LIBRARY 4.0

ICT with various newly emerged technologies, artificial intelligence of semantic and controlled Web would bridge all communication barriers of a person in every walk of life. Web 4.0 will comprise all services and tools of web 3.0 supported with artificial intelligence. In this, web itself analyse the information and will generate new ideas and theories which would be communicated to the people of the same subject areas.

Web 4.0 would be a different world for an individual and it will bring like minded people together despite of different locations. It will notify the researchers with the relevant information over PC or mobile about the ongoing research or discussion on the same topic on which s/he is working for.

Library 4.0:
Whole web will be known as library and will be called as learning web. Everything placed on the web will get a unique location and web itself synthesis and analyse every part of the published content. Open Access system gets more encouragement and library 4.0 will divide the web into two parts “learning web” and “Spamming or Trashing web”. In this, ‘learning web’ will work as a ‘gigantic open virtual library’ with higher precision value and academicians will go with this. ‘Spamming or Trashing Web’, will be for the whole garbage available over the Internet which would cover recreational part of Internet. Libraries need to work in network or in collaboration with various professional networks. None of the individual library will survive in the 4.0 generation of web.

Role of a Librarian:
It is understood librarians have to be essentially techno savvy in 4th generation of web but they need to have expertisation on analysing the relevant information demanded by their users. Apart from tracking latest happenings in core areas of their users they would need to keep track on user’s online visits over the Internet which s/he will perform for the sake of learning. User’s visits over the web would lead the librarians to negotiate with information agencies and commercial publishers about the used information but after the information used by the users.

Nutshell:

Web 4.0 or Library 4.0 is yet in imaginations, which is getting developed day by day with the acceleration of ICT. Emergence of new technologies will demand librarianship with virtue of systematic and dedicated practices. Library 4.0 will accommodate (club) many of the services which are today, working in separate or independent domains. No doubt this generation of libraries will face lot of challenges from the users as well as technologies because whole web will give a desired virtual library system.

Library 3.0

(We are approaching web 3.0 very fast, the desires and expectations from the ICT have already started giving shape to this generation of web. Consequently Library 3.0 envelops lot of challenges to the librarians as well as new dimensions to the profession. In this post we tried to put our views on the Web 3.0 and Library 3.0, which may not be accepted by many of the professionals. The discussion we are keeping open for all professionals or individuals and request them to put across their comments and views on the discussion, if they have any. )

We have talked about Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 in our earlier posts. The web generations which have given the existence to library 1.0 and library 2.0. Nowadays we can see discussions about web 3.0 are mushrooming in various discussion groups and forums. Before moving to library 3.0, lets share few words about Web 3.0 and what does it mean to us?

We have been experiencing applications of vibrant and dynamic technologies in Web 2.0 generation which stimulated our expectations and demanding more computing and analyzing intelligence from next generation of the Web. Since, Web 2.0 has been working with the aim to give social synchronization through groups, wikis, blogs, communities, forums and social networks. It brings individual whether a professional or general in contact with known and unknown people. In this people are sharing their thoughts, comments, feedbacks and scraps to be remained in touch with each others. Therefore, in broader sense we can say that Web 2.0 is bringing Individual together and information scattered all over the web. Whereas it is being expected that Web 3.0 will bring information together. Application of mashup technologies will give us the virtual world of Information in which web will be strengthen with more computing and analyzing powers through artificial intelligence. In Web 3.0 all created profiles and browsing history of an individual put together, on basis of analyzing the contents, computer will come out with the result needed by that particular individual. In this sense, two individuals will get different output while searching on a same query. Web will produce the result by knowing searcher’s flavor of information through analyzing his/her profiles and browsing history. Web 3.0 will work with more web semantic technologies, today hidden web or invisible web is a matter of concern and it is also being expected that it will not be there in Web 3.0.

Definition about Web 3.0 is in discussions these days, whereas a valid definition is yet to be established. Though, Web 3.0 set up the linking between data, various devices to exchange, analyse and find the data and finally establishes the linking between all users of web. This is quite an interesting debate that how web 3.0 is going to be implemented in libraries? To understand this we can say, Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 are completely based on the computer experts who showed these generations of web to all of us. Use of dynamic contents, blogs, social networks, tagging, wikis, podcasts and mashup technologies on web is a common application but information is scattered and unorganized all over the web. Now, Web 3.0 will prominently be based up on the librarians, for organizing this scattered or unorganized information. The application of semantic technologies and ontologies will be the key aspects in this generation of web.

Applications of Web 3.0 in Libraries

Since, features of web 3.0 are little hazy but being a user and organizer of information, speed, accuracy, precision and systematic organization of information available on the web are the most desirable elements of Library 3.0. Below, we are describing few of the prominent features or aspects of library 3.0 generation in brief:

Semantic Web: Semantic web will provide us with the option to share, unite, search and organize the web information in easy manner. Sharing and organizing information available in every corner of the web, which is the main aim of this generation and expected to be achieved with the help of semantic web technologies.

OPAC: In library 3.0, Web OPACs of various libraries which are forming a part of visible or invisible web would be brought together. Metadata of contents (contents in any format) would seamlessly accessible and searchable from single user friendly interface, just the way a ‘Portal’ provides one stop shop for various contents in present generation.

Ontologies: These are the techniques to give richer semantic relationships between terms and thoughts of knowledge. These give more standardization in managing the web contents instead of merely indexing the terms. Ontology aims at how the information is organized rather than organizing the information. Librarians can adopt various ontological techniques to define the web contents in more professional as well as personal manner.

Ubiquitous contents: The ubiquitous computing offers various contents which can be used or re-used frequently and will also not get absolute in near future. The contents of this generation need to be created in various formats and can also be easily shared, transferred and accessible through all modes of communication. Ubiquitous contents are the personal contents of the people persistently stored on the web in form of movies, blog posts, RSS feeds, wikis, stories, articles, music, games, etc. These are always there on the web and accessible from everywhere over the Internet through all mobile and Internet accessible devices.

GeoTagging: This helps users to find specific information located at specific location. It is simply a marking of various media or digital contents like images, photographs, video, websites or RSS feed etc. Most of the cellphones and mobile devices have GPS (Global Positioning System) facilities, which allowing users to add metadata exactly where the data or image or video was created. So tagging helps users to mark their information in which they are interested for.

Virtual Reference Service: Since technology is developing very fast in all domains, librarians are more determined to serve the users who are away from the libraries. In virtual reference service, apart from helping the users in personal or telephonic way, librarians are now developing the contents which can easily be transferable and readable in cellphones and other mobile devices to help the users at any point of time.

Librarians: In Library 3.0 is not only to provide the service to the people but it is serving the user with various services. They should know how to get the requested information and make it available to the user without concerning about the location. They should also help the users to make use of the given information. Librarians will have to work on the alternative way of providing information if one mode of communication gets failed.

In Nutshell: We are in the unorganized set of web contents these days but in library 3.0 to establish these unorganized web contents into a systematic and organized way. The most important sphere of library 3.0 is to establish a semantic relationship between all available web contents to ensure seamless accessibility, search-ability, availability and usability. Librarians need to be more inclined towards the use of latest tools and technology to create virtual library system. But basic aim remains the same i.e. ‘right information to the right user at the right time’.

LIBRARY 2.0

In simple words, application of Web 2.0 in libraries is known as Library2.0 or L2. Therefore, it is important to have a discussion on Web2.0 at first before moving further. During the year 2000, when web under ‘dot com’ was getting crumbled up with the concept and general consideration that web is for publishing only. Even in this situation O’Reilly Media Inc. under the leadership of its founder Tim O’Reilly come out as strong believer of web. This group has highlighted the web as dynamic platform for productive communication, especially in the area of business and marketing. Web 2.0 is a term originally coined by Dale Daugherty and Tim O’Reily in the year 2004 during a brainstorming session of a special conference organized to discuss the future of web and emerging techniques.

Web2.0 is being defined differently by the experts, few say it is a technology which provides lively experience to the users while using the Internet and few say it is an advance stage of Internet. Other say it is optimum use of technologies over the Internet and few considered it as propaganda for Internet marketing. Though, web 2.0 is a user-centred web, where blogs, wikis, social networks, multimedia applications, dynamic programming scripts are being used for collection, contribution and collaboration concepts on the web.

Library 2.0
The term Library 2.0 is coined by Michael Casey in 2006. Various library professionals have defined the term differently but in general we can say that application of web 2.0 in libraries is known as Library 2.0. Now question arises how libraries have come into Web 2.0 business and this question is being discussed in many professional platforms. To answer this question, Five Laws of Library Science given by Dr. S R Ranganathan about a century ago are absolutely valid to justify transformation of libraries into Library 2.0. The laws are:

1. Information is for use (Books are for use)
2. Every user his/her information (Every reader his/her book)
3. Every information its user (Every book its reader)
4. Save the time of the user (Save time of the user)
5. The library is a growing organism (The library is a growing organism)

These laws are strictly showing users as centric force of any library system. First law recommends proper use of information. Second and third laws address right information to the right user and also about alert services. Forth law is asking to use new tools and technologies so librarians can save the time of user as well as library staff. Fifth law shows the broad spectrum of library system which is infinitive in nature and also recommending use of latest technologies, tools, services and methods as required to give vibrant and dynamic shape to the library system.

Web 2.0 in the libraries

Library website: Library 2.0 is offering dynamic websites for the libraries which embedded with semantic web and interoperability of various tools and techniques. Few of them are as:

• Streaming media: Streaming technology takes care of multimedia files over the Internet. It is the streaming of video and audio media that incorporate more interactive, media-rich facets. With the help of streaming media users can interact with library staff or their teachers as they interact in classrooms or instruction labs.


• Mashups: Mashup is a hybrid application of the web which integrates information from different sources at one platform. In simple words it is an application that combines data or functionality from two or more external sources to create a new service. Mashup is the technology which integrates all applications of web 2.0 at single platform.


• Podcast: Padcast defined as “a digital media file or collection of files that is distributed over the Internet periodically and made available for download by means of web syndication”. The files can be played back on a computer or personal player i.e. Ipod or mobile etc.

OPAC:

• Tagging: This makes information searching easier on the Internet. In which users can create and change the metadata, especially subject headings to the contents. This acts like an open catalogue to the information. In this users can give subject headings to their interested documents/ contents and also write reviews of the contents. In web OPAC system users can tag their interested documents and also write comments and reviews on interested documents.

Alert Services:

• Instant Messaging: In simple words it is known as “Chat”, through this chat reference library users can interact with librarians on library related issues as they would interacting face to face. Instant messaging reference service is being used successfully and expertly in libraries.


• Social Networks: Social networking is the most promising and most talked technology of present days. This allows people to create virtual communities (personal or professional) over the internet for interaction. Social Networks are online communities where people meet, socialize, exchange digital files, etc. Facebook, MySpace, Orkut and Flickr are few popular examples of Social Networks. Libraries can also start their social network about latest books or documents in the libraries where users can discuss or comments on the contents being contained by these books or documents. This can not be only restricted to books or other documents even library services and activities can also be discussed through this.

Publishing:

• Blog: Jorn Barger coined ‘Blog’ in the year 1997 and blogs are being considered as a great milestone in the history of web publishing. This is a sort of personal web site featuring diary-type commentary, simple web posts and links to articles or other web sites. This is being frequently updated and gives chronological arrangement of the posts. For easy search each entry or post can be tagged with keyword and description. Libraries can start their blogs to encourage interactions amongst users and library staff. Blog can also be used for promoting activities and services of the libraries. It allows two ways interaction where users can also make comment on the posted information.


• Wikis: This is like an open web page and who have access permission can publish or edit the information on these wabpages by using their browsers. Professional communities are using wikis as reference guides that reflect the collective knowledge of the community. Wikipedia is the excellent example of this service. Libraries can open their webpages in the wikis and can promote social interaction among librarians and library users.

Notices:

• RSS Feeds: RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is the technology which facilitates users to keep track of new updates on selected websites. This technology normally is being seen in blogs and wikis but now almost all the websites are using this technology. To facilitate the users, libraries have already started using this technology to keep them up to date with the latest happening in chosen websites. It enables users to have customized personal pages that contain contents of various other websites which would of their use.

In nutshell:
Application of Web 2.0 in libraries has taken the libraries into next generation. Library 2.0 is completely user centric which provokes libraries to share the resources collectively. It is important for the librarians to experience Web 2.0 tools from a user’s perspective and use these tools in modernizing library services. Therefore, librarians have to techno-savvy in today’s world of information and technology.

Library 1.0

When O’Reilly Media coined the web2.0 term, then only we come to know about existence of web1.0 in the cyber world. In this post, we would not directly put ourselves into web2.0 instead we discuss about web1.0 which had given the base to library1.0 concept in the libraries.

The first phase of WWW (World Wide Web) is called web1.0. In general, term web1.0 comes into the picture after the emergence of web2.0. It could be defined as one-way communication over the Internet. In which static web pages were used with the help of basic form of HTML. It was commonly used for publishing basic information, introduction and activities of any organization, institute or other systems. User can read this information but had to use e-mail or other mediums to react on the contents written over these static web pages, that means there was not any direct user interaction on published contents or information.

Application of web1.0 in the libraries is known as library1.0. Librarians started applying web1.0 to inform its user about the library, its services and activities. Gradually, use of web1.0 in the library got boost with the interoperability of library automation system. Optimum and extensive use of web in library services later on framed the thought of virtual library system.


Following are the activities of library1.0

Library web-page/site: Libraries started creating websites to inform users about the library, library rules & regulations, procedures, user privileges and services which are being rendered.

OPAC: Use of integrated library management software offered access to catalogue of the library at local area network.

Alert Services: New arrivals and other documentation services were also offered through simply publishing a list on the website on routine basis.

Publishing: Libraries were publishing annual reports, reports and analysis on library usage etc on the web.

Notice: Notices for users in static form were also incorporated through the website. The use of HTML basic tags like 'blink' and 'marquee' etc. were quite prominent for highlighting notices and alert services.

In nutshell, library1.0 was simply the way of publishing library related information to the users with the help of basic HTML. In library1.0 generation library users were unable to do anything except reading out and managing print copies of those pages. User interaction part was not there in this generation. But cutting edge technology replaced the web1.0 with web2.0 for dynamic and interactive discussion between information provider and information seeker. Finally web2.0 emerged that changed access of information from the library blocks to user’s desktops.

KOSMIX v/s Google

Introduction:

Search engines play an important role in the age of information, speed and quality, when everybody needs right information, at the right moment in fractions of a second. Though, electronic information contents have gone beyond text to image, audio, video and various other

formats and being uploaded over the Internet for public or restricted use. In order to capture all these contents in different formats search engines are working on cutting edge technologies and coming up with one or other specialties. In the emergence of various search engines the KOSMIX come up with its unique feature of systematic categorization of web. KOSMIX as described through our earlier post entitled Does KOSMIX challenge the Google or Librarians?, is undoubtedly has been launched with the aim to “tell more about something”. In proper sense it is a browse engine or more appropriately we can defined it as an explore engine which has already revolutionized the searching on the web. It was created by Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan, who studied at Stanford University along with Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

KOSMIX has been known as a challenger to Google even when it was not fully developed. KOSMIX has an incredibly long and challenging road ahead of it if wants to compete against Google. The other side Google is the foundation stone in the era of search engines, itself facing the challenge from these new generation search engines, when these new emerging search engines are researching on half explored services of existing search engines to make their products unique and revolutionary.

Here, we are trying to put light on the KOSMIX v/s well known giant the great Google in this information age.

Indexing and searching:

KOSMIX is containing all features which a search engine should need to have but unique way of searching which separates it from other search engines. Google is a Giant but sometime it gives frustrations while searching. It has been observed that sometime it diverts users from the actual topic on which he/she started searching and reached somewhere else. Google gives high ranked (ranking given by Google itself) documents as result on a specific term or phrase whereas KOSMIX gives the documents which give more information on a specific term or phrase. The basics of output in both these search engines are completely different. KOSMIX gathers contents from across the web in most systematic and organized way in and categorize them in different subject categories.

While searching for “e-learning objects”, Google has given output from web pages only and to get results from blog, images, video and news categories, searched one by one separately. We put the same query in KOSMIX and received output in boxes with link to explore further option. It compiles the output from different sources, webpages, videos, images, wikies, blogs, and conversational entries and suggests various other related links too.

KOSMIX is known as an explore engine which discovers the accurate topics related to the term searched for. Accurate and relevant searching is the most exceptional key of KOSMIX, which work like a boon for information seekers and learners who were dithering from the Google due to low precision value. It does not displayed own published contents but it fetch the results from other search engines, like Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Flicker etc.

The above table shows, though KOSMIX is only 6 months infant but already challenging Google in many of its services. Since Google has already achieved the greatness and become a giant in the business, therefore, it is quite true that KOSMIX has to go long way to compete with the Great Google.

Comment:

The limitation of KOSMIX is that it gives 4-5 results from each section and to explore further it takes us to other search engines like “more from the Google” or “more from the Youtube”. We found that KOSMIX gives results from the first result page of other sources, but organized them in such a way that most of the times it seems the output is given by a professional on searched term.

After moving away from result of KOSMIX with the option ‘more from …….’, this takes the users to another search engines and after sometime user forget that he/she was using KOSMIX. Then again flat one dimensional listing of search output come in front of us.

Suggestion:
Instead of compiling and displaying one page entries, KOSMIX should think to increase number of entries to make good grip on user’s psyche. KOSMIX should have not let the user moves to other search engines.

• It should look up to search within the result option.
• It should have to reveal the different sub-subjects categories under different subject categories, e.g. under which subject category the term ‘library’ appears.
• There is no help option to guide the user in searching or browsing the KOSMIX. It should provide some links to refer the user to explore further options.
• Since, KOSMIX is not allowing users to search/browse in one format (content’s format) only, like video, image, blog, web or other organized segments. It should give the liberty to user to search with in the single format (images or videos etc.) from the categorized contents.
• It should suggest correct spelling while entering of wrong spelling, and also refers towards more sought terms to search the web.
• While searching it should show the browsing path to reach at that term or phrase and also show the different subject categories containing the same term or phrase.

Endnotes:

KOSMIX is guide to web, user can browse the topics in the different subject categories. To give accurate and more relevant search, whatever users want over the Internet it categorizing whole web into different categories, that helps to provide automatic indexing of contents that makes searching more intuitive and result looks like given by an expert on related to searched topic. And one can send the links of search results through the email, this way helping the user to organize the information for further use. RightHealth and MeeHive are the services those have already given the new way of web organization and searching. Finding relevant information from the web with highest precision value KOSMIX has already sent the example but it would be more advisable if it stresses upon federated search and give long output from its own organized contents instead of restricted it from 4 or 5 entries of different segments. KOSMIX has all the ingredients and potential to challenge the Google if it adopts constant improvement and develop it to facilitate the academics.

The Great Google – imposing supreme challenge to the professionals

In this discussion we are going to talk about the ‘Google’. It is the search engine which is being used most extensively all around the world to explore the web. We are unable to get the accurate size of Google in terms of how much web contents it possesses but it is immense in size. Google does not search everything which is published over the Internet, even though this enveloping much higher part of the web than covered by any other search engine. The most interesting aspect of Google is that it works with the practical parts of the society by putting itself in every walk of life. For example, Google is working with Information and Library Network Centre (INFLIBNET) to make union catalogues (databases), which are being maintained by the Centre, available through the Google. This is really a fascinating way to help the society by giving access to the information which is known as invisible web. What else user wants – an easy and free access to the information. It is not only challenging the library and information science professionals alone but imposing challenge to the professionals of all spheres. It has millions of full text books giving challenge to the publishing and distributing industries, covering more than 25,000 news sources which give challenge to the media professionals, writers, translators, cartographers, Information technology professionals are also not left estranged from professional challenges to them. In true sense Google is keeping professionals on their toes by imposing supreme challenge.

Introduction:
Birth of Google started with the phrase “Having a healthy disregard for the impossible”. Sergey Brin and Larry Page In 1998 Google launched with the aim to provide some accuracy while searching with its PageRank system. In this PageRank system, Google provides higher rank to important pages and high ranked pages appear at the top of the search results.

Google has been showing its presence in all spheres of globalization. From simple searching to Google Map, Advertisements etc. it has reached to access of scholarly literature through book search, Google scholar etc. Day by day it is achieving new heights of success in each and every domain.

Indexing and Searching:
Google is not only searching billions of web pages but also providing precision value while searching. It offers flexibility by using various symbols and Boolean logic (e.g. “”, +, - OR, AND etc.) and various other techniques to get more precision value. Google indexing and searching works in very systematic order. Google has a web crawling robot called Googlebot, which finds the web-pages and hand over the retrieved information to ‘Google Indexer’. Google Indexer is a huge index database which is sorted alphabetically with each index entry storing a list of documents in which the term appears within the text and its specific location.
Google does not index common words like the, is, on, of, how, why, some punctuations and multiple spaces etc. The query analyzer of Google called ‘query processor’ which has comprises with user interface, search engine that evaluates queries and results formatter. The query processor compares the search query with index terms and recommends the related documents. With the help of PageRank system, the page containing higher rank is more likely to appear at the top in the output. It also uses machine-learning techniques with in the stored data, to improve its performance automatically. For example, the spelling correction system uses the same technique and suggests alternative spellings. It also allows using formulas for calculation and unit conversions etc. Various options for simple as well as advance searching are being provided to help users.

Comments:
Being a librarian I feel Google imposes a biggest challenge to the library professionals particularly in the area of electronic information. It is a most dynamic and vibrant search engine which is undoubtedly a leader in the world of search engines. While searching anything on the web, routinely Google comes in mind. The simple search with advance searching techniques is its beauty and searching loads of information is quite easier and user friendly, even a layman can search accurate information. Search for location, unit conversation, weather details, book search, image and video search, article search, synonyms, web-publishing, advertisements and in all domains of web-life, presence of Google can be felt easily. Earlier librarians were known as information searching experts and initially they dominated Google by rejecting it’s below standardized indexing techniques. But now Google is dominating library profession by using same indexing techniques in different databases for excellent output accuracy. For researchers and academicians it’s ‘Book Search’ and ‘Google Scholars’ are giving access to billions of books and articles. Easy access to the information and article search options giving ‘virtual library’ shape to the Google. This lets academic community using Google widely. Google has become a prominent reason which cut shorted the user’s visit in the libraries in search of information.
Suggestions:
Goolge is in true sense envisaging the picture of library without walls or a virtual library. It would be good if Google provide option to choose areas to search, like selecting several vertical areas while making search. For example if I would like to search with in the blog, video, images and book search domains only then I have to search separately in all required databases or have to use general search option. In general search it would give output from all databases collectively (like news, video, images, Google scholar, book search etc.). Therefore, user will be provided the key to select his/her databases while making any new search. Google may also come out with another new database of “open access journals/magazines” which would only covers journals/magazines available freely on the web. The same way it can also think of giving single window searching option to the institutional repositories available openly on public domains.

Endnote:
There is no exaggeration in saying ‘Google is the reflection of web-of-universe’. It is the highly used search engine of present era. We can observe creations of specialized search engines all around which are coming with specialized features. Though all these search engines needs decades to achieve the success Google has achieved. Librarians are known as techno-savvy group of professionals but they are in dilemma to approve Google as a boon or ban for the libraries in general and library profession in particular. Though the underline factor is that Google is reaching to the users and helping them to explore the web-of-universe by this it is achieving the objectives which librarians dreamed.

The world of search engines

Latest Trends in Libraries - A Discussion (Part - II)

Being an information provider, Internet always fascinates me and seems like an unexplored paradise. Internet is an ocean of web and retrieving a specific piece of information needs specialized searching techniques. Search engines, including Meta search engines and directories are the only tools to explore the web, even though the amount of invisible data (invisible web) is much higher than the indexed data. After inception search engines are doing a commendable job to minimize indivisible web.

Brief history of search engines

United States Department of Defense, in the year 1957 created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to enhance the U S supremacy in the area of military with the use of science and technology. They established ARPANET for sharing information with networking technology in 1969 under restricted environment and in 1972 ARPANET went on public domain which led the birth of the Internet. With advent of World Wide Web (WWW) a revolution in the field of information exchange over the Internet has been experienced. Many people get confused on the meaning of the Internet and WWW.

Internet: Internet is the network of the networks where we can talk about machine (computer) and cables (nodes).

WWW: It is the content part on which one can found information in the form of documents, sound, video etc. and it always exist on the Network because www is the programme which communicates between computers connected over the net.

Once Information being started sharing globally by the people, it becomes important to retrieve the same in systematic form. Therefore, Search Engines came into the picture. Search engines works through following three major steps:

Spiders of search engines follow links on the web to request pages that are either not yet indexed or have been updated since they were last indexed.

With help of a crawler, these pages added in the index of the search engines. So while searching, users are not really searching the web but searching in the updated index of the search engines which provide the links to the main source.

User or search Interface (for users) is the 3^rd major part of a search engine.

Growth of search engines:

Archie, the first search engine was created in 1990 by Alan Emtage. It indexed computer files which was located at anonymous FTP for downloading. Just after that ‘Gopher’ search engine came to existence which indexed plain text documents

In stream first renowned search engine is World Wide Web Wanderer which was created by Matthew Gray in the year 1993. It is considered at first robot which ran monthly in the initial years to know the size of the web.

The first populated search engine was ‘Excite’ was created in the year 1993. It was the outcome of a project work of few Stanford University students and was released for general use in 1994.

In 1994, two students of Stanford University Jerry Yang and David Filo created Yahoo! by posting web pages with links to them. Their efforts were recognised all over and then they start listing of all their favorite web sites with description of the page and it become the first popular search engine directory to search the web. After receiving funds Yahoo become the prominent name in the search engines.

In the same year WebCrawler was introduced as first full-text search engine. It was again the outcome of a project work at University of Washington. Web public found this search engine as extensive tool to explore the web.

In 1994, Lycos appeared with various indexing facilities. For the year 1996, Lycos had indexed over 60 millions web pages and become largest search engine of that time.

Infoseek introduced in 1995 which was quite similar to Lycos. In the same year Alta Vista was launched. It was the first search engine which allows natural language to retrieve the information with advanced searching techniques. It also provides the searching facilities to multimedia documents, like audio, video, images etc.

Inktomi, in 1996, utilized ‘concept induction’ technology in which experience of human analysis applied to know which web site is mostly used and productive. Inktomi was purchased by Yahoo in 2003.

Ask Jeeves and Northern Light both were launched in 1997. After few months Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Stanford University launched ‘Google’ which started providing inbounds links to rank sites. Later MSN Search and Open Directory were also started. In the year 2004 GoodSearch and wikiseek and in 2006 Ask.com and Live Search came into existence.

Search engine business is quite competitive, therefore various other search engines like Kosmix and Hakia etc have started mushrooming with additional features apart from simple searching.

Institutional Repositories in India – an update

Digital Repository @ INFLIBNET Centre

This is an update to our earlier post ‘Institutional Repositories in India’, of 28th December, 2008. In which we discussed about some of the important but active institutional repositories in India.

Information and Library Network Centre (INFLIBNET) is always been a front runner for the development of academic libraries in our country. From library automation to online subscription and from manpower development to open access, Centre has been exploring new domains of Information management and dissemination to facilitate the Indian academics. Under the able and dynamic leadership of Dr. Jagdish Arora, Centre has been achieving new heights day by day. His leadership has given new ways of consortium subscription, meaningful logo to the Centre, enveloping colleges and social science institutes in the national consortium stream, permanent building to the Centre and more, this list goes on and on by which Centre has been exploring various cooperative ventures at all levels. INFLIBNET’s website which was not accessible earlier for most of the time is now one of the lively and highly visited websites by the academic world. Whole credit goes to Dr. Arora and his team of scientists who have given new hopes to achieve 2020 vision of the nation in desired time by facilitating the nation with free flow of scholarly information.

In 2003 Centre created Institutional Repository with the name as 'Dspace @ INFLIBNET' but it remained inaccessible most of the time due to some technical reasons. Recently INFLIBNET has revamped and relaunched this institutional repository with more smooth and vibrant look. It is created on Dspace (An open source software) and can be accessed at http://ir.inflibnet.ac.in:8080/jspui/. The repository is providing access to INFLIBNET’s news through ‘INFLIBNET in Press and Media’ and also giving access to ‘INFLIBNET’s Convention Proceedings’ collection which is covering articles published in all conventions (CALIBER & PLANNER) of the Centre from the year 2003 onwards.

We do hope the National Information and Library Network Centre of the country will always keep the librarianship's flag high and lead the world by setting up best examples.

Thank you for your suggestions and comments

Dear Professional Friends,

We would like to extend our sincere thanks for your personal as well as anonymous suggestions which you have sent to give a quality shape to this blog. We are trying to incorporate all your valued feedback and assure you for extending our serious as well as sincere efforts for the betterment of the 'key 2 information'. We aspire to have more suggestions and comments from you to give this web-space a more vibrant and informative shape. The professionals who wish to contribute by posting their articles, opinions and views on latest trends in library and information science on this blog are also welcomed. Please send your suggestions and comments at sureshbabal@gmail.com.

Hope to have quality discussion over professional issues.

With kind regards,

Sincerely yours,

Contributors

Latest Trends in Libraries – A Discussion (Part – I)

Since very inception libraries have been known as knowledge centres and to enhance the best possible use of these libraries is always been a biggest concern of librarians. Although, librarians are known as vibrant techno–savvy group of professionals, who have been dealing with information management. Even though, emergence of Internet has placed various challenges infront of them and others. Internet has also changed the outlook of the libraries and put them on the way to achieve virtual library concept. However, librarians have already established harmonization with the professional’s objectives and the Internet by experimenting with state of the art technology to facilitate end users.

At present, Internet has become the most important ingredient of library service system. Apart from computerization and building digital libraries Internet has become a medium to convey meanings of libraries in practicalities. Here we would like to discuss few of the points which have been given birth to new streams of librarianship. Following are the few topics which we feel are being taken by the librarians prominently. Here, a brief introduction to these areas are being given and later all these will be discussed duly.

Web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0: Libraries have always been the front runners to envelop web into their own system. Applications of the web 2.0 in libraries are known as library 2.0.

Web1.0 is linking of various simple web pages and accessed over very minute connectivity through radio link or other channels. In the beginning when libraries started developing their web pages used web1.0 but soon they had jumped into library2.0 to give better feel of library services.

Web2.0 brought better concept of sharing and two way interaction over the internet. In this users' perspective is prominently being taken careof. Blogs, wikis, social networking etc are the points to highlight.

Web3.0 is in visualization and a definition about web3.0 is yet to establish. This generation of Internet will full of artificial intelligence technologies. This would be possible with fully applicability of semantic web. In my opinion Web3.0 can be known as virtual library system.

Web4.0 generation accommodates limitless use of semantic web. Even the thought of web4.0 is not fully developed. Invisible web will not be there in this generation and most importantly, it will show the presence everywhere through various computer and communication technologies, like light computing etc.

Mashup Technology: In simple terms mapping of various contents from other resources at single interface is called Mashup Technology. Since various contents are available over the Internet in different formats, these scattered contents are posing a need to assemble them to give single representation. The objective of the Mashup Technology is quite similar to Portal Technology but Portal Technology is more standardized and framed as compare to Mashup Technology.

ERAMS: E-Resource Access and Management Services (ERAMS) is an important tool to analyse the use and workflows of electronic contents in electronic and digital libraries. After procuring and subscribing e-books and e-journals libraries need to evaluate their usage in the library. ERAMS support the librarians to analyse the usage and also helps for policy makers to plan properly about the subscription and optimum use of the e-resources.

Open Source and Open Access: For libraries both these terms go hand in hand. Open access is excellent idea to serve the society, whereas open sources are the tools giving dynamic ways of managing and executing the vision of open access.

Search Engines: Search engines are dominating the Internet world, presently we are observing a war of search engines over the Internet. Every search engine has its own specialities and qualities, we would try to evaluate most of the renowned search engines as user and will publish series of reports during short span of time.

Federated Search: Federated search is the simultaneous search of various online databases and resources. It is providing the base to search scattered online databases through single interface. Many online databases, portals and search engines are using federated search technique.

Dear friends, we soon will come out with the discussion on above quoted latest areas and various other important as well as informative topics related to our profession. I would like to thank all who have given their suggestions to improve the quality of this blog. If you have any suggestion or wishing to contribute on this blog, please contact at sureshbabal@gmail.com.

Does KOSMIX challenge the Google or Librarians?

The web which is so deep that no one can peep inside to find out the most desired information for oneself. And the major issue for the information seeker is to grasp the ocean of information; so many search engines and meta- search engines are providing their services but still we never fill up to our fill. At present Google dominates the mind of Internet users. Whenever any query comes in our mind, naturally our fingers start typing the website-www.google.com, and in the mean time whole ocean came in front of us, and we keep on exploring page after page but never able to satisfy the thirst of precise information. I am not here to criticize Google or any other search engines, but want to express my views or experience with KOSMIX.COM. It attracts me so much that it makes me spend my whole day to explore it, to inform about its features. Few days ago, I was searching for video lectures on my research topic which deals with learning object, tried to explore with Google web and then Google videos but did not feel satisfied with result output, but when I put learning object in search window of KOSMIX, it provided with multi- dimensional search out put, images, videos, what is happening in news about the topic, related terms and their search output, same way to further explore discussions, communities and FAQ's about the topic. More or less it provides with information from broad to specific, multidimensional and multifaceted. Here, what I had been intending from my search query few days ago, it takes me very near to my expectations.

I have got to say that it has serious potential. Fine, now let me share few of the things about KOSMIX as its uses perspective.

Search at KOSMIX is a revolutionary way to explore the web, and its strength lays in its way to present the information in classified form. It is like a hybrid library that deals with so many formats and mediums to satisfy the needs of users beyond text- only- document under one window. This must be boon for the users who wish to see different medias and sources grouped, or who are interested in a variety of different angles and interpretation of the same subject, for this approach KOSMIX can be more useful.

KOSMIX is founded by two Indians Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinaryan who graduated from IIT Madras and PhD from the Stanford University who earlier founded one of the best shopping search engines called junglee. They called KOSMIX an ‘explore engine’ instead of a search engine. It is a new search engine, which is like one stop shopping for all your web and media needs. Broadly, it categorizes information in various heads viz. Reference; Media; News & Blogs; Shopping; Web search etc. Further, it divides the information of search query in to various fields like: At a Glance; Topic Highlight; Reference; Videos; Images; Conversations; News& blogs; Related topics; People & Community; Shopping; FAQ's and so on. The official slogan of this search engine is, "The web organized for you”. Through its official notes it does not placing any challenge to Google because it is helping users to search Google in more specific manner. It provides the multimedia view to your search. KOSMIX categorization engine organizes the Internet into magazine- style topic pages, enabling people to navigate the web even if they don't know exactly what they are looking for?

From the view of librarians, which are known for their techno-savvy attitude to adopt latest technologies, it presents the picture of a catalogued web. They have always set an example to use latest tools to manage and facilitate end user. The ocean of the WWW over the Internet has been remained one of the biggest challenges for the librarians. Information literacy and federated search minimize the barrier between a piece of information on the WWW and librarians but never addressed to the satisfactory level. Librarians are still eager to answer the question of how to make precise search on the web for a particular keyword? That KOSMIX is quietly answering.

Earlier yahoo has tried with its new search engine product named ‘yahoo glue’ which is offering aggregator search to contents of You Tube, Wikipedia, Flicker and many other news sources. Furthermore online version of Encyclopedia Britannica has also been started giving output of the query in groups of different formats like result from encyclopedia, audio video, dictionaries, thesaurus, websites, and images etc on a single window. Moving a step ahead KOSMIX is not only aggregating results but also taking precision value in account while fetching the data on the screen. Undoubtedly it has put a challenge to the librarians and information managers to think ahead of whatever KOSMIX is offering.

As it display the information fully classified and categorized by its features. As catalogue and thesaurus guides the users towards related information about the topic through its see and see also entries. This provides the analytical approach towards finding information. KOSMIX is a mash up service, more like a smart portal with Google results and half dozen or more other sources of information.

It is like an Encyclopedia of single search term. As it provides background information about the topic, a user who wants to explore a new topic and intends to write an article or overview of that subject, can easily find balanced information on the every aspect without feeling the overload of information. It allows the users to select how they want to consume the information.

Another feature of this site is that you can share your search results with other persons through email.

Just try to explore the potential of this new search engine!!!

Free access to scholarly literature

Access to scholarly literature is one of the most important ingredient of knowledge driven economy. Electronic journals are the journals which are available on the Internet. Scholarly Electronic Journals had always been the jinx of commercialization and led to acceleration of price. Ever increasing cost of these journals deprived academicians and researchers of developing and under developed countries from the scholarly information.

Being a librarian, I can well understand the challenge of libraries to provide rich collection of scholarly literature with paucity of funds. One should keep oneself inform to grab the golden opportunities to enrich your knowledge banks with free and open access literature. I am feeling happy to inform you about this ocean of knowledge.

Look! What is SAGE offering to you?

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SAGE Publications is a leading international publishers of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational and professional markets. Since 1965, sage has been helping to inform and educate a global communitly of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social science, and science, technology and medicine.

To grab this opportunity, register yourself for free online access to more than 500 Sage journals with content available from 1999- current untill April 30, 2009.So be with SAGE PUBLICATIONS now.

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