Building Digital Libraries by using Open Source Software: Opportunities and Challenges

The term 'digital library' is now widely accepted to mean the use of digital technology by libraries to acquire, store, conserve and provide access to information. Practically, a digital library is an assemblage of digital computing, storage and communications machinery together with the content and software needed to reproduce, emulate, and extend the services provided by conventional libraries based on paper and other material means of collecting, cataloguing, finding, and disseminating information. Now, there is awareness among the Indian LIS professionals in establishing digital libraries. In this context, this paper explores the possibility of building a digital library by using open source software and addresses the challenges in building such digital libraries