Saturday, October 30, 2010
Access to Government Information
India's Government is established similarly to ours in the US. The Indian Goverment (the Central Government) has three main government bodies: Legislative, Executive and Judiciary. In addition, the main positions under direct supervision of the President are: Attorney General of India, Controller and Auditor General of India, Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, Commissioner
for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Election Commission and Union Public Service Commission.
The Government in India plays a vital role in the countries dissemination of information and full control over official Government documents. This article cites the major government documents, each of which plays a critical role in India's government, to be:
Administrative Reports
Census Publications
Commission and Committee Reports
Government Notifications
Plan Documents
Research Reports
Records (National Archives of India)
Statistical Documents
The article goes on to state that "there are large number of judicial and legislative information
in the form of legal documents which includes Bill, Acts, Laws, Codes etc., Laws
Reports Digest, Rules and Regulations, Publications of the Parliament such as
Parliamentary Debates of the Upper House and Lower House of the Parliament, and
Reports of various Parliamentary Committees."
The article continues on to discuss the importance of the National Information Center (NIC) to India's information technology support and the National Portal of India which helps to link government documents to various web-sites. Statistics are given on type/number of documents accessible. It also includes a helpful chart on documents accessible through individual states.
According to the GOI Directory there are 5149 government websites in India.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
India as a knowledge society
http://www.mssresearch.org/?q=Towards_a_Knowledge_Society
“Towards a Knowledge Society”
A Vision for 2020
By Garry Jacobs & N. Asokan
An Educational Research Project
A proposal through the MSS Research (The Mother's Service Society), a non-profit organization established in Pondicherry, India in 1970.http://www.mssresearch.org/?q=about
This proposal goes into great detail on the initiative to have an adult literacy rate at 100 percent and increase India’s access to print and digital resources by 2020. Firstly, it lays out the literacy facts as they are in present day. It continues on to define a knowledge society and how India fits into its educational vision. The proposal is a PHENOMENAL resource from everything from India’s present stats on education, technology rates, enrollment rates, knowledge gap, to vocational interests.
Ex: (verbatim from the Introduction)
“Imagine an India in which elementary school enrolment (I-VIII) and adult literacy are approaching 100%, school drop out rates are near zero, all children who are not going on for higher academic studies receive vocational training, and computer literacy is almost up to the standard of Western nations. Imagine a country in which nearly all citizens have access to all forms of print and electronic communication media-television, telephone, the Internet.
Compare that with India as it is today, with only 64% of its people meeting even the most minimum standard of literacy, where 59% of students never complete 5th standard, where secondary enrolment is 58% but of those that enrol 54% (68% of the total age group) never complete 8th standard, where only a small percentage of youth receive vocational training before entering the workforce, and where probably less than 1% of the working age population is computer literate.”
The site in general goes into the MSS Research organization and what it’s long term goals. Other than this great article outlining education and technology in the future, the site has links to research proposals on the following subjects:
· INTERNET
· MONEY
· VALUES
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Computer and Library Networks in India
Devadoss, F.R. & Jebaraj, F.D.,(2004). Library and Information Networks in India. Library Philosophy and Practice, 6(2). Retrieved from: (http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~mbolin/jebaraj-networks.pdf)
According to Devadoss and Jebaraj as of 2004, there were three primary types of computer networks in place: LAN(local area network), WAN (wide area network)and MAN (metropolitan area network). LAN and WAN networks are commonly utilized by public and university libraries in the US, dependent on the size of the community to be reached.
The library networks, listed below, fall into two categories; general and specialized
The General Networks are:
National Information Center Network (NICNET), which is sponsored by the Government of India's Planning Commission. The states and territories it reaches are described further in the article.
INDONET data Network is a commercial computer network which is sponsored by Informatics India Ltd. It offers database services and applications further elaborated upon in the article. i.e. file transfer
I – NET (VIKRAM), sponsered by the Government of India's Department of Telecommunications, is a packet switched public data network. It offers database services and applications further elaborated upon in the article. i.e. email
The specialized networks are:
metropolitan networks
CALIBNET: Calcutta Libraries Network
BONET:Bombay Library Network
DELNET: Developing Library Network
ADINET: Ahmedabad Library Network
MYLIBNET:Mysore Library Network
Countrywide Area Networks:
DESINET:Defence Science Information Network
ERNET:Educational and Research Network
SIRNET:Scientific and Industrial Research Network
VIDYANET:VIDYANET Dedicated Communication Computer Net
BTISNET: Specialized Information Network
INFLIBNET:Information Library Network
BALNET:Bangalore Library Network
MALIBNET:Madras Library Network
Articles to explore:
Aswal, R.S., ed. (2003). Information Networks in India. NewDelhi: Ess Ess Publication
Jain, N.K, ed. (1998). 50 Years: Library and Information services in India
Monday, October 11, 2010
A focus on Libraries
"India is a multilingual federal country with 25 states and seven union territories (UT). Re–districting has resulted in an increase in the number of states/UT since independence. Each state and UT is divided into districts and sub–districts called talukas, tehsils, or blocks. Constitutionally, the subject “libraries” is the responsibility of the individual states in India. The central government has jurisdiction only over those libraries which it has established, and those institutions which it has declared nationally important." - National Policy on Public Libraries in India by Neeta Jambhekar (http://www.worlib.org/vol05no2/j_v05n2.shtml)
This week's articles:
Ghosh, M., (2005). The public library system in India: challenges and opportunities. Library Review, 54(3), 180-91.
This article discusses the importance of the public library system in India heavily focusing on information needs in their basic sense. Suggestions are made on how to transform the libraries, which offer very little materials of substance and if they do they are rarely in the native language, from an unequipped and uniformed warehouse to an information sanctuary.
Singh, A. & Gautam, J.N., (2004). Electronic databases: the Indian scenario. The Electric Library, 22 (3), 249-260.
This article reviews the online and electronic resources that India has or is able to support but discusses the financial problems hindering India as an information depository.
Subba, S.R., (2006). Distance education and the role of IT in India. The Electronic Journal, 24(2), 225-36.
Ghosh, Maitrayee & Ipsheet, (2009). ICT and information strategies for a knowledge economy: the Indian experience. Program: electronic library and information systems, 43(2), 187-20.
1823 returns on EMERALD through ESU on search terms libraries in India
http://0-www.emeraldinsight.com.www.whitelib.emporia.edu/search.htm?st1=libraries+in+india&ct=all