Dear All,
Today i attended Video conference on National digital library project by IIT Kharagpur. I observed the main focus of the entire project was to collect the METADATA from various sources including commercial publishers/aggregators like IEEE. I remember during trial access for some discovery tool like ebsco, ProQuest etc. concern vendors were asking for all Metadata of Catalogue, Institutional repositories and the list/detail of materials subscribed so that they can put into their server and we can search (Metadata) with more speed all in a single point but will get access to full text if we have subscribed the resources.
So our NDL seems to be discovery service which will provide Metadata searching of various type of materials and referring to original source with no guarantee to access in full text just like searching on Google. A Nice document of discovery tool i found here for your ready reference. I personally feel our NDL project should focus on those resources which is available in Open Access like thesis in Sodhganga, National digital library, ETD/IR at NITRKL etc. because Digital library demands single point solution of full text rather than referral service.
Therefore i would like to summarize that it is very good Project but should focus on full text single point solutions used by highly qualified scholars as well as a common man living in a remote village else i have doubt on Return on Investment (ROI)? As far as training is concern it will be good if NDL people will personally visit the site and implement the DSpace because i have bitter experience that in only 2 days of training professionals could able to implement DSpace.
Thanking You.
by 