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5. Digital Library Creation and Management

5.2. Greenstone digital library software – practical

Learning objectives

To learn the procedure involved in the installation of GSDL

To understand practical step by step procedure in building digital collections using GSDL

5.2.1. INTRODUCTION

Any library system does have two important aspects – building the collection and

delivery of content. GSDL also has two distinct processes –Greenstone Library Interface (GLI) to

build collection which is an interactive platform independent of Java script and for delivery

Reader’s interface for accessing, search and browse collection. This unit presents the practical

aspects of GSDL from installation to search.

5.2.2. Installation of GSDL software

There are various ways of getting Greenstone:

1. CD-ROMs: The CD-ROMs contain the full Greenstone software that allows viewing collections

and building collections. The CDROMs are available from:

UNESCO CD-ROM or FAO IMARK CD-ROM (but this could be an earlier version). The CD-

ROMs contain the GSDL software and documented example collection, Java runtime

environment, export, and Image Magick graphics package and an installer that installs

the above.

Greenstone workshop CD-ROM: In addition to the above mentioned features these CD-

ROMs contain the tutorial exercise and sample files to work out the exercises.

2. Download from http://www.greenstone.org/download

The download is available for Windows; GNU/Linux and Mac OS distribution. The

download offers the latest version of Greenstone.

To avoid a single massive download the documented example collections can be downloaded

separately. To reduce the download size these collections are distributed in unbuilt form and

need to be built.

Note: If GSDL is already installed on the system and want to update with a new version, the old

version has to be uninstalled completely.

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Basic steps in installing GSDL

1. Install the Java 2 Runtime Environment (latest version).

2. Go for GSDL folder choose setup GSDL 2.86 (or latest version).

While installing it is better to accept all the default by clicking NEXT.

3. Choose setup Language. English (US) is the default.

4. The Install Shield Wizard will begin the installation of GSDL 2.86 software. Click <Next>.

5. Software License agreement by clicking on <Accept> button.

6. Select Installation folder (Choose the location to install GSDL).

7. Choose components to install – leave it the default and click <Next>

8. Administration pages – read the description on the page. To enable click <Next>. If want

to set the admin password, chose a suitable password and click <Next>

9. Installation progress – click install to start installation. Click <show details> to show

details of the installation.

10. Files are copied across and installation is complete.

Uninstallation: to install an updated version the older version has to be uninstalled. The

procedure to uninstall is:

Go to the Greenstone home directory (eg. C:\Users\<username>\Greenstone2 by

default, where <username> is your user name) and click Uninstall.bat.

If the version is earlier to 2.81 the software can be uninstalled by selecting the remove

from add or remove buttons in control panel.

5.2.3. READERS INTERFACE

Before building collection one should understand what the expectations of the user and

how effectively the delivery can be done (readers interface). To understand this, the GSDL has

provided Demo collection from Humanity Development Library. The steps involved are:

Start → All Programs →Greenstone 2.86→Greenstone Server→ Enter Library (Click)

Web browser will display Greenstone home page.

Click on the Demo Collection

The minimized Greenstone Server can be opened by clicking on the “world globe” icon.

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Browse through the demo collection display with the option to be provided for search

and browse for users to make the collection affectively accessible and usable in full text.

To go back to ‘Home’ page click ‘Home’ button.

To invoke Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI) select Librarian Interface (GLI)

5.2.4. BUILDING COLLECTION

Building collections and search and retrieval is possible with Greenstone Librarian

Interface (GLI). The build can start from the collector or from the command line. The basic

components of GLI are:

Gathering (Creation of New Collection)

Enrich (Selection Metadata)

Design

Create

Format

The steps involved in developing repository using GSDL are shown below:

Step1: Open the Greenstone Digital Library, Greenstone Librarian Interface and start the server.

Start → All Programs → Greenstone-2.86 → Librarian Interface (GLI)

Command line opens in the background.

Greenstone Digital Library

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Greenstone Library Interface

Step 2.Start a new collection within the Librarian Interface: File → New...

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Fill up the pop up window with appropriate values like ‘Collection title:’ Description of content:’

Step3: Next step is to ‘Gather’ the required documents that constitute the collection. The GLI

based collection building is a simple method. Collection developers can activate the GLI

software and use the ‘Gather’, ‘Enrich’, ‘Design’, and ‘Create’ panel for making collection. The

GLI functions to

“Establish new collection (or work on old)

Select files to include in collection (Gather)

Enrich files with metadata (Enrich)

Select Plugins, Indexes, Classifiers (Design)

Build Collection (Create)

Customize Appearance

Preview Collection” (M.G.Sreekumar)

The ‘Gather’ panel of GLI opens the ‘Workspace’ options from which choose ‘Local File space’

that leads to computer drives and folders. Add the documents to ‘collection’ part of the panel

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by dragging and dropping the selected files. A double click on the selected document in the

collection (on the right side of the panel) will open the full text that can be checked.

Select ‘Gather’

Explore Local File Space

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Browse the drive; Browse the folders and click the document

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E.g. Click Physics

Click the required folder; Drag the document to the right side window and drop it in Folder.

Step 4: Enrich Menu. The next step in collection building is to enrich the documents by adding

metadata. The Enrich tab brings up a new panel of information which shows the document tree

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representing the collection on the left and on the right allows metadata to be added to

individual documents, or groups of documents. The Enrich panel allows metadata values to be

assigned to documents in the collection. For example, new values can be added to the set of

existing values for an element. If the element's values have a hierarchical structure, the

hierarchy can be extended in the same way.

GEMS (Greenstone Editor for Metadata Sets) can be used to modify existing metadata

sets or create new ones.

Assigning metadata using Enrich view

At the Enrich stage the metadata can be assigned to a new document, editing or updating

assigned metadata reviewing the metadata of a selection of files.

Step 5: Design Menu. The next step is designing the collection i.e. defining what full-text

indexes are to be built. The design panel facilitates:

Creating sub-collections and to build indexes

Adding or removing support for predefined interface languages.

Constructing a list of plug-ins to be used, and their arguments.

Configuring individual plug-ins.

Constructing a list of “classifiers,” their arguments, assignment and configuration.

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General design options:

Plug-in selection and configuration: Plug-ins indicates the document formats the collection

includes. Assigned plug-ins are already listed, if any additional plug-ins are required that can be

selected from the given list.

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Create Search indexes: Search Indexes determine whether to confine the search to paragraph,

chapter or the entire text of the document. Except text – the default index, other indexes can be

removed by selecting the assigned index and then clicking remove index button. New indexes can

be added by clicking on the New Index button, selecting the required index and then clicking on

Add index. The indexes can be added one after the other. The following indexes can be selected

for searching a given collection.

text [default index]

dc.Title,ex.Title

dc.Author

dc.Description

dc.Keywords

dc.Subjects

Browsing Classifiers: Browsing classifiers helps to browse the collection using the metadata.

Adding or removing the browsing classifier can be done by selecting a classifier and clicking

either Add classifier or Remove Classifier button.

Hierarchy -metadata dc.Subjects -sort dc.Title

Hierarchy -metadata dc.Author -sort dc.Title

AZList -metadata dc.Title

Use of A-Z Compact List Classifier displays book shelf icons under the browsing classifier. To get

this choose Select classifier to add pull down list and select A-Z Listor A-Z Compact List. Then click

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on Add Classifier and add the Browsing Classifiers for Title, Creators and Subjects one after the

other.

Step 6: Format: Format facilitates to define the digital library home page features like designing

the page picture/ icon; colour specification; title of the collection etc.

General information: To provide general information about the collection, choose the Format

Tab and select General. Select a picture that is represented as an icon of the collection in the

homepage. To select picture, select Browse and select picture. On choosing the picture full

path of the picture appear in the address box. Short description of the collection can be

added that appears on homepage.

Format features allows unlimited choices in appearance of the collection. We can alter

the style of the pages generated, by changing the macro files included in the ‘macro’ folder of

the Greenstone installation.

Generally beginners can leave all default values and skip format features. Advanced

level users can define the features can be added by choosing the format feature and clicking

add button.

Step 7: Create Menu: The next step is Build Collection increate menu. Select the Create panel.

Click on the Build Collection button and the progress bar will show the progress in building

the collection. The panel appears as follows:

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Build collection in progress

Build collection finished

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Step 8: Preview collections:After building the collection, it prompts Build Finished and we can

see the preview of the document by clicking on Preview Collectiontab. The site page looks like

this:

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Search display

Browsing Classifier A-Z list

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5.2.5. SUMMARY

The design and development of digital library using GSDL is a simple procedure and the

steps are self-explanatory. Further the software offers exercises and also demo collection to

learn the process and understand. The collection once build provide search and access to full

text using IP address. It can be browsed by Title, Search, and Subject etc. as displayed above.

The documents can be displayed in PDF format, Web layout (HTML) format etc.