Developing Information Services for Special Library Users by Designing a Low Cost Digital Library: The Experiment of NOC-Digital Library

تطوير خدمات المعلومات للمستفيدين من المكتبات المتخصصة ومراكز المعلومات من خلال تصميم مكتبة رقمية: تجربة المؤسسة الوطنية للنفط

ورقة علمية منشورة قي
Library Technology Conference 2010 USA

تهدف هذه الورقة الي إلقاء الضوء على البرمجيات المفتوحة المصدر وكيف يمكن تبنيها لتطوير خدمات المعلومات بمراكز المعلومات والمكتبات المتخصصة في الدول النامية والناطقة بالعربية. كما تسعى هذه الورقة الى توضيح العلاقة مابين البرمجيات المفتوحة المصدر, المكنبات الرقمية, المستودعات الارشيفية , حركة الوصول الحر وكيف يمكن ان تسهم برامج إدارة المحتوي مفتوحة المصدر في دعم حركة الوصول الحر للمعلومات .

The adoption and exploitation of today’s technology for boosting knowledge sharing has become more important than ever. This paper proposes a new strategy for special libraries and information centres in developing and third world countries for delivering the most wanted services by adopting and utilising of open source software. Building repositories and digital libraries using freely available software is anticipated to assist in enhancing the level of knowledge sharing and open access in developing countries. An institutional repository and digital library is a new concept for collecting, managing, disseminating, and preserving research works created in digital form by researchers in individual organisations and institutions. These tools can assist in narrowing the digital divide or the digital gap (through knowledge sharing) between the third world countries and developed countries which continues to widen between the have and have-nots, or the information rich and the information poor. This in its turn can have positive impact as an instrument for sustainable economic development. The promotion of open source content management systems CMS in a non-English environment, e.g. the Arabic language, will help to endorse international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to researchers, expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet, and contribute to scholarly research and open access. Utilising open source software for designing low cost digital libraries should assist also in promoting Budapest open access initiative by encouraging decision-makers to make their collections available online so that users can have easy access to vast and diverse resources. Special libraries and information centres in developing countries in general and in the Arab world in particular should start building their local digital libraries, as the benefit of establishing such electronic services is considerably massive and well known for expansion of research activities and for delivering services that satisfy the needs of targeted users. The aim of this paper is to provide general guideline for design a low cost digital library providing services that are most frequently required by various categories of special library users in developing countries. This paper presents the experiment of designing a low cost digital library for the National Oil Corporation in Libya using Greenstone software. It intends to shed light on the stages implemented and the approach used to achieve the final goal. It also aims at highlighting the barriers and obstacles facing Arabic content in the digitization phase and explains how such problems could overcome.
Paper published in the proceedings of Library Technology Conferene 17-18 March 2010, Minnesota USA Available at http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/libtech_conf/2010/concurrent_a/41/