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Introduction
Digital libraries (DL) are an important part of modern information management. Along with the development and extensive application of information technologies and networks, digital libraries are the booming development in the world ([15] Zhou, 2005). DLs combine technology and information resources to allow remote access to distributed information resources, thus breaking down the physical barriers between resources to become, in effect, a networked multimedia information system. The [5] Digital Library Federation (1999) defined DLs as:
[...] organizations that provide the resources, including the specialized staff, to select, structure, offer intellectual access to interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of, and ensure the persistence over time of collections of digital works so that they readily and economically available for use by a defined community or set of communities.
The design, implementation and running of DLs are extensively practised by libraries of all types for collecting, archiving and distributing born-digital and digitised items of information. DLs help the preservation of the intellectual content produced and required by a particular community.
Scholarly and professional interest in digital libraries grew rapidly from the 1990s onwards, with initiatives of digitisation and digital libraries in India embarked on in the mid-1990s. Presently there are various digital library working models such as Digital Libraries of India (DLI), Vidyanidhi, Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), Gyandoot and Samadhan kendras ([2] Bhatt, 2008). However, the application of free/open source software (F/OSS) is new to Indian research libraries. The Registry of Open Access Repositories provides the list of repositories in the world. It shows that USA has 340 repositories, followed by the UK with 183; Japan has 88 repositories, while India has only 61.
This paper describes the design and development of a digital library using DSpace open source software in Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), India. The data for the study was gathered from the experience of the authors with the digital library for the last seven years in installing, customising, creating communities, sub-communities, and collections corresponding to various departments and submitting items to these collections. Data was collected using the Google Analytics service for usage statistics of the digital library.
Overview of open source software
Free/open source software (F/OSS) has its roots from near the beginning of computing and is typically free...