- LIS-Forum - ncsi.iisc.ernet.in

SCO attempts to kill Linux
by Saiful Amin 21 May '03

21 May '03

Could SCO Be the Death of Linux? Unix vendor SCO is suing IBM, claiming Linux stole its Unix, then gave it away to the world. The Open Source Initiative just fired back with a stinging rebuke, claiming that the suit could kill Linux off just as it's starting to gain traction. Anticipating a huge legal mess, the other big enterprise OS player, Microsoft, just licensed source code and software patents from SCO. So now Big Green's in Happyland, while IBM and Linux are in the doghouse -- at least according to SCO. What will the judge say? If you use Linux or open source anywhere in your organization, this may be the most important story of the year! Read the story at: http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd/cts?d=75-11-1-1-692598-307-1 Regards, Saiful Amin Learning Resource Centre Indian School of Business Gachibowli Hyderabad - 500 019 Ph. +91-40-2318-7963/7999 http://purl.org/net/saiful Catch all the cricket action. Download Yahoo! Score tracker

1 0

XLRI on strategies for e-library
by Nivedita.Sharma＠fluor.com 21 May '03

21 May '03

Hello, May some of you would be interested to participate in this programme: Nivedita Sharma Sr. Technical Librarian Fluor Daniel India Pvt. Ltd. Gurgaon ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Management Development Programme at XLRI Jamshedpur-July 2003 Topic Strategies for Electronic Libraries Dates July 28-Aug 1, 2003 Venue XLRI Jamshedpur Programme Dr. Sangayya S. Sirumath Coordinator Website http://www.xlri.ac.in/mdp For details Email at mdp(a)xlri.ac.in Some more information............................... Introduction and Objectives The electronic library is delivering information, whenever required, to the user's desktop, wherever that may be. Librarians therefore, will increasingly need to provide their services in some electronic form rather than face-to-face contact with their users. As academics become more willing and more accustomed to using electronic information on a regular basis, they will become increasingly dependent on technology for digital information access. In networked environment, information providers can supply their information directly to the end-user. Thus the move to an electronic information environment will radically alter the way in which a library operates and interacts with its users, and library professionals will need to consider their own future role as intermediaries. The electronic library will form a crucial part of an institution's information service provision and is likely to leave a much wider remit than that of the traditional library. This Programme addresses the Strategies for Electronic Libraries and library professionals who will undergo changes because of different ways which will be found to bring information from the creator to the end users. Methodology Experienced professors from library and information science area will conduct the sessions. The main instrument of learning will be case studies, exercises, presentations, discussions and practicals in computer lab. Expected Participants Professionals of Library and Information Science, working in corporate firms, Academic, Special and Public Library, will immensely benefit from this Programme. Programme Contents Electronic Library Environment Electronic Library Programme Planning for e-Library BDBMS; OPAC; e-Journals ; e-Resources; Virtual Services IT Products & Information Services Network Information System Computer Network Internet and Intranet Consortia and Resource sharing Library Web Site Design & Development Trends in Web Based Services Internet as Information Source Information Marketing Knowledge Management in e-Environment Nivedita Sharma Sr. Technical Librarian Fluor Daniel India Pvt. Ltd ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient of this message you are hereby notified that any use, review, retransmission, dissemination, distribution, reproduction or any action taken in reliance upon this message is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of the company. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 0

Offline web pages in IE
by VYASAMOORTHY /IKP/HYD 16 May '03

16 May '03

Dear Friends: You may be aware that Internet Explorer Version 5 and above provide for Offline web pages. If you would like to preserve a copy of a web page on your hard disk and want to view it without visiting (going online) the page again, you can use this facility. There are many other ways of achieving this). It is under favorites - make this page available offline. While making a Page available offline, you can schedule a job such that the page is visited automatically at desired intervals and your local file remains updated. There is also a provision to get yourself a mail message to tell that a certain Offline Page has been revised/updated! Now my question is: Can this Offline Viewing facility be used for dynamic web pages. I have found it works well for static web pages that are changed infrequently, manually. This does not seem to work for dynamic web pages coming as a result of, say, a search query. Is there a way to utilize "Make this favorite for offline Viewing' facility for dynamic web pages? If we can, then we have a very powerful tool for running SDI services. I hope all of you get what I mean! Any comments? regards Dr.P.Vyasamoorthy, Advisor, Virtual Information Centre, ICICI Knowledge Park, Turkapalli Village, Shameerpet Mandal, RR District, Hyderabad 500078 (Website: www.vic-ikp.info ) Ph: 2348 0053; Fax: 2348 0007; Ph. Res: 2784 6631

1 0

Research essays about net 6
by Shyam Prasad pujar 16 May '03

16 May '03

Dear Members, Following site has a good compilation of around 4200 research essays about the net (Internet studies and Network Research). Most research essays listed here are from 2003 down to 1999. It could be useful for some of you. http://www.netzwissenschaft.de/sem/pool.htm Regards, S.M. Pujar ********************************************************************** Shamprasad M. Pujar Assistant Librarian Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research Gen. Vaidya Marg, Film City Road Goregaon (East) MUMBAI-400 065 India %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% * Phone: (022) 28400919-21 Extn: 514 * * Fax: (022) 28402752 * * E-mail: pujar(a)igidr.ac.in * * URL: http://www.igidr.ac.in * %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

1 0

by Subbiah Arunachalam 16 May '03

16 May '03

Friends: Do we really value information seeking skills? Do our organizations - academic, corporate, government, non-governmental - really encourage people to develop skills for searching and sharing information? Do we recognise gatekeepers and information evangelists? Here is something an outstanding development information specialist has said in another list. Read and I am sure he will set you thinking. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] -------- Here is a URL for a paper I wrote on "The Practical Reality of Knowledge Management within Development Initiatives" - http://www.telecommons.com/reports.cfm?itemid=219 - click on the Microsoft Word icon to download the paper. The paper touches on some of the organizational requirements necessary for staff - such as extension workers - to feel comfortable seeking, sharing and using information/knowledge. The simple task of searching the Internet for information requires some skill, but more importantly, staff require an organizational mandate and clear support from management so that they can spend time accessing information, and have management encouragement to use the tools they need to do so. If an extension worker wants to spend two hours at a local cybercafe to search for information on the carabao industry, for example, do their managers actively encourage them to do so? Do their job descriptions include this task? Has the organization developed simple procedures - staff meetings, lunch seminars, internal and external newsletters, etc. - to help staff share what they have learned? Is there a performance appraisal procedure that acknowledges and rewards time spent searching for and sharing information? Are their extension outreach mechanisms that allow extension workers to help farmers make use of what the extension worker has learned? Does the organization spend time developing staff skills to insure that information it produces is clear, valuable to audiences, and of high quality? Internal organizational structures and procedures are critically important. I find, however, that extension and research organizations do not often spend a great deal of time planning how to integrate knowledge management into day to day work so that concrete improvements in agricultural systems can be realized. Organizations that are serious about knowledge management, involve staff members and managers in participatory planning exercises to design the processes, policies and procedures to make it work. And they set measurable goals and objectives to monitor and improve processes, policies and procedures as they move along. Good, participatory planning leads can address some of the questions Ajit asks: - identification of skills that need improvement, and ways to improve those skills - identification of institutional and infrastructural constraints, and ways to transcend those constraints, remove them, or create new incentives - identification of possible local, regional, national and international communities of practice that managers and staff wish to associate with for knowledge sharing - and practical ways to take advantage of those communities of practice Finally, staff incentives are critically important - perhaps the most important component of knowledge management. People tend to work on tasks that are rewarding - personally, organizationally, financially, etc. This is also true for senior managers who seek to implement knowledge management activities - they require high level organizational mandates and incentives tied to knowledge management performance outcomes for the staff they supervise. All the best, Don Richardson Director TeleCommons Development Group ESG International Guelph, Ontario, Canada Email: don(a)telecommons.com

1 0

Indian Science output- a report -In-Cites
by Mailing List Manager 14 May '03

14 May '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 10:09:17 +0530 (IST) From: Shalini R.Urs <shalini(a)vidyanidhi.org.in> We have been hearing (sometimes) conflicting reports about India's Science Output. Here is a recent report that you might find interesting.India's number of papers and average citations per paper are steadily increasing! The ISI Research Services Group has prepared this data and has made it available through the Science Watch publication and corresponding on-line version called In-Cites. You can find the report at the URL below. http://www.in-cites.com/countries/india.html -- Shalini ------------- Prof.Shalini R.Urs Project Director Vidyanidhi-Indian Digital Library of Electronic Theses Department of library and Information Science University of Mysore Manasagangotri Mysore.570006. India Ph:91-821-514699 Fax:91-821-519209 Website:http://www.vidyanidhi.org.in

1 0

RE: [LIS-Forum] Classification on Ayurveda (fwd)
by Mailing List Manager 13 May '03

13 May '03

Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 17:19:42 +0530 From: VYASAMOORTHY /IKP/HYD <Vyasamoorthy(a)icicikp.com> Dear Friends: Niscom Project on Traditional Knowledge Dihital Library also looks into Classification aspects. Here is a news item: ======== TKDL- A safeguard for Indian traditional knowledge by Nirupa Sen Excerpted from: Current Science 82 (9): 1070-71. India has woken up to the task of protecting her traditional knowledge from patent bio-piracy. The trigger was the successful revoking by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of patents filed on turmeric, neem and basmati. This success set the tarmac from which the new initiative called the 'Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL)' is getting ready for flight. The first phase of TKDL on ayurveda is marked for completion in October this year. For bringing out a TKDL on ayurveda, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed on 6 June 2001 between the National Institute of Science Communication (NISCOM), New Delhi and the Department of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy (ISM&H), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. When compiled, TKDL would have documented the traditional knowledge available in the public domain in a digitized format. Starting with the existing literature in ayurveda, it would later cover unani, siddha, naturopathy, homeopathy and folklore medicine. In the first phase, a 'Traditional Knowledge Resource Classification (TKRC)' is being prepared for 2147 medicinal plants. The content of TKDL would initially consist of about 35,000 'slokas' (verses) from ayurveda. These slokas gleaned from 14 ancient texts and recognized books would be digitally transcribed into a readable form and made available both in Indian and foreign languages. The methodology adopted in setting up TKDL is explained below. TKDL would help patent examiners the world over to have a ready reference to Indian traditional knowledge, while granting patents in such domains. The project cost for TKDL is about Rs.1.18 crore. TKDL is an effort that brings together the Department of ISM&H, CSIR and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. : At the inauguration of TKDL in New-Delhi on 26 March 2002, the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, C. P. Thakur emphasized that TKDL would play 'a crucial role not only in documenting our precious heritage in the area of traditional health-care systems, but also in preventing bio-piracy and un- - scrupulous patenting of indigenous herbal medicinal formulations'. He stated that in the prevailing era of globalization, only the efficient would survive. Therefore we need to protect ourselves from theft of traditional knowledge. The TKDL, he added, could also serve as a useful reference point for research workers. The awareness that such a library would create might help the cause of preventing extinction of rare species. Awareness generated could be helpful in the propagation of such species in conjunction with farmers, Thakur felt. R. A. Mashelkar, Director General of CSIR, while speaking on this occasion pointed out that the global market for herbal/traditional medicines is US $ 60 billion, with an annual growth rate of 5- 15%. In this, China's share is about US $ 7-8 billion and India's US $ 400- 500 million. He also referred to a TKDL Task Force study of the US Patent and Trade Mark Office (USPTO) database conducted in March 2000. The study showed that out of 4896 references on 90 medicinal plants mentioned in the USPTO database, 80% of these references was on seven medicinal plants of Indian origin: Kumari, 'Mustaka, Tamraparna, Garjara, Atasi, Jambira, Kharbuja. The findings revealed that out of the 762 patents on medicinal plants studied, 360 of them could be characterized as traditional. There has been international acceptance of TKDL, Recently, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) constituted a group of members from USPTO, China, Japan, European Patent Office and India for discussing the findings of the TKDL Task Force. The group presented their views at the International Patent Classification (IPC) Union meeting in February this year. The outcome is to create a new sub-class for TKRC in IPC and link TKRC with ayurveda. India's TKDL database has also been selected for a pilot study by 170 member states of WIPO. India presently is not a member of the IPC Union. When completed, TKDL would help patent examiners for easy retrieval of traditional knowledge-related information, thus avoiding the possibility of granting patents to unoriginal inventions. Further, a review process of patents already granted in light of the TKDL database would help in cancellation of some patents. Methodology used for TKDL Slokas from ayurvedic texts are first identified. Each sloka is read and converted into structured language using Traditional Knowledge Resource Classification (TKRC). TKRC is innovative in itself. The TKRC classification has been evolved for about 5000 subgroups as against one group in file International Patent Classification (IPC) for traditional knowledge. The TKDL portal would be based on XML standards and would be platform-independent. The codes for each sloka are fed into a data entry screen and also saved on the database. Computer-savvy ayurveda experts carry out the data entry. These are then decoded in different languages. The ayurvedic formulations can be presently decoded in English, French, German, Hindi, Japanese and Spanish. In future, it would be available in 20 foreign languages and all Indian languages. The decoded format of the formulation is easy to read and understand, even by the layman. The web version of TKDL would include a web-based search interface. This would provide for a full text search and retrieval of traditional knowledge information on IPC and keywords in multiple languages. TKRC would be an integral part of TKDL, and would provide a background on ayurvedic concepts, definitions and scientific basis of Indian systems of medicine. In addition, it would carry information on practitioners, hospitals and dispensaries. There are several search features incorporated in the format. According to V. K. Gupta, Director of National Institute of Science Communication, the TKDL software developed in-house does not do transliteration but it does smart translation. Once abstracted, data from the slokas are converted into several languages using Unicode meta data methodology. The software developed can perform smart translation of botanical names and ayurvedic descriptions from traditional terminology into modern terminology. Examples of this are 'Kumari' to 'Aloe Vera', or 'Mussorika' to 'small pox', etc. Nirupa Sen, 1333 Poorvanchal Complex, I.N.U. New Campus, New Delhi 110067, India (e-mail: nirupasen(a)vsnl.net) ================== Dr.P.Vyasamoorthy, Advisor, Virtual Information Centre, ICICI Knowledge Park, Turkapalli Village, Shameerpet Mandal, RR District, Hyderabad 500078 (Website: www.vic-ikp.info ) Ph: 2348 0053; Fax: 2348 0007; Ph. Res: 2784 6631

1 0

300-Year-Old Plant Treatise Bears New Fruit (fwd)
by Mailing List Manager 13 May '03

13 May '03

Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 22:42:53 +0530 From: Atanu Garai <atanu_garai(a)hotmail.com> A 325-year-old treatise on the medicinal plants of the southern Indian state of Kerala, just translated into English, promises to raise a storm in the world of traditional plant-based remedies and biopirates. NEW DELHI, May 08, 2003-- Fully 325 years after its publication in Amsterdam, the 132-volume Hortus Malabaricus ("Garden of Malabar"), a treatise on the medicinal plants of the southern Indian state of Kerala, has finally been translated from Latin into English - and it has unlocked a wealth of information for historians, botanists and medical researchers. Its original author, Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede, the Dutch governor of the former princely state of Cochin between 1670 and 1677, would have approved of the effort taken by the Kerala University in bringing out an English version after it defied translation for centuries. More:http://www.gvnews.net/html/DailyNews/alert4336.html Source of News:http://www.propoor.org ******************************************** Atanu Garai MLIS Student 2001-03 Department of Library and Information Science University of Calcutta College St.Campus Kolkata 700 073 India Email:atanu_garai@hotmail.com OR atanu_garai(a)indiatimes.com http://profiles.takingitglobal.org/atanu_garai ********************************************

1 0

FW: [BOAI] Launch of Directory of Open Access Journals
by Mailing List Manager 13 May '03

13 May '03

Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 09:06:57 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam <arun(a)mssrf.res.in> LUND UNIVERSITY LAUNCHES DIRECTORY OF OPEN ACCESS JOURNALS May 12, 2003 Lund, Sweden - Lund University Libraries today launches the Directory of Open Access Journals ( DOAJ, http://www.doaj.org ), supported by the Information Program of the Open Society Institute ( http://www.osi.hu/infoprogram/ ), along with SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, ( http://www.arl.org/sparc ). The directory contains information about 350 open access journals, i.e. quality controlled scientific and scholarly electronic journals that are freely available on the web. The service will continue to grow as new journals are identified. The goal of the Directory of Open Access Journals is to increase the visibility and accessibility of open access scholarly journals, thereby promoting their increased usage and impact. The directory aims to comprehensively cover all open access scholarly journals that use an appropriate quality control system. Journals in all languages and subject areas will be included in the DOAJ. The database records will be freely available for reuse in other services and can be harvested by using the OAI-PMH ( http://www.openarchives.org/ ), thus further increasing the visibility of the journals. The further development of DOAJ will continue with version 2, which will offer the enhanced feature of allowing the journals to be searched at the article level, and is expected to be available in late fall 2003. "For the researcher DOAJ will mean simplified access to relevant information said Lars Bjrnshauge, Director, Lund University Libraries. The directory will give open-access journals a simple method to register their existence, and a means to dramatically enhance their visibility. Moreover, level, the next stage of DOAJ development will save research time and increase readership of articles." If you know a journal that should be included in the directory, use this form to report it to the directory: http://www.doaj.org/suggest. Information about how to obtain DOAJ records for use in a library catalog or other service you will find at: http://www.doaj.org/articles/questions/#metadata.

1 0

Subscription information for PLoS Biology (fwd)
by Shyam Prasad pujar 13 May '03

13 May '03

Dear List members, It could be of interest to few of you. Regards, S.M. Pujar Assistant Librarian IGIDR, Mumbai ----------- Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 16:42:45 -0700 From: Rebecca Kennison <rkennison(a)plos.org> Subject: Subscription information for PLoS Biology Apologies for cross-posting. Please circulate widely. The Public Library of Science (PLoS), a nonprofit organization of scientists committed to making scientific and medical literature a public resource, is pleased to announce that we have established a nonprofit scientific publishing venture and that we will be publishing our first open-access journal, PLoS Biology, in October 2003. The PLoS journals will be governed and operated by scientists, and these publications will retain all of the important features of scientific journals, including rigorous peer review and high editorial and production standards. The journals will employ a new publishing model that will allow PLoS to make all published works immediately available online, with no charges for access and no restrictions on subsequent redistribution or use. PLoS has already assembled an outstanding academic editorial board and a first-class professional editorial team. We began accepting manuscript submissions for PLoS Biology on May 1, 2003. As an open-access journal publisher, we will provide the online versions of all our journals free of charge to anyone with Internet access, but we also intend to offer a paper version for those who wish to pay for that. Distribution of the paper copy will follow a traditional subscription model, although the price for subscription will be as close to cost for printing and mailing as possible. We have set the subscription price for 2004 at $160/year, which includes shipping. This is the subscription price for both the United States and the rest of the world. The subscription comprises all 12 issues published in 2004 as well as the three issues (October, November, and December) that will appear in 2003. If you would like a sample copy of PLoS Biology or if you wish to subscribe to the print version of the journal, please either contact us directly at subscriptions(a)plos.org to add your names to our database or complete our subscription form, found at http://www.plos.org/journals/biology/pbio_subscribe.pdf. Additional information about the Public Library of Science, as well as copies of the Call for Papers for PLoS Biology, may be found at our website, www.plos.org <http://www.plos.org/> .

1 0