Hi,

I feel that usage of RFID is the next big thing to happen in the Library Vertical.

The brochure at the following link provides details of RFID usage in Libraries.
http://www.infoteksoftware.com/i-TEK%20Library%20Management%20Suite%20V%202.0.pdf

This brochure is not intended to advertise for this company but is for giving a good overview of the technology and its use in Libraries.

Please let me know your opinion on making this the Phase 2 of the Library automation project. If people are interested I can help provide further details.

Cheers,
Sumit Gupta, ECE 97

The current status of the project is that we are in advanced stages, the site is already on the BHU intranet and we are in testing phase of Koha. We are testing the software for a data of around 126 books and hope the testing to be over soon. We will then be clearing everything and starting off with the actual data entry for the library. Many of the alumni are already working with us to ensure the success of this project.
Thank you alumni,

I agree with Vivek that this project was very much over estimated. I had a talk with one of my collegue who was working on this project and also gave him the actual price of all the hardware and software that is available on the internet. I also gave him the reference of a professional data entry shop that employs more than 300 employees to perform data entry for banks and cellular service provider.

Hello Guys:

Just curious to know where do we stand today on this projetc? Looks like page hasn't been Updated for long. Please let me know if I can be any help.

How can I send donaetion for this project ?

As for the Data Entry it will be best to outsource this stuff to an external Data Entry shop. It might cost more but you will get the job done.

I do not think getting it done thru students/library staff is a good idea. People would lose interest within one week and there will be a lot of mistakes. This type of job can only be done by Professional Data Entry shops.

Ajay Sharma

ECE 84

To which address check must be sent and in favour of whom. These details are warranted, please post it on the site.
Thanks
Anil ECE98 Batch
PS: Kudos to the team: Maurya Dr. Jain and others.

Vivek/Anshuman:

I would like to provide some guidance and assistance in this area. Can both of you coordinate with me so that I can push Dr. Jain who is a batchmate of mine on this topic.

Hi Vivek,
Its nice of you to offer to help out with the evaluation of the Open Source software. It is the shortage of volunteers like you that we haven't given the open source software its due share of eval time.

It would be great if you could evaluate open source library system like koha and let us know about your findings.

It would be of of immense help if you could let us know how long will you take to evaulate this software and what aspects of the software would you be evaluating. All of us are working towards getting the best possible solution with the given constraints and we would appriciate all the help that comes our way.

regards,
Anshuman

Hi,
I think we are overestimating the project. I got some pointers to this:
1. Do we really need a commercial software...guess we SHOULD at least evaluate OpenSource software.
2. The estimate for hardware seems to be on the higher side...Do we really need high end server?
3. I guess we CAN cut down the cost here and maybe use the money by contributing books to the library.

Meantime, I shall evaluate some OpenSource softwares and try to estimate on the conservative side. I'll keep u posted abt it.

Thanx,
Vivek Pandey

Sorry, I forgot to post my email. Here it is:
ujj_nath@adelphia.net

I spoke Sanjay and Akash on a conference call about 2 weeks ago and they asked me to take a leadership position in this effort to raise money and get this project underway!

I wholeheartedly agree that we should go open source per Akash's post.

Here are the steps I am taking to get this effort kick-started:

1. I have committed $200 towards this effort to start the fundraising
2.I do need some volunteers who can evaluate the software i.e. http://www.koha.org and see if it will do the job i.e. match it up against the requirements. Are there any BHU-IT students in ECE who would like to volunteer to collect the requirements
3. Are there any Alumini in the US or in the UK or in India who would like to join the fund-raising group
4. Finally, please keep this section of the itbhu.org site active with your "posts"
5. I saw a post somewhere else where someone had set up a charitable trust in the US for this purpose, but I am having trouble finding it. It may have been for the Library construction project. If anyone does know of this trust and how the monies are administered, I would love to join forces with them and raise money, get volunteers etc.

Thank you in anticipation

Ujj Nath

I have seen the comments posted by Promod Joshi.
We are also thinking on those lines and would like to take help from our Lib. science graduates.

who can work for lesser amount per book accessioned.

Prof. WAHI
Electrical Engg., IT BHU

Pramod has made excellent points. Some that I had been pondering for a while but never got around to jot down. The OpenSource software is the way to go, and a project involving the students and faculty have the great benefit of providing valuable training to them in developing a real-world software product. An OpenSource project that is being executed by students and guided by some alumni with with real world software development experience may work out really well.

However, in this case we don't have to go as far to develop a software from scratch. I've taken a quick look at KOHA and it seems quite adequate for this purpose. If further enhancements may be necessary, the students and interested Alumni could actually contribute to further development of KOHA itself.

Here is an excerpt on use of OpenSource software from an article by Jay Wrolstad of http://www.NewsFactor.com. Some food for thought:

"... The latest broadside aimed at Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) and its corporate ilk was fired this spring by lawmakers in Oregon, who considered a bill that would require the state's purchasing agents not only to consider open-source when buying new software, but also to justify any purchases of proprietary products.

Similar legislation has been introduced in Texas, and a more restrictive bill that mandates open-source purchases -- dubbed the "Digital Software Security Act" -- was presented in California last year. Open-source software already has been embraced by governments in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Venezuela, among other nations. In fact, the European Commission is mulling the establishment of an open-source portal, ostensibly to cut e-government IT costs ..."

All,

Had a few questions/suggestions.

1. Any update from the CSE meet on April 26.
2. A summary of the non-profit setup in CA with ways/means to contribute and infrastructure to support delivery to institute will be helpful.
3. Projects - more details in terms of costing and progress update on a monthly/by-project basis will help folks see how their contribution is specifically used and this will go a long way in helping mobilize resources.
4. So far, we can see the following projects.
1. Class of 98 hall
2. Mechanical 97
3. Library
4. Old PCs
A navigation bar on projects with details on how folks can help will be good to have.

Thanks,
Sumeet Arora ECE95

I think Charles has a good tip and one of the students or project team members need to follow up and see if this software can do the trick. Using such a public-domain software will also allow interaction with other university libraries and increase the proficiency of the ITBHU library staff.

I noticed that the bulk of the project cost is data entry labor cost. Can we not find some creative ways to reduce this? I saw a suggestion that students can volunteer for this. But how about getting the library staff to devote time to this activity. After all, automation will help them make their future tasks easier, and they also are least likely to make data entry errors, as they would know the titles and authors intimately.

Additionally we can ask students of Library Sciences at BHU and nearby colleges to take up part of this job. They will learn how to interact with an automated system and their resume will look better. The Institute can give them certificates that can enhance their marketability when they enter the job market. The last option can be to tie up with institutes that do low-level computer training (data entry, accounting software, etc.), and have their students do the task for a monthly stipend of say Rs. 2000 each. The computer training institute gets a small revenue stream, the students get monies to pay for the training and for pocket money, and we get some work done. There will be a need for a Quality Assurance role, but this can be performed by the Library staff.

Just my tuppence worth. More later. Thanks.

Pramod.

Hello.

I ran into Sanjay and he mentioned you were setting up a new library. My only connection to Indian universities is in childhood: I lived in Kampur while my father was a early professor on loan.

There is now open source software for controlling libraries. The most popular is Koha, at www.koha.org. It came out of New Zealand and is currently being used in smaller library systems of the range of up to 100,000 books in up to 10 branches. Koha can handle a catalog front end, intranet, circulation tracking, and aquistion and budgetting. It compares favorably with many of the expensive solutions. It likes to run on a Pentium class machine with at least 64 MB of ram. You can read about at http://www.koha.org or in the February Linux journal. I ran across this information; I am not a librarian or Koha user.

Good luck! More libraries are good.

Charles Merriam
Posted by Charles Merriam at April 15, 2003 02:50 PM

I am making an effort to automate ITB lib. The project has been started with the assistance from AICTE.But more is needed .

In this effort God sent SS Maurya a 98 Electronics
student. He showed interest in helping the library through Alumni of ITB.

It is in this context he refe. this web. address to me to regularly see this and give suggestions.

I have been in IITD for three years and I can not say or hear that we are inferior to them. With the resources and autonomy under university system we are doing very well better than some of the IIT's.

I have been trying for IITB tag for BHU IT for the last few years. Even some professors in IIT's feel that BHU IT should be given the tag of IITB. We have involved a mission named after Malviyaji "MAHAMANA MALVIYA MISSION" with head office at DELHI. A unit is working in BHU also. This mission has been formed by BHU alumni. I am taking help from this mission also to influence the people in Govt. A proposal is already pending on the table of Minister MHRD.

Coming back to library extend your help in whatever way you can to the group formed by SS Maurya to help the Lib. of ITB in automation and improvement of facility.

Take care of your almamater. Do't get into controversies amongst your self.

God bless you.

You will be posted with improvements in ITB.

Prof. A.K.WAHI,
Electrical Engineering,