Open Source and Its Applications

I have attended a seminar on the topic "Nexgen Librarianship" on 22nd October, 2010 at IBS Mumbai. The Seminar was designed for Librarians, Information Professionals, Library Managers and Library Science Students. The Seminar was based on four main topics Knowledge management by Mr Dharmendra Sachan (Exim Bank), Lib 2.0 by Ms Dhanashree Date (TCS), Open Source and its applications by Ms Sarika Sawant (SHPT School of Library Science) and DSpace by Mr Sandeep Bhavsar (Dr V. N. Bedekar Institute of Management Studies). From all of the seminar topics, one topic is explain here in detail.

Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is available in source code form for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, and improve the software. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software#Open_Source_Definition)

List of Some Open Source Software:

1) Ubuntu: It is a computer Opertaing System distributed as free and open source software under a free software licence GPL (General Public Licence).

2) Apache Web Server: It store web documents and displayes them on the Internet.

3) Mozilla Web Browser (Firefox 3.6)

4) OsCommerce: Online shop e-commerce solution. It create website for online shopping.

5) OpenX: It is a ad server software. It is a integrated banner management interface for advertise.

6) Gallery: Web based photo album.

7) Drupal: Drupal is an open source content management platform powering millions of websites and applications. It’s built, used, and supported by an active and diverse community of people around the world. (http://drupal.org/home)

8) Piwik: Web analytics software programme. It gives detailed report of your website visitors.

9) PHP Motion: Easily uploading of videos directly from the user computer (mpg, avi, divx and more).

10) Joomla: Joomla is a free and open source content management system (CMS) for publishing content on the World Wide Web and Intranets.

11) MyPaint: MyPaint is a fast and easy open-source graphics application for digital painters. It provides unlimited canvas.

12) Moodle: Is a free and open-source e-learning software platform, also known as a Course Management System or Learning Management System.

13) Koha: Is a first open source Integrated Library System (ILS).

14) NewGenLib: NewGenLib is an integrated library management system.

15) Greenstone: Greenstone is a suite of open-source software for building and distributing digital library collections.

16) Dspace: DSpace is the software of choice for academic, non-profit, and commercial organizations building open digital repositories. DSpace preserves and enables easy and open access to all types of digital content including text, images, moving images, mpegs and data sets. (http://www.dspace.org/introducing)

Characteristics of Digital Library

• Digital libraries are totally depending on electricity as well as technology.
• Current information can be excessed easily than traditional library.
• It provides better search facilities than the traditional library.
• Digital libraries collections are not limited to document surrogates; they extend to digital artifacts that cannot be represented.
• Digital materials are likely to be available with almost equal speed from any online sites, digital libraries focus less on collections than an access.