DAE has established a number of research and development organizations, public sector undertakings and grant-in-aid institutions. Most of these organizations have fully functional libraries with a substantial annual budgets. Over the years, these libraries have built an excellent collection of knowledge resources.

The libraries of DAE have largely been automated using commercial library software, with each library purchasing a separate licensed copy at full price. Some DAE libraries have also integrated an RFID-based system for tagging books and journals. As virtually all commercial software is proprietary in nature, the RFID solution must be matched to the RFID hardware supplied. There is no interoperability between RFID systems although all RFID systems are supposed to be standards based. Any change in the RFID system will require the commercial software supplier to develop new solutions at additional costs to the user.

Although the commercial software products we use support most routine library functions, they fail to smoothly integrate electronic resource content and lack support for a centralized catalog of library materials. Besides, available commercial software products have their own drawbacks such as a poor support network, excessive costs and time spent to provide customisation for individual library needs and high maintenance costs relative to the service provided.

Open source software development allows libraries to collaborate on designing and building need-based systems, to share such systems freely and to adapt them for local use. It provides an alternative to the often-limited "black box" software available commercially. Koha is a well-tested open source library management software developed and supported collaboratively and used worldwide across various library systems. It also has a provision to integrate RFID based systems.

Variable Energy and Cyclotron Centre (VECC), Kolkata has pioneered the use of Koha software for their internal use, along with home-grown RFID solutions. The Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), Chennai in colloboration with VECC, Kolkata has taken these efforts further, testing the RFID solutions fully in the Koha environment, both in Windows and Linux, with necessary customisations. These efforts provide a fully functional and reliable open source library management software integrated with homegrown RFID solutions. To demonstrate these capabilities, IMSc has deployed a few demo systems in their library.

As Koha integrated with our RFID solutions meets all our requirements, it would be useful to demonstrate how these solutions can be extended to other DAE libraries so as to allow them to share such a common platform. This will facilitate effective sharing and optimum utilisation of the available resources and lead to substantial savings in maintenance costs.

Objectives of the Workshop

• To demonstrate the capabilities of Koha integrated with home-grown RFID solutions
• To describe how these can be extended to other DAE libraries
• To set up an institutional support mechanism for the maintenance of Koha and RFID system across DAE libraries
• To explore how DAE libraries can collaborate for mutual benefits.

Organising Committee

• Gautam Menon, IMSc, Chennai.
• Jan-e Alam, VECC, Kolkata.
• Monirul Purkait, VECC, Kolkata.
• Paul Pandian, IMSc, Chennai.

Contact

M.Paul Pandian
The Institute of Mathematical Sciences
CIT Campus, Taramani, Chennai 600 113
Tamilnadu, India

Tel:0091-44-22543383;22543100
Fax:0091-44-22541586

Email: pandian@imsc.res.in