Singh, Part 5
2.3 Role of community information centres
The central and state governments of India, especially the Ministry of Information Technology, have taken several initiatives for rural development through community information centres. These may be considered as rural electronic libraries. The project has been started in Sikkim and North Eastern states of India to provide IT facility in each and every block. Each CIC will have one server computer system and five client configuration computer systems linked in a local area network and connected to a V–SAT for Internet access. The facility will help government functionaries to use e–mail and the Internet for communicating with district and state officers. Efforts are being made to use the IT Infrastructure at the CICs to capture local information of the block and make them available worldwide through the Internet.
Besides the efforts made by institutes and private sectors in the country in the context of information dissemination, the community information services listed as follows is quite impressive:
Agri watch (www.agriwatch.org)
Greenstar (www.greenstar.org)
i–kissan.com (www.ikissan.com)
Soyachaupal (www.soyachaupal.com)
Web site for aqua farmers (www.cddc.vt.edu/aquachaupal.com)
E–Chaupals Project
The Project launched in the year 2000 has been quite popular in rural areas of India. The e–chaupals enables rural people to access information in their local languages on crops and market prices. Around 2,700 e–chaupals provides services to more than half a million farmers in five states of the country, viz. Maharashtra, MP, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh.
2.4 Role of libraries and information centres
Libraries with their commitment to freedom of access to information and promotion of life–long learning are central to bridging the digital divide where all services are provided to all regardless of age, race or language. Libraries in India, like those in other developed world countries, have been changing their role from traditional storehouses of information to providing access to information from any part of the world. Today the professional librarians are being better recognised as information disseminators or communicators rather than custodians of information. Although digitisation has been a slow process in the country, several projects like the National Science Digital Library (NSDL), Vidya Vahini Project, and Digital Mobile Library have been an encouraging step taken by the government to bridge the digital divide.
i) National Science Digital Library (NSDL)
The National Science Digital Library Project was conceived by the government to provide cheaper access to science and technology books to students. A task force was constituted in April 2002 by a planning commission and the project was approved in 2004. NSDL is a facility planned to provide focused content to undergraduate and higher–level students. Two hundred students from the remotest corner of the country will be able to download text from the Web with the help of five keys. The NSDL Project will prepare 100 e–books with the help of publishers; these will be ready for e–hosting by the end of 2006–2007. Also, 1,600 publishers in the country have been involved in the project to host their content for affordable delivery and access.
ii) Vidya Vahini Project
This is an encouraging initiative of the Department of IT and Ministry of Communication of the government of India towards bridging the digital divide. The Project aims to connect government and government–aided or secondary schools in the country. It enables schools to form their own intranet and Internet facilities for information exchange. Phase one is planned to cover 140 government–aided senior secondary schools in seven districts across the country, and it will be later extended to other districts.
iii) Digital Mobile Library
In order to bridge the digital divide in a larger way the government of India, in collaboration with the Centre for Advanced Computing (C–DAC) based in Pune, aims to bring about one million digital books to the doorsteps of common citizens. The Internet–enabled digital library will promote literacy. It will make use of a mobile van with satellite Internet connections. The van will be fitted with printers, scanners, cutters and binding machines for providing books in bound form to end users.
These projects are encouraging steps taken by the government to bridge the gap between the information haves and have–nots in the country. The poorest and underprivileged students will no longer be deprived of the latest reading material by virtue of their remoteness or affordability.
iv) Library Networks
Library networks are playing an important role in bridging the information needs of the people. Realising this need, the planning commission in 1984 recommended that the government modernise library services and information in the seventh five–year plan by means of library networks. Consequently the biggest library network, the INFLIBNET (Information and Library Network), was initiated in 1991 by the university grants commission with headquarters located in Ahmedabad. The programme is directed towards modernisation of libraries and information centres and the establishment of a mechanism for information transfer and access to academicians and researchers in India.
Several city networks, such as CALIBNET, the Kolkatta Library Network; DELNET, the developing library network, Delhi; Bombay Library Network (BONET); Madras Library Network MALIBNET; Pune Library Network (PUNET); and, Ahemedabad Library Network (all sponsored by NISSAT Department of Scientific and Industrial Research) are promoting resource sharing and disseminating information by creating centralised union catalogues of their holdings.
v) Public Libraries
Public libraries in India need to be geared up with the latest technologies and IT infrastructure. At present the public libraries are technologically behind in both resources and technology. Very few libraries provide access to the Internet. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has generously supported the process of modernisation of public libraries in United States and beyond. It has provided technology grants so that people can access the Internet. In India there is no major initiative for any local philanthropic help for modernisation of public libraries. However, some scanty efforts are being made by Indian Institutes of Technologies by launching the small project of “Infothela” (Information Box) equipped with Internet facility for the people.
Several community information centres have been opened with efforts of the Ministry of Information Technology to help people use e–mail and Internet for access to information. A few states like West Bengal have encouraged the establishment of community library and information centres (CLICs) in rural areas. Around 1,500 CLICs will be set up in places where there are no public libraries. These centres would provide information relating to career, vocational opportunities and developmental activities carried out by village Panchayats in the state.