Digital Community Information System: A Framework for India

Public library led Web-enabled community information services are rapidly becoming essential part of the joined-up information systems. In India, community information services are limited in terms of coverage, scope and standardized organization of community information resources. The public library based community information services require a model to support integrated management of bibliographic items and community information resources, to facilitate community communication and interaction, to ensure Web-enabled access, and to provide multilingual information processing and retrieval environment. This research-oriented book reports designing a model for public library based community information services through the application of open standards, open source software and universal character set in Web-integrated multilingual environment. It adopts a five-step methodology that includes development of a techno-organizational model and its actualization through integration of domain-specific open source software. This book may be helpful for library professionals, students of LIS courses and government officials responsible for rendering citizen-facing information services.