Libraries, Archives and Museums- Prof. Vishwanathan

Libraries, Archives and Museums:

Convergence, Digital Technology and User empowerment

▪▪▪▪▪Keynote address

Delivered at ICLAM – 2011Professor Thiagarajan Viswanathan

15 February 2011

14 February 2011 [email protected] 1

LAM

Library: Documents and records of current interest

Archive: Documents and records of historical interest

Museum: Objects of historical interest

All are Knowledge Centres



History is important 1

“If Mohammad does not go to the mountain, the mountain comes to him”.

An axiom that Ranganathan followed: His well-known Library Movement pursued with great zeal. Making libraries community centres for learning. Taking libraries to villagers. Establishing public libraries accessible to common man etc.


History is important 2

Remote computing that ushered in the Internet followed Ranganathan

• Expensive computing resources under utilized

• Users far and few

Take computers to the doorsteps of users


Ranganathan’s Five Laws Applied to WEB

Alireza Noruzi, Iranian Librarian

• Web resources are for use

• Every user his/her web resource

• Every web resource its user

• Save the time of user

• The Web is a growing organism


Where are we heading to?

Networked Electronic Information Society (NEIS)

OrKnowledge Society?


Knowledge Society

It is said that we are witnessing the emergence of knowledge society.

No knowledge society is possible without professionally managed knowledge centres. Knowledge centres are prerequisites for knowledge society

Therefore, LAMs are here to stay for ever.

Why Convergence?

• Promotes development• A phenomenon happening at macro

and micro levels• Examples are intelligent ACs, IP

enabled home appliances and green houses

• True knowledge centre emerges with the convergence of libraries, archives and museums.


Convergence of LAMs

In the context of LAMs, the goal of convergence may be defined as:

“To develop the ability to network and interwork libraries, archives and museums and to provide unified access via networks to any user with an appropriate end device.”


Unifying Technology: Digital

• Digital technology is based on the principle of duality that pervades the entire creation

• Strings of 1s and 0s represent audio, video, text, documents, graphics, 3D objects static or moving etc.

• Seamless transfer of all forms of information.


LAM: Technology Perspective

Institution

Collection

InfoAccess Speed

Bandwidth

Search

Library Medium

2 – D Static

or Motion

Very Fast

Low/High Bursty 1:100

Simple

Archive Very High

2 – D Static

or Motion

MediumHigh

Bursty 1:50Sophisticate

d

Museum Low

3 – D Static and

Moving

MediumVery High

ContinuousSelection


Knowledge Society Services

Service Data Rate (Mbps)

Document Library Retrieval 1 -70

Video Library Retrieval 1 – 30

Archive Retrieval 1 – 50

Museum Retrieval: Static object 1 – 100

Museum Retrieval: Moving object 100 - 500


Do we have an infrastructure to support these services?


NEIS & Knowledge Society Infrastructure

Internet in its present form is not suitable: Has serious addressing, switching and quality problems

Global Information Infrastructure (GII)

National Information Infrastructure (NII)


India’s NII – TRAI Proposal 1

• Optical Fibre Broadband Network• Covering about 3.75 (out of 5.75) lakh

villages• Covering about 100 (out of 250) million

households• Time Frame: 2011 – 2015• Funding source: NREGS of GOI + Universal

Service Obligation (USO) Fund of U.N.

ATM Cell Switching

• Packet switching and Circuit switching will give way to Cell Switching in optical networks.

• Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switches using cell switching technique provide seamless transfer of audio, video, text, documents, graphics, 3D objects static or moving etc.

• Infrastructure is extremely reliable and fast.


1 January [email protected]

om16

Why Optical Fibre? Why not Radio?

• NEIS applications: ITV, IM, IL etc.• Bandwidth required: 150-600 Mbps, i.e.

450-1800 times today’s broadband.• Radio spectrum: Scarce resource, limited

bandwidth, expensive• Optical fibre: Unlimited bandwidth, cheap• Bandwidth of one strand of fibre = Over

100 times the bandwidth of the entire 3G spectrum.

How do we Empower Users?

• Ease of Access• Access Convergence• Digital end devices that support

access of audio, video, and text are a reality today. Examples include iPAD, notebook, laptop and desktop.

• Limited capability


What do we need for unified LAM access?

• Broadband end devices• Large screens (25”), Large storage

(Several Tera bytes) and high CPU power (muti-thread, muti-core, multi processors)

• Expensive and non-affordable by common man


LAM Cafes!!!

• Today’s Cyber cafes are network (Internet) access centres. Losing significance due to home Internet access.

• LAM access means Content access.• Expect Cyber cafes to give way to

LAM cafes in future.


In Summary..

• Libraries, Archives and Museums are constituents of knowledge centres.

• Convergence of LAM, i.e. Networking, Interworking and Unified Access to them is prerequisite for the emergence of knowledge society.

• Digital Technology with fibre optic network infrastructure and ATM cell switching provide seamless representation and transfer of any form of information


In Summary.....

• Unified broadband access infrastructure is a must for user empowerment

• They are expensive and non-affordable by a common user.

• Cyber cafes are losing relevance in the context of proliferation of Internet and computers at home.

• Content Access cafes (we may call them LAM cafes) may replace Cyber cafes in future.


Thank You


Education

Libraries, Archives and Museums- Prof. Vishwanathan