers-by.
David Williams has written a mystery, Murder in Advent, that features a chained library.
[edit] External links
Digital library
A digital library is a library in which collections are stored in digital formats (as opposed to print, microform, or other media) and accessible by computers.[1] The digital content may be stored locally, or accessed remotely via computer networks. A digital library is a type of information retrieval system.
The DELOS Digital Library Reference Model[2] defines a digital library as:
An organization, which might be virtual, that comprehensively collects, manages and preserves for the long term rich digital content, and offers to its user communities specialized functionality on that content, of measurable quality and according to codified policies.
The first use of the term digital library in print may have been in a 1988 report to the Corporation for National Research Initiatives[3] The term digital libraries was first popularized by the NSF/DARPA/NASA Digital Libraries Initiative in 1994.[4] The older names electronic library or virtual library are also occasionally used, though electronic library nowadays more often refers to portals, often provided by government agencies.
Contents[hide]
1 Types of digital libraries
1.1 Academic repositories
1.2 Digital archives
2 Digital preservation
3 The future
4 Searching
5 Construction and organization
5.1 Frameworks
5.2 Digitization
6 Advantages
7 Problems
7.1 Digital preservation
7.2 Copyright and licensing
8 References
9 See also
10 External links
10.1 General
10.2 Conferences
10.3 Tools
//
[edit] Types of digital libraries
The term digital library is diffuse enough to be applied to a wide range of collections and organizations, but, to be considered a digital library, an online collection of information must be managed by and made accessible to a community of users. Thus, some web sites can be considered digital libraries, but far from all. Many of the best known digital libraries are older than the web including Project Perseus, Project Gutenberg, and ibiblio. Nevertheless, as a result of the development of the internet and its search potential, digital libraries such as the European Library and the Library of Congress are now developing in a Web-based environment. Public, school and college libraries are also able to develop digital download websites, featuring eBooks, audiobooks, music and video, through companies like OverDrive, Inc.
A distinction is often made between content that was created in a digital format, known as born-digital, and information that has been converted from a physical medium, e.g., paper, by digitizing. The term hybrid library is sometimes used for libraries that have both physical collections and digital collections. For example, American Memory is a digital library within the Library of Congress. Some important digital libraries also serve as long term archives, for example, the ePrint arXiv, and the Internet Archive.
[edit] Academic repositories
Many academic libraries are actively involved in building institutional repositories of the institution's books, papers, theses, and other works which can be digitized or were 'born digital'. Many of these repositories are made available to the general public with few restrictions, in accordance with the goals of open access, in contrast to the publication of research in commercial journals, where the publishers often limit access rights. Institutional, truly free, and corporate repositories are sometimes referred to as digital libraries.
[edit] Digital archives
Archives differ from libraries in several ways. Traditionally, archives were defined as:
Containing primary sources of information (typically letters and papers directly produced by an individual or organization) rather than the secondary sources found in a library (books, etc);
Having their contents organized in groups rather than individual items;
Having unique contents.
The technology used to create digital libraries has been even more revolutionary for archives since it breaks down the second and third of these general rules. The Oxford Text Archive is generally considered to be the oldest digital archive of academic physical primary source materials.
[edit] Digital preservation
Project Gutenberg, Google Book Search, Windows Live Search Books, Internet Archive, Cornell University, The Library of Congress World Digital Library, The Digital Library at the University of Michigan, and Carnegie Mellon University's Million Book Project are considered leaders in the field of digital library creation and management.
[edit] The future
Large scale digitization projects are underway at Google, the Million Book Project, MSN, and Yahoo!. With continued improvements in book handling and presentation technologies such as optical character recognition and ebooks, and development of alternative depositories and business models, digital libraries are rapidly growing in popularity as demonstrated by Google, Yahoo!, and MSN's efforts. Just as libraries have ventured into audio and video collections, so have digital libraries such as the Internet Archive.
[edit] Searching
Most digital libraries provide a search interface which allows resources to be found. These resources are typically deep web (or invisible web) resources since they frequently cannot be located by search engine crawlers. Some digital libraries create special pages or sitemaps to allow search engines to find all their resources. Digital libraries frequently use the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) to expose their metadata to other digital libraries, and search engines like Google Scholar, Google, Yahoo! and Scirus can also use OAI-PMH to find these deep web resources.[5]
There are two general strategies for searching a federation of digital libraries:
distributed searching, and
searching previously harvested metadata.
Distributed searching typically involves a client sending multiple search requests in parallel to a number of servers in the federation. The results are gathered, duplicates are eliminated or clustered, and the remaining items are sorted and presented back to the client. Protocols like Z39.50 are frequently used in distributed searching. A benefit to this approach is that the resource-intensive tasks of indexing and storage are left to the respective servers in the federation. A drawback to this approach is that the search mechanism is limited by the different indexing and ranking capabilities of each database, making it difficult to assemble a combined result consisting of the most relevant found items.
Searching over previously harvested metadata involves searching a locally stored index of information that has previously been collected from the libraries in the federation. When a search is performed, the search mechanism does not need to make connections with the digital libraries it is searching - it already has a local representation of the information. This approach requires the creation of an indexing and harvesting mechanism which operates regularly, connecting to all the digital libraries and querying the whole collection in order to discover new and updated resources. OAI-PMH is frequently used by digital libraries for allowing metadata to be harvested. A benefit to this approach is that the search mechanism has full control over indexing and ranking algorithms, possibly allowing more consistent results. A drawback is that harvesting and indexing systems are more resource-intensive and therefore expensive.
[edit] Construction and organization
See also Digital Collections Selection Criteria.
[edit] Frameworks
A digital library can be built around specific repository software. The best known examples of this are DSpace, Eprints, Fedora, dLibra(Poland), and Greenstone Digital Library Software.
The Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS) provides a framework to address Digital preservation. [6]
Other formal frameworks include the DELOS Reference Model(Agosti, et al., 2006)[7] and the Streams, Structures, Spaces, Scenarios, Societies (5S) formal framework (Gonçalves, Fox, Watson, & Kipp, 2004)[8]
[edit] Digitization
In the past few years, procedures for digitizing books at high speed and comparatively low cost have improved considerably with the result that it is now possible to plan the digitization of millions of books per year for creating digital libraries.[9]
See also Digitizing#Collaborative digitization projects.
[edit] Advantages
The advantages of digital libraries as a means of easily and rapidly accessing books, archives and images of various types are now widely recognized by commercial interests and public bodies alike.[10]
Traditional libraries are limited by storage space; digital libraries have the potential to store much more information, simply because digital information requires very little physical space to contain it. As such, the cost of maintaining a digital library is much lower than that of a traditional library.
A traditional library must spend large sums of money paying for staff, book maintenance, rent, and additional books. Digital libraries do away with these fees. Both types of library require cataloguing input to allow users to locate and retrieve material. Digital libraries may be more willing to adopt innovations in technology providing users with improvements in electronic and audio book technology as well as presenting new forms of communication such as wikis and blogs; convetional libraries may consider that providing online access to their OPAC catalogue is sufficient. An important advantage to digital conversion is increased accessibility to users. There in also availability to individuals who may not be traditional patrons of a library, due to geographic location or organizational affiliation.
No physical boundary. The user of a digital library need not to go to the library physically; people from all over the world can gain access to the same information, as long as an Internet connection is available.
Round the clock availability. A major advantage of digital libraries is that people can gain access to the information at any time, night or day.
Multiple access. The same resources can be used simultaneously by a number of institutions and patrons
Information retrieval. The user is able to use any search term (word, phrase, title, name, subject) to search the entire collection. Digital libraries can provide very user-friendly interfaces, giving clickable access to its resources.
Preservation and conservation.Digitization is not a long-term preservation solution for physical collections, but does succeed in providing access copies for materials that would otherwise fall to degradation from repeated use. Digitized collections and born-digital objects pose many preservation and conservation concerns that analog materials do not. Please see the following "Problems" section of this page for examples.
Space. Whereas traditional libraries are limited by storage space, digital libraries have the potential to store much more information, simply because digital information requires very little physical space to contain them and media storage technologies are more affordable than ever before.
Added value. Certain characteristics of objects, primarily the quality of images, may be improved. Digitization can enhance legibility and remove visible flaws such as stains and discoloration.[11]
[edit] Problems
The tone or style of this article may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (May 2008)
[edit] Digital preservation
The work needed to ensure that digital content is maintained and accessible into the future is beginning to be addressed: see digital preservation.
Technological standards change over time and forward migration must be a constant consideration of every library. Migration is a means of transferring an unstable digital object to another more stable format, operating system, or programming language.[12] Migration allows the ability to retrieve and display digital objects that are in danger of becoming extinct. This is a rather successful short-term solution for the problem of aging and obsolete digital formats, but with the ever-changing nature of computer technologies, migration becomes this never-ending race to transfer digital objects to new and more stable formats. Migration is also flawed in the sense that when the digital files are being transferred, the new platform may not be able to capture the full integrity of the original object.[13] There are countless artifacts sitting in libraries all over the world that are essentially useless because the technology required to access the source is obsolete. In addition to obsolescence, there are rising costs that result from continually replacing the older technologies. This issue can dominate preservation policy and may put more focus on instant user access in place of physical preservation.[14]
[edit] Copyright and licensing
Some people have criticized that digital libraries are hampered by copyright law, because works cannot be shared over different periods of time in the manner of a traditional library. The republication of material on the Web by libraries may require permission from righst holders, and there is a conflict of interest between them and publishers who may wish to create Wenb versions of their content for commercial purposes.
There is a dilution of responsibility that occurs as a result of the spread-out nature of digital resources. Complex intellectual property matters may become involved since digital material isn't always owned by a library.[15] The content is, in many cases, public domain or self-generated content only. Some digital libraries, such as Project Gutenberg, work to digitize out-of-copyright works and make them freely available to the public. An estimate of the number of distinct books still existent in library catalogues from 2000BC to 1960, has been made.[16][17]
Other digital libraries accommodate copyright concerns by licensing content and distributing it on a commercial basis, which allows for better management of the content's reproduction and the payment (if required) of royalties. The Fair Use Provisions (17 USC § 107) under copyright law provide specific guidelines under which circumstances libraries are allowed to copy digital resources. Four factors that constitute fair use are purpose of use, nature of the work, market impact, and amount or substantiality used.[18]
The DELOS Digital Library Reference Model[2] defines a digital library as:
An organization, which might be virtual, that comprehensively collects, manages and preserves for the long term rich digital content, and offers to its user communities specialized functionality on that content, of measurable quality and according to codified policies.
The first use of the term digital library in print may have been in a 1988 report to the Corporation for National Research Initiatives[3] The term digital libraries was first popularized by the NSF/DARPA/NASA Digital Libraries Initiative in 1994.[4] The older names electronic library or virtual library are also occasionally used, though electronic library nowadays more often refers to portals, often provided by government agencies.
Contents[hide]
1 Types of digital libraries
1.1 Academic repositories
1.2 Digital archives
2 Digital preservation
3 The future
4 Searching
5 Construction and organization
5.1 Frameworks
5.2 Digitization
6 Advantages
7 Problems
7.1 Digital preservation
7.2 Copyright and licensing
8 References
9 See also
10 External links
10.1 General
10.2 Conferences
10.3 Tools
//
[edit] Types of digital libraries
The term digital library is diffuse enough to be applied to a wide range of collections and organizations, but, to be considered a digital library, an online collection of information must be managed by and made accessible to a community of users. Thus, some web sites can be considered digital libraries, but far from all. Many of the best known digital libraries are older than the web including Project Perseus, Project Gutenberg, and ibiblio. Nevertheless, as a result of the development of the internet and its search potential, digital libraries such as the European Library and the Library of Congress are now developing in a Web-based environment. Public, school and college libraries are also able to develop digital download websites, featuring eBooks, audiobooks, music and video, through companies like OverDrive, Inc.
A distinction is often made between content that was created in a digital format, known as born-digital, and information that has been converted from a physical medium, e.g., paper, by digitizing. The term hybrid library is sometimes used for libraries that have both physical collections and digital collections. For example, American Memory is a digital library within the Library of Congress. Some important digital libraries also serve as long term archives, for example, the ePrint arXiv, and the Internet Archive.
[edit] Academic repositories
Many academic libraries are actively involved in building institutional repositories of the institution's books, papers, theses, and other works which can be digitized or were 'born digital'. Many of these repositories are made available to the general public with few restrictions, in accordance with the goals of open access, in contrast to the publication of research in commercial journals, where the publishers often limit access rights. Institutional, truly free, and corporate repositories are sometimes referred to as digital libraries.
[edit] Digital archives
Archives differ from libraries in several ways. Traditionally, archives were defined as:
Containing primary sources of information (typically letters and papers directly produced by an individual or organization) rather than the secondary sources found in a library (books, etc);
Having their contents organized in groups rather than individual items;
Having unique contents.
The technology used to create digital libraries has been even more revolutionary for archives since it breaks down the second and third of these general rules. The Oxford Text Archive is generally considered to be the oldest digital archive of academic physical primary source materials.
[edit] Digital preservation
Project Gutenberg, Google Book Search, Windows Live Search Books, Internet Archive, Cornell University, The Library of Congress World Digital Library, The Digital Library at the University of Michigan, and Carnegie Mellon University's Million Book Project are considered leaders in the field of digital library creation and management.
[edit] The future
Large scale digitization projects are underway at Google, the Million Book Project, MSN, and Yahoo!. With continued improvements in book handling and presentation technologies such as optical character recognition and ebooks, and development of alternative depositories and business models, digital libraries are rapidly growing in popularity as demonstrated by Google, Yahoo!, and MSN's efforts. Just as libraries have ventured into audio and video collections, so have digital libraries such as the Internet Archive.
[edit] Searching
Most digital libraries provide a search interface which allows resources to be found. These resources are typically deep web (or invisible web) resources since they frequently cannot be located by search engine crawlers. Some digital libraries create special pages or sitemaps to allow search engines to find all their resources. Digital libraries frequently use the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) to expose their metadata to other digital libraries, and search engines like Google Scholar, Google, Yahoo! and Scirus can also use OAI-PMH to find these deep web resources.[5]
There are two general strategies for searching a federation of digital libraries:
distributed searching, and
searching previously harvested metadata.
Distributed searching typically involves a client sending multiple search requests in parallel to a number of servers in the federation. The results are gathered, duplicates are eliminated or clustered, and the remaining items are sorted and presented back to the client. Protocols like Z39.50 are frequently used in distributed searching. A benefit to this approach is that the resource-intensive tasks of indexing and storage are left to the respective servers in the federation. A drawback to this approach is that the search mechanism is limited by the different indexing and ranking capabilities of each database, making it difficult to assemble a combined result consisting of the most relevant found items.
Searching over previously harvested metadata involves searching a locally stored index of information that has previously been collected from the libraries in the federation. When a search is performed, the search mechanism does not need to make connections with the digital libraries it is searching - it already has a local representation of the information. This approach requires the creation of an indexing and harvesting mechanism which operates regularly, connecting to all the digital libraries and querying the whole collection in order to discover new and updated resources. OAI-PMH is frequently used by digital libraries for allowing metadata to be harvested. A benefit to this approach is that the search mechanism has full control over indexing and ranking algorithms, possibly allowing more consistent results. A drawback is that harvesting and indexing systems are more resource-intensive and therefore expensive.
[edit] Construction and organization
See also Digital Collections Selection Criteria.
[edit] Frameworks
A digital library can be built around specific repository software. The best known examples of this are DSpace, Eprints, Fedora, dLibra(Poland), and Greenstone Digital Library Software.
The Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS) provides a framework to address Digital preservation. [6]
Other formal frameworks include the DELOS Reference Model(Agosti, et al., 2006)[7] and the Streams, Structures, Spaces, Scenarios, Societies (5S) formal framework (Gonçalves, Fox, Watson, & Kipp, 2004)[8]
[edit] Digitization
In the past few years, procedures for digitizing books at high speed and comparatively low cost have improved considerably with the result that it is now possible to plan the digitization of millions of books per year for creating digital libraries.[9]
See also Digitizing#Collaborative digitization projects.
[edit] Advantages
The advantages of digital libraries as a means of easily and rapidly accessing books, archives and images of various types are now widely recognized by commercial interests and public bodies alike.[10]
Traditional libraries are limited by storage space; digital libraries have the potential to store much more information, simply because digital information requires very little physical space to contain it. As such, the cost of maintaining a digital library is much lower than that of a traditional library.
A traditional library must spend large sums of money paying for staff, book maintenance, rent, and additional books. Digital libraries do away with these fees. Both types of library require cataloguing input to allow users to locate and retrieve material. Digital libraries may be more willing to adopt innovations in technology providing users with improvements in electronic and audio book technology as well as presenting new forms of communication such as wikis and blogs; convetional libraries may consider that providing online access to their OPAC catalogue is sufficient. An important advantage to digital conversion is increased accessibility to users. There in also availability to individuals who may not be traditional patrons of a library, due to geographic location or organizational affiliation.
No physical boundary. The user of a digital library need not to go to the library physically; people from all over the world can gain access to the same information, as long as an Internet connection is available.
Round the clock availability. A major advantage of digital libraries is that people can gain access to the information at any time, night or day.
Multiple access. The same resources can be used simultaneously by a number of institutions and patrons
Information retrieval. The user is able to use any search term (word, phrase, title, name, subject) to search the entire collection. Digital libraries can provide very user-friendly interfaces, giving clickable access to its resources.
Preservation and conservation.Digitization is not a long-term preservation solution for physical collections, but does succeed in providing access copies for materials that would otherwise fall to degradation from repeated use. Digitized collections and born-digital objects pose many preservation and conservation concerns that analog materials do not. Please see the following "Problems" section of this page for examples.
Space. Whereas traditional libraries are limited by storage space, digital libraries have the potential to store much more information, simply because digital information requires very little physical space to contain them and media storage technologies are more affordable than ever before.
Added value. Certain characteristics of objects, primarily the quality of images, may be improved. Digitization can enhance legibility and remove visible flaws such as stains and discoloration.[11]
[edit] Problems
The tone or style of this article may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (May 2008)
[edit] Digital preservation
The work needed to ensure that digital content is maintained and accessible into the future is beginning to be addressed: see digital preservation.
Technological standards change over time and forward migration must be a constant consideration of every library. Migration is a means of transferring an unstable digital object to another more stable format, operating system, or programming language.[12] Migration allows the ability to retrieve and display digital objects that are in danger of becoming extinct. This is a rather successful short-term solution for the problem of aging and obsolete digital formats, but with the ever-changing nature of computer technologies, migration becomes this never-ending race to transfer digital objects to new and more stable formats. Migration is also flawed in the sense that when the digital files are being transferred, the new platform may not be able to capture the full integrity of the original object.[13] There are countless artifacts sitting in libraries all over the world that are essentially useless because the technology required to access the source is obsolete. In addition to obsolescence, there are rising costs that result from continually replacing the older technologies. This issue can dominate preservation policy and may put more focus on instant user access in place of physical preservation.[14]
[edit] Copyright and licensing
Some people have criticized that digital libraries are hampered by copyright law, because works cannot be shared over different periods of time in the manner of a traditional library. The republication of material on the Web by libraries may require permission from righst holders, and there is a conflict of interest between them and publishers who may wish to create Wenb versions of their content for commercial purposes.
There is a dilution of responsibility that occurs as a result of the spread-out nature of digital resources. Complex intellectual property matters may become involved since digital material isn't always owned by a library.[15] The content is, in many cases, public domain or self-generated content only. Some digital libraries, such as Project Gutenberg, work to digitize out-of-copyright works and make them freely available to the public. An estimate of the number of distinct books still existent in library catalogues from 2000BC to 1960, has been made.[16][17]
Other digital libraries accommodate copyright concerns by licensing content and distributing it on a commercial basis, which allows for better management of the content's reproduction and the payment (if required) of royalties. The Fair Use Provisions (17 USC § 107) under copyright law provide specific guidelines under which circumstances libraries are allowed to copy digital resources. Four factors that constitute fair use are purpose of use, nature of the work, market impact, and amount or substantiality used.[18]
Saturday, February 7, 2009
In the name of the father...
What’s in a surname? Do a daughter’s responsibilities end when she weds, asks Anuradha Varma
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
WHEN Priyanka Gandhi Vadra turned up to watch her brother Rahul Gandhi deliver his speech during a trust vote in Parliament, was she doing a Vadra or Gandhi? Or did it display a diminishing sense of family values when a married Priya Dutt took on her late father actor Sunil Dutt’s constituency and stood by her troubled actor brother Sanjay Dutt, all the while retaining her original surname? Amosha Lyngdoh, in her early thirties, asks quizzically, “Why should I change my surname to my husband’s? My name is my identity.” True enough. For instance, how does Hema Deol, Moon Moon Varma or Shabana Akhtar sound to you? Restore Malini to Hema, maiden names to Moon Moon and Shabana, and things fall back into place! Columnist and film producer Pritish Nandy is categorical when he states, “I would love my daughters to retain their surname after marriage. Marriage is a coming together of equals. It’s not like buying a cow and then branding it with an iron rod just to show your ownership over it. My daughters are independent people. They have identities — and histories — of their own.” Is it a non-issue, then? That’s what it would have remained, if Sanjay Dutt hadn’t made it a talking point once more, when he recently said that “girls must assume their new surname and all the responsibilities that come with it”. Says actor Moon Moon Sen, daughter of the legendary Suchitra Sen and mother to actors Raima and Riya, “I don’t think anyone has the right to say whether somebody should keep one, two or three surnames. I began work after marriage and used my original surname because I considered it lucky. In my husband’s circle, I’m known by his last name. It’s about personal choice.” As for a woman’s role in the modern family, Sen says, “Why just a woman? In my family, it’s my husband who holds the family together. I’ve been a spoilt wife and now he takes care of all my daughters’ needs.” Some men would go a step further to defy socalled norms. When columnist Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar decided to marry, he went all the way by taking on his wife’s name as his middle name, as part of an equal partnership. He remarks, tongue-in-cheek, “Well, otherwise, Sanjay Dutt might have asked me why I wasn’t assuming full responsibility for my wife’s family!” CPM leader and social activist Brinda Karat also took on her husband’s surname under unusual circumstances, with tradition not playing any part in the decision. She says, “I married during the Emergency and had to change both my first and last names to stay ‘underground’. Later, I was advised to retain one for familiarity, which happened to be my husband’s surname.” Karat adds, “It’s a woman’s right to decide her surname and fortunately, both partners are equal before the law and the Constitution. A pativrata culture is not the potion for a happy family.” A change of surname also calls for a mountain of paperwork, particularly now when women marry after they’re settled in their careers or having set up businesses. However, lawyer Kamini Jaiswal believes that if some women are not changing their surnames, it’s because they don’t want to. She bristles, “Sanjay Dutt is someone who uses his father’s last name but has a problem because his sister does so.” In fact, the trend of adopting a man’s last name is more north Indian than Indian. Says sociologist Nandini Sundar, “In the south, women — and men — are known by their own names.” Adds Lyngdoh, who belongs to Meghalaya’s matriarchal Khasi tribe, “We take our mother’s surnames. After marriage, husbands and wives retain their names.” So, next time you come across a mention of Parle’s Shauna Chauhan, Madhuri Dixit-Nene or Hillary Rodham-Clinton, remember it’s all about personal choice as well as hard-won personal identity!
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
WHEN Priyanka Gandhi Vadra turned up to watch her brother Rahul Gandhi deliver his speech during a trust vote in Parliament, was she doing a Vadra or Gandhi? Or did it display a diminishing sense of family values when a married Priya Dutt took on her late father actor Sunil Dutt’s constituency and stood by her troubled actor brother Sanjay Dutt, all the while retaining her original surname? Amosha Lyngdoh, in her early thirties, asks quizzically, “Why should I change my surname to my husband’s? My name is my identity.” True enough. For instance, how does Hema Deol, Moon Moon Varma or Shabana Akhtar sound to you? Restore Malini to Hema, maiden names to Moon Moon and Shabana, and things fall back into place! Columnist and film producer Pritish Nandy is categorical when he states, “I would love my daughters to retain their surname after marriage. Marriage is a coming together of equals. It’s not like buying a cow and then branding it with an iron rod just to show your ownership over it. My daughters are independent people. They have identities — and histories — of their own.” Is it a non-issue, then? That’s what it would have remained, if Sanjay Dutt hadn’t made it a talking point once more, when he recently said that “girls must assume their new surname and all the responsibilities that come with it”. Says actor Moon Moon Sen, daughter of the legendary Suchitra Sen and mother to actors Raima and Riya, “I don’t think anyone has the right to say whether somebody should keep one, two or three surnames. I began work after marriage and used my original surname because I considered it lucky. In my husband’s circle, I’m known by his last name. It’s about personal choice.” As for a woman’s role in the modern family, Sen says, “Why just a woman? In my family, it’s my husband who holds the family together. I’ve been a spoilt wife and now he takes care of all my daughters’ needs.” Some men would go a step further to defy socalled norms. When columnist Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar decided to marry, he went all the way by taking on his wife’s name as his middle name, as part of an equal partnership. He remarks, tongue-in-cheek, “Well, otherwise, Sanjay Dutt might have asked me why I wasn’t assuming full responsibility for my wife’s family!” CPM leader and social activist Brinda Karat also took on her husband’s surname under unusual circumstances, with tradition not playing any part in the decision. She says, “I married during the Emergency and had to change both my first and last names to stay ‘underground’. Later, I was advised to retain one for familiarity, which happened to be my husband’s surname.” Karat adds, “It’s a woman’s right to decide her surname and fortunately, both partners are equal before the law and the Constitution. A pativrata culture is not the potion for a happy family.” A change of surname also calls for a mountain of paperwork, particularly now when women marry after they’re settled in their careers or having set up businesses. However, lawyer Kamini Jaiswal believes that if some women are not changing their surnames, it’s because they don’t want to. She bristles, “Sanjay Dutt is someone who uses his father’s last name but has a problem because his sister does so.” In fact, the trend of adopting a man’s last name is more north Indian than Indian. Says sociologist Nandini Sundar, “In the south, women — and men — are known by their own names.” Adds Lyngdoh, who belongs to Meghalaya’s matriarchal Khasi tribe, “We take our mother’s surnames. After marriage, husbands and wives retain their names.” So, next time you come across a mention of Parle’s Shauna Chauhan, Madhuri Dixit-Nene or Hillary Rodham-Clinton, remember it’s all about personal choice as well as hard-won personal identity!
Friday, February 6, 2009
Parents move HC over school’s shift of SSC section
Mumbai: The Forum for Fairness in Education (FFE), an NGO that works against commercialisation of education, and a few parents of New Era School at Hughes Road jointly filed a case in the high court against the school management’s decision to shift its SSC section to D N Road. The New Era School—set up more than 70 years ago by M T Vyas, a staunch supporter of the country’s independence movement—offered only the SSC curriculum until it was taken over by the Aditya Birla Group over a year ago. The school now offers the International General Certificate of Secondary Education curriculum as well as SSC. A few months ago, the Birlas announced plans to shift the entire SSC section to a seven-storeyed building near CST station. “We have objected to the management’s decision to shift the SSC section to a location that is 4.5 km away from where the children were studying earlier. The new school building has no compound and opens directly on to a footpath. Where will the children play?’’ said Jayant Jain, former president of FFE. The petition states that the school management is commercialising education and has attempted to clear SSC students out of the building to make way for IGCSE students. While SSC students pay a fee of around Rs 20,000 a year, for IGCSE students the figure crosses Rs 4 lakh. The management told parents that the school building was unsafe and needed repair. The petition countered that the building was renovated a year ago at a cost of Rs 7.5 crore. “The school’s own architect has certified the building as safe,’’ Jain said. While IGCSE students will be shifted temporarily to a new location, in case of SSC students,the move will be permanent. In its reply to an RTI application filed by FFE, the BMC’s D ward office said the New Era building was not on its list of unsafe or dilapidated structures. The management refused to comment on the subject.
WHY WERE YOU ARRESTED?
Women who spent night in police lock-up after Borivli protests are in social disgrace as their families find it difficult to accept the fact that they were arrested
GEETA DESAI
Mansi Walinjkar’s husband was furious when she called up to tell him that she had been arrested for protesting on the tracks against Western Railway authorities on Wednesday. “Are you the only leader people wanted, he asked me, and I had no answer,” said Mansi, 35, who works in a private firm at Churchgate. “Why should you get arrested when there were hundreds of women protesting on the tracks, he wanted to know.” Another protester, Madhavi Randive, too was extremely disturbed by her arrest. “My in-laws and my husband are very upset with me. We are from a decent family, no one has ever stepped into police stations. But I had to spend a full night in the lock-up. Even recalling it is a horrifying experience. I will never forget it in my life,” lamented Madhavi. On Wednesday, police thrashed and humiliated 32 protesters including 19 women, before arresting them. Now, Mansi, Madhavi and other women protesters are upset as their families are finding it hard to accept the fact that they were arrested. “They have to face the music from their husbands and in-laws. A few women even feared that their husbands would stop them from working,” said advocate Inderpal B Singh. Mansi was almost out of Borivli railway station when police started the lathi-charge. “Some people were arrested and others were being beaten up mercilessly, so we started moving out of the railway station, but the police dragged us to the GRP station. We tried telling them that we were not on the railway platform, but they did not listen to us,” she said. “We were beaten and lined up. Our vakalatnama was ready by 3.30 pm. We were supposed to be taken to Bhagwati Hospital before being produced in court, but police delayed it as they wanted to ‘teach us a lesson’,” added Mansi. By then, it was 7 pm and Mansi was worried that her son would be waiting for her. She called her husband when she realised that she would be taken to police lock-up. "There were hundreds of women on the tracks, but only 19 were caught... But our efforts should not go to waste. Trains should start from platforms 1, 2 and 3.” “They were charged under Section 148, related to rioting with deadly weapons, but they only had handbags and tiffins. This is not done,” said Singh. Two of the arrested women are advocates. All 32 protesters were released on bail on Thursday.
GEETA DESAI
Mansi Walinjkar’s husband was furious when she called up to tell him that she had been arrested for protesting on the tracks against Western Railway authorities on Wednesday. “Are you the only leader people wanted, he asked me, and I had no answer,” said Mansi, 35, who works in a private firm at Churchgate. “Why should you get arrested when there were hundreds of women protesting on the tracks, he wanted to know.” Another protester, Madhavi Randive, too was extremely disturbed by her arrest. “My in-laws and my husband are very upset with me. We are from a decent family, no one has ever stepped into police stations. But I had to spend a full night in the lock-up. Even recalling it is a horrifying experience. I will never forget it in my life,” lamented Madhavi. On Wednesday, police thrashed and humiliated 32 protesters including 19 women, before arresting them. Now, Mansi, Madhavi and other women protesters are upset as their families are finding it hard to accept the fact that they were arrested. “They have to face the music from their husbands and in-laws. A few women even feared that their husbands would stop them from working,” said advocate Inderpal B Singh. Mansi was almost out of Borivli railway station when police started the lathi-charge. “Some people were arrested and others were being beaten up mercilessly, so we started moving out of the railway station, but the police dragged us to the GRP station. We tried telling them that we were not on the railway platform, but they did not listen to us,” she said. “We were beaten and lined up. Our vakalatnama was ready by 3.30 pm. We were supposed to be taken to Bhagwati Hospital before being produced in court, but police delayed it as they wanted to ‘teach us a lesson’,” added Mansi. By then, it was 7 pm and Mansi was worried that her son would be waiting for her. She called her husband when she realised that she would be taken to police lock-up. "There were hundreds of women on the tracks, but only 19 were caught... But our efforts should not go to waste. Trains should start from platforms 1, 2 and 3.” “They were charged under Section 148, related to rioting with deadly weapons, but they only had handbags and tiffins. This is not done,” said Singh. Two of the arrested women are advocates. All 32 protesters were released on bail on Thursday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)