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Showing posts with label Articles. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

सार्वजनिक पुस्तकालयों का सन्नाटा

हरिवंश चतुर्वेदी, निदेशक, बिमटेक


             मकर संक्रांति पर सूर्यदेव जैसे ही मकर राशि में प्रवेश करते हैं, ठंड में ठिठुरता देश वसंत ऋतु के स्वागत में जुट जाता है। वसंत पंचमी पर विद्या की देवी सरस्वती की पूजा के साथ पूरे देश में साहित्य, कला, संगीत, नाटक से जुड़े समारोह व कार्यक्रम पूरे वैभव और उल्लास से साथ शुरू हो जाते हैं। आज से ही जयपुर लिटरेचर फेस्टिवल शुरू हो रहा है, जिसमें देश-दुनिया के कई बड़े रचनाकार और बुद्धिजीवी जुटेंगे। पिछले कुछ वर्षों में देश के कई बड़े साहित्यिक समारोहों में लेखकों, पाठकों और सामान्य दर्शकों की बढ़ती भीड़ कभी- कभी अचंभित करती है। मराठी, कन्नड़ और बांग्लाभाषी साहित्य प्रेमियों में अपने भाषायी साहित्य एवं इसके सम्मेलनों के प्रति सदैव से उत्साह रहा है। तमिल, तेलुगू और मलयालम में भी बड़े-बड़े लेखक आम जनता से जुड़े रहते हैं। लेकिन सबसे ज्यादा आश्चर्यजनक परिणाम जयपुर लिटरेचर फेस्टिवल में देखने को मिले हैं। 
            इसकी शुरुआत वर्ष 2006 में हुई थी। पिछले दिनों छत्तीसगढ़ सरकार ने भी रायपुर साहित्य समारोह का आयोजन किया था, जिसमें स्थानीय साहित्य प्रेमी बड़ी संख्या में अपने प्रिय लेखकों और कवियों को सुनने आए थे। साहित्यिक सम्मेलनों में उमड़ रही भीड़ से कभी-कभी भ्रम होता है कि क्या यह भारतीय मध्यवर्ग में साहित्य एवं संस्कृति के प्रति बढ़ते अनुराग की ओर इशारा कर रही है या यह एक फैशन की तरह कुछ समय के लिए उन्हें रचनात्मक साहित्य व पुस्तकों की ओर लुभा रही है?  साहित्य के जरिये क्रांतिकारी सामाजिक परिवर्तनों के सपने देखने वाले जनवादी लेखकों को इसमें साहित्य के कॉरपोरेटीकरण की बू आ सकती है, क्योंकि इन साहित्यिक समारोहों की ज्यादातर वित्त व्यवस्था कॉरपोरेट जगत की स्पॉन्सरशिप से हो रही है। साहित्यिक समारोहों के साथ-साथ फरवरी-मार्च में देश के कई शहरों में पुस्तक मेलों का भी आयोजन किया जाता है। दिल्ली और कोलकाता के पुस्तक मेलों में तो पिछले एक दशक से भारी भीड़ देखी जा रही है। देश के अन्य स्थानों पर आयोजित पुस्तक मेले भी अब बुद्धिजीवियों व लेखकों तक सीमित नहीं हैं। 
              तो क्या यह मान लिया जाए कि यह भारतीय मध्यवर्ग में पुस्तकों के प्रति बढ़ती रुचि का परिचायक है?  क्या अंग्रेजी में जितनी किताबें खरीदी जा रही हैं, उतनी हिंदी, बांग्ला तथा अन्य भारतीय भाषाओं में भी खरीदी जा रही हैं?  क्या पुस्तक मेलों व साहित्यिक समारोहों में मध्य वर्ग की बढ़ती सहभागिता टीवी तथा फिल्मों से उनके अलगाव की ओर इशारा कर रही है?  इंटरनेट पर हर किस्म की सूचना, ज्ञान और सामग्री उपलब्ध है, परंतु किताबें अब भी भारतीयों के कल्पना जगत से गायब नहीं हुई हैं। इंटरनेट व सूचना प्रौद्योगिकी के विकास से हमें पश्चिमी सभ्यता, संस्कृति व साहित्य के साथ एक गहरा रिश्ता बनाने में मदद मिली है। लेकिन क्या हम फिर से भारतीय साहित्य, कला, संस्कृति और अध्यात्म के साथ अपने कमजोर होते रिश्तों को मजबूत करना चाहते हैं? साहित्यिक समारोहों और पुस्तक मेलों में पाठकों की बढ़ रही रुचि अब राष्ट्रीय रूप ले चुकी है। 
              देश भर में लगभग 60 साहित्यिक समारोह हर साल आयोजित किए जाने लगे हैं, जिनके आयोजन पर 65 लाख से लेकर 10 करोड़ रुपये तक खर्च होते हैं। जयपुर लिटरेटचर फेस्टिवल में इस बार ढाई लाख लोगों के भाग लेने की संभावना है। इसके प्रमुख वक्ताओं में इस बार नोबल विजेता वी एस नायपॉल, पुलित्जर विजेता कवि विजय शेषाद्रि, मैन बुकर पुरस्कार विजेता लेखिका एलिनोर केटोन, हनीफ कुरेशी, अमित चौधरी, पॉल थेरो, फरुख ढोंडी आदि के नाम उल्लेखनीय हैं। पिछले साल इस समारोह में दस हजार किताबें बिकी थीं, जो उत्तर भारत के लिए महत्वपूर्ण हैं। 
फ्रैंकफर्ट, जर्मनी का पुस्तक मेला दुनिया में सबसे प्रसिद्ध माना जाता है, जिसमें तीन लाख दर्शक हर बार आते हैं। 12 दिनों तक चलने वाले कोलकाता पुस्तक मेले में पिछली बार 18 लाख दर्शक आए थे, जो दुनिया के लिए एक रिकॉर्ड था। इस बार यह पुस्तक मेला 28  जनवरी से आठ फरवरी, 2015 तक चलेगा। जर्मन लेखक गुंटर ग्रास ने कोलकाता पुस्तक मेले के बारे में लिखा है कि यह पुस्तक मेला जिंदगी की तरह एक सुंदर रचना है, जो हर साल खत्म होती है, किंतु किताबें सदैव बनी रहती हैं। देश के साहित्यिक समारोहों और पुस्तक मेलों में भारतीय दर्शकों की भारी भीड़ की तुलना अगर हमारे सार्वजनिक पुस्तकालयों में आने वाले पाठकों की संख्या से करें, तो बहुत निराशा होगी। 
               यूं तो देश के सभी जिलों में से अमूमन जिला स्तरीय पब्लिक लाइब्रेरी मिल जाएगी, किंतु वहां आपको पाठक कम और सन्नाटा ज्यादा दिखाई देगा। भारत को एक ज्ञानोन्मुख समाज बनाने और भारतीय गणतंत्र को और अधिक जनोन्मुख बनाने के लिए पब्लिक लाइब्रेरी से बेहतर कोई विकल्प नहीं हो सकता। देश को आजादी दिलाने और उसे एक आधुनिक राष्ट्र बनाने में इन पब्लिक लाइब्रेरियों की भूमिका को नजरअंदाज नहीं किया जा सकता। किंतु आज ज्यादातर राज्यों में ये सार्वजनिक पुस्तकालय बीते हुए युग की निशानी बनकर रह गए हैं। जजर्र भवन, टूटे फर्नीचर, फटी-पुरानी किताबें व अप्रशिक्षित लाइब्रेरी स्टाफ एक ऐसा माहौल बनाते हैं कि कोई युवा पाठक वहां जाना नहीं चाहेगा। वैसे तो हर राज्य में पब्लिक लाइब्रेरी के रख-रखाव के लिए कानून बने हैं, किंतु राज्य सरकारों द्वारा इनको पर्याप्त वित्तीय सहायता नहीं दी जा रही। क्या इनको हर जनपद की बौद्धिक गतिविधियों का केंद्र नहीं बनाया जा सकता? 
              सूचना प्रौद्योगिकी का व्यापक प्रयोग करते हुए इन पुस्तकालयों को बेरोजगार युवाओं को प्रतियोगी परीक्षाओं की तैयारी और रोजगारपरक स्किल सीखने का एक स्रोत आसानी से बनाया जा सकता है। वैसे ‘राष्ट्रीय लाइब्रेरी मिशन’ के तहत देश के 35 पिछड़े जिलों में मॉडल पुस्तकालय बनाए जा रहे हैं। देश के 629 जिला पुस्तकालयों को इंटरनेट से जोड़ा जा रहा है। उत्तर प्रदेश के उन्नाव, बाराबंकी, लखीमपुर खीरी, रायबरेली तथा बलिया जनपदों में सार्वजनिक पुस्तकालयों के जीर्णोद्धार व आधुनिकीकरण का काम चल रहा है। और इस अभियान को स्वयंसेवी संस्था प्रथम, नैसकॉम फाउंडेशन, राजीव गांधी फाउंडेशन तथा बिल व मिलिंडा गेट फाउंडेशन से व्यापक सहायता मिल रही है। 
             मानव संसाधन मंत्रालय व नवगठित नीति-आयोग से उम्मीद की जाती है कि वे राष्ट्रीय पुस्तकालय मिशन को पर्याप्त वित्तीय साधन एवं स्वायत्तता देकर देश भर के र्सावजनिक पुस्तकालयों को बौद्धिक ऊर्जा का केंद्र बनाने में मदद करें। कॉरपोरेट क्षेत्र पुस्तक जगत के लिए एक बड़ी पहलकदमी लेकर आया है। इन्फोसिस के संस्थापक नारायण मूर्ति के बेटे रोहन मूर्ति ने 300 करोड़ लगाकर पुस्तक प्रकाशन की एक योजना हॉर्वर्ड यूनिवर्सिटी के साथ शुरू की है। मूर्ति क्लासिकल लाइब्रेरी ऑफ इंडिया के अंतर्गत संस्कृत, हिंदी, बांग्ला, कन्नड़ तथा अन्य भारतीय भाषाओं की अनुपलब्ध प्रसिद्ध पुस्तकों को अंग्रेजी अनुवाद के साथ प्रकाशित किया जाएगा। क्या कॉरपोरेट सेक्टर की अन्य बड़ी कंपनियां भी पुस्तक प्रकाशन, वितरण व लाइब्रेरी स्थापना में अपना योगदान देंगी?  (ये लेखक के अपने विचार हैं) - 

Friday, September 14, 2012

The Library: A Place to Gather


 

Bookshelves contain knowledge, but the building is a space for the community to learn from itself

By Baharak Yousefi, Vancouver Sun September 13, 2012


http://library-soup.blogspot.in/

Libraries, such as the new Surrey Library, 'need to remain responsive to our supporters' says Baharak Yousefi.

Photograph by: Ian Smith, PNG , Vancouver Sun






I didn't grow up with books. My family didn't go to libraries. In fact, I don't come with any of the typical librarian origin stories of a childhood spent falling in love with the written word. The first library I ever visited was my school library in the eighth grade, the year my family immigrated to Canada. I went in and never left. I didn't care what they had on the shelves; I looked at every-thing. I looked because I couldn't yet read in English. A year later, I read.
Over the next few years, I made up for lost time: school libraries, public libraries, and the great big university library on top of the mountain. They held me while I grew up. They taught me history, geography, psychology, literature, politics, feminist theory, and other subjects in between. And all the while, they held me. I sat in large rooms with others and read by myself. And it is only now, years later, that I am beginning to understand the significance of public space, of "the commons," and of social consumption.
Libraries collect, preserve, and pro-vide access to knowledge and information, and it does not much matter if the shelves are real or virtual. It is by consuming books, films, music, and art that we learn to adopt a critical stance and begin to imagine a world that is different than what we know. But the most extraordinary thing about libraries, their raison d'être, goes beyond their role as collectors and access providers.
Libraries have been and must remain places where ordinary people can become aware of themselves as agents of change, and most significantly, collective agents of social change. If, as citizens, we take our role as change-makers seriously, then we must read, but also gather, listen, and do. Library shelves - whether physical or virtual - contain only a fraction of the knowledge we need to change the world.
Let us, for a moment, embrace a kind of techno-utopianism. Let us put aside the realities of class and inequitable access to technology and assume that, in the future, all British Columbians will be able to access digital copies of published books from the comfort of their homes. Even if this scenario were true, the assumption that all the knowledge that matters is written down, published, and accessible is false.
Communities are repositories of a different kind of knowledge. If libraries understand their role as stewards of this, a knowledge that has been historically disadvantaged and under-privileged, then their role in the world of ebooks and free Internet becomes abundantly clear. In an era of greater access to conventional knowledge, libraries must facilitate community engagement by providing citizens access to each other and to local communal knowledge, and seek ways to provide space and opportunities for future creation and capture of this knowledge.
A year ago, the Vancouver Foundation asked: "what is the issue of greatest concern in Metro Vancouver?" Vancouverites reported being most concerned about social isolation and disconnection. They found that "certain groups of people are struggling more than others to feel connected and engaged" and concluded that "ignoring their needs will cost our community." The Vancouver Foundation also reported an interesting statistic about library visits: 83 per cent of respondents reported visiting a local library, community, or recreation centre.
Many library users recognize libraries as one of the few remaining indoor public spaces where they can gather without having to buy something in order to stay. Time and again, in per-son and in the media, I've seen library users and citizen groups rally for their libraries.
"We love and need our libraries," they say. The generosity and goodwill is energizing.
Libraries need to remain responsive to our supporters and users who are coming through our doors, but we must also do better by those who don't see themselves reflected in our current services. Libraries must listen and better understand the needs of our communities. We must expand our role as conveners and facilitators of dialogue, joy, and social change. Our users may be coming to libraries asking for ebooks, but they are also coming to feel supported and connected, to be heard, to learn, to understand ... to be held.
Baharak Yousefi is head of the Fraser Library at SFU's Surrey Campus.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/library+place+gather/7235435/story.html#ixzz26RassauA

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Traditional archives rule over online ones


WRITTEN CHARM

As technology becomes increasingly available and digital information expands on a daily basis, academic library use is on the decline or so you would assume. 

Research libraries in colleges and university campuses are finding that gate counts and circulation of traditional materials are falling at many libraries across the country, as students find new study spaces in dorm rooms or apartments, coffee shops, or nearby bookstores. When all the information is available on mobile phones nowadays and news can be accessed with the click of a button, it looks like the humongous libraries are on way to becoming museums. 

But librarians who work in these places have a different take in this regard. According to them, libraries will never die out as they have their own charm. “The very concept of a library cannot end. It has a certain environment attached to it. Logo ko ek prakar ka anand milta hai yaha aake padhne me,” says Sudha Mukherjee, librarian at Delhi Public Library, H-Block, Sarojini Nagar. 

“Real readers look for satisfaction when they read a book and only a library can satisfy a reader. Online libr­a­ries can never be an alternative for physical libraries,” she further adds. 

The shift to electronic resources has many scholars and librarians worrying about the loss of a central community resource in physical libraries, whether they are at the university or public level. University boards are becoming increasingly skeptical about new additions and library buildings, since they cost so much. 

Many academics mourn the loss of a common culture of library use across campuses and communities while others hail the era of a new type of library with a new structure of knowledge and practical use. There has been a move to make the library seem more than a tool and storage house for books and information as different programmes are offered and coffee bars are added. This is a huge transition.

Another librarian Vandana Kamal Vanshi of National Archives, seconds Sudha and says, “Physical libraries are not losing their charm at all. Reading inside a library gives one a different feel all together. It cannot be compared with online libraries that are becoming increasingly available. They cannot give you the variety of reading as compared to the traditional ones. 

“One can have the access to each and every book available in a library but online, it is not possible for one to search all books at one time.”

With the rapid expansion of the internet to the general public, people are seeking answers in the quickest and most convenient way. While physical use may have been reasonably expected to decli­ne in recent years due to the large scale shift to digital libraries and the increase in sources such as e-journals, the trend has appeared to be on a much larger scale. 

An avid lover of books, Reshmi Sharma, a media professional cannot read anything online and only find satisfaction in reading an actual book. “I need to have the feel of a book. I cannot read online. I just do not get the feeling while reading something online.”

Going by the trend, the traditional library is here to stay though there is no denying that more and more libraries are increasingly digitising records and putting books for their readers. After all, the smell of a ‘real’ book can only be enjoyed by the bookworm.

Library that houses Archaeology Survey of India (ASI)'s Delhi Office


Located in the grounds of Ambedkar University, near the GPO, Kashmere Gate is the erstwhile Dara Shikoh Library, the building of which now houses the Department of Archaeology, Delhi Administration. 

The library was built by Shah Jahan’s intellectual son and chosen successor, Dara Shikoh. Dara Shikoh, known for his liberal ideas and who translated the Upanishads into Persian, was murdered by his brother Aurangzeb in 1659 – in the fight for supremacy of the throne. His property along with this library passed through several hands before the British finally took it from the Marathas in 1803.

Dara Shikoh Library was later used as a residency by Sir David Ochterlony, the first British Resident of Delhi. Sir Ochterlony renovated the original building of the library, added pillars to the front facade to form a verandah to the older structure. The present building, experts say, is but one of the rooms used by Dara Shikoh. At a careful glance, one can differentiate between the architectural Mughal designs which still exist in the interior of the building and the British styles on the exterior of the building. 

The variations in architecture also occur because the building was damaged to a great extent during India’s first war of Independence in 1857. The priceless collection of books and documents of the Mughal era were burned down by the British. However, one can still imagine the grandeur and opulence in which the first British Resident lived in Delhi, by just looking at the majestic imposing building. The building also characterised the nature of its first occupant, Sir Ochterlony. He was one of the only British officers who fully adopted the Mughal culture, customs, traditions and lifestyle.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Career avenues in library science



Library science today calls for candidates skilled in the art of managing information with the help of technology tools.
Indispensible: A librarian's job involves a wide range of reading and processing of information content through cataloguing, classification and indexing, storing documents, and retrieving the required information. Photo: G. RAMAKRISHNA
Indispensible: A librarian's job involves a wide range of reading and processing of information content through cataloguing, classification and indexing, storing documents, and retrieving the required information. Photo: G. RAMAKRISHNA
Libraries are repositories of knowledge and information and are indispensable in the information age. With the merging of information technology with library science, the nature of libraries and the scope of their services have radically changed. The job involves a wide range of reading and processing of the information content through cataloguing, classification and indexing, storing documents, and retrieving the required information and so on.
Those interested in this discipline can pursue their degree course in library and information science (B.LI.Sc. / B.LiS). At a higher level, one can opt for a Master's degree (M.LISc / M.LIS), M.Phil. or Ph.D. in this discipline. Most universities in India offer one year Bachelor's degree in library and information science or two-year integrated Master's degree in the same discipline. The Bachelor's degree course includes the study of library classification, library and science, library management, cataloguing, information sources, information systems and services and the basics of information technology.
After obtaining Bachelor's degree in library and information science, students can opt for one-year regular Master's degree course in the same discipline. Graduates in other disciplines with at least 50 per cent marks can pursue the two-year (four semesters) integrated Master's programme in library and information science. Both these courses provide equal opportunities for employment. Many universities in south India have introduced the two-year integrated Master of Library and Information Science course. Some universities also conduct the one-year Master's programme for B.LISc. degree holders with 50 per cent marks and above.
The Library and Information Science, Department of University of Kerala, conducts a two year regular integrated Master's programme. Any graduate with at least 50 per cent marks can apply for admission.
Applicants will also have to pass a two-hour long entrance test carrying 100 marks aimed at testing their general knowledge and aptitude for librarianship. Candidates should have to obtain at least 40 marks in order to qualify the test. The total number of seats is 20. The seats are equally allocated among the degree holders in science, arts, and commerce subjects. The course content of the integrated Master's course includes information knowledge and communication, library and society, library management, information sources, organisation of knowledge, information technology, information processing and retrieval, information systems, research methodology, bibliometrics, IT applications in libraries and information system management. A dissertation and viva-voce is also part of the course.
The department also offers one-year self-financing M.LISc. evening programme. Those who have passed B.LISc. with at least 50 per cent marks are eligible to apply. For the one year Master's programme, students can choose from the following options – science information systems, agriculture information systems, social science information systems, health information systems, industrial information system, academic library system and public library systems.
A one year M.Phil. course is also offered by the department. The minimum eligibility for admission is a Master's degree in library and information science with at least 55 per cent marks.
The selection is based on the marks scored in the Master's course and an interview. The department also offers research facilities leading to Ph.D. degree. The minimum eligibility is a Master's degree in library and information science with at least 55 per cent marks and a pass in the UGC-NET. Web site: www.dliskerala.org.
The School of Communication and Information Science under the Mahatma Gandhi (MG) University, Kottayam, offers B.LISc. and M.LISc. courses. The one year (two semester) M.LISc. course here is conducted on a self-financing basis.
The Department of Library Science under the SB College, Changanassery, affiliated to the MG University conducts B.LISc. (30 seats) and M.LISc. (30 seats) courses. Admission to M.LISc. course is open to graduates in library and information science with at least 50 per cent marks. (For details visit www.sbcollege.org).
The Department of Library and Information Science of the Calicut University offers an integrated two year MLISc course.
Graduates in any discipline are eligible for admission. M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes are also conducted.
Eligibility for M.LISc. degree course is at least 50 per cent marks in the degree course.
Address: Department of Library and Information Science, University of Calicut, Calicut University Campus, Tenhipalam, Malappuram.
Majilis Arts and Science College, Valancherry, Malappuram, also conducts integrated M.LISc. / B.LISc. programmes.
Outside Kerala
The Department of Library and Information Science of several universities in the country offers higher education facilities including B.LISc., two-year integrated M.LISc., one-year M.LISc., M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes in the discipline. The following are a few among them:
University of Madras, Chepauk, Chennai
Bangalore University, Bangalore - 560056
Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar - 608002
Andhra University, Visakhapatnam - 530003
University of Mumbai, Mumbai - 400098
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi - 221005
Jiwaji University, Gwalior
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh- 202002
The Documentation, Research and Training Centre in Bangalore and the Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre, New Delhi, offer associateships in documentation and information science to experienced graduate librarians. The associateship is recognised as equivalent to M.LISc. degree.
Distance learning mode
Many universities offer graduate and postgraduate course in library and information science through distance education mode.
The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) offers both these courses. Web site: www.ignou.ac.in.
The Institute of Distance Education of the University of Madras and the Directorate of Distance Educations of the Madurai Kamaraj University also offer graduate and postgraduate courses in library and information science. Web sites: www.unom.ac.in; www.mkudde.org.
Institute of Distance Education of the University of Kerala, Kariyavattom, Thiruvananthapuram, offers B.LISc. degree course through the distance education mode.
Directorate of Distance Education of Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, conducts B.LISc. course in the distance education mode. Web site: www.svudde.org.
Those who desire to get a government job should ensure that these distance learning courses are approved by the joint Committee of the Distance Education Council and UGC.
The list is only indicative. Details of more universities that offer higher education facilities in library and information science under the regular and distance education mode can be collected from the university handbooks published by the Association of Indian Universities which is available for reference in all University employment information and guidance bureaux functioning under universities.
Career prospects
Those who have passed B.LISc. and M.LISc. degrees are eligible to become second and third grade librarians or university library assistants.
Those who have obtained an M.LISc. or Ph.D. and have cleared the Junior Research Fellowship-National Eligibility Test (JRF-NET) can become lecturers in colleges and university departments.
To become a grade I librarian or assistant librarian in a college or university department, the requirement is M.LISc. and UGC- NET.
Job opportunities for postgraduate librarians are many in colleges, university departments, science and technology departments/ institutions, research organisations and so on. Scientific institutes appoint M.LISc. degree holders as scientific assistants/ officers
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Library of the future - Sarah Hiddleston



Can the computer encourage critical thinking instead of passive reception? Brewster Kahle is trying to do just that with Internet Archive.


BREWSTER KAHLE:Facilitating the next generation library.

I magine everything ever written, posted, uploaded, filmed, recorded or broadcast available at the click of a mouse for free. Ideal or irreverent, it's Brewster Kahle's vision and he's making it happen while paywalls go up and rights arguments rage.
“We're building the library of Alexandria V2,” he gestures to academic publishers visiting his Internet Archive, located in a coincidentally neoclassical Christian Science church building in Funston Avenue, San Francisco. “Only this time anyone, anywhere can access it.”
Kahle, inventor of the predecessor to the worldwide web with an academic background in AI, believes that unless we put the best of what we have to offer in front of our children we'll get the generation we deserve.
“We're merging with the machine… Pretty soon we are going to be the computer. So let's make the computer an interesting companion. Let's teach it some good stuff. Otherwise it'll be an idiot and that's no fun,” he says.
Archival material
Kahle has archived over two million books, almost 3,00,000 movies, nearly 80,000 live concerts and over 5,60,000 audio recordings. He's mapped a complete record of every webpage every two months since 1996. It's called the Way Back Machine – if a page changes or an upload removed there's a good chance of finding the original on their search engine.
The idea, he hopes, is to encourage critical thinking instead of passive reception. Take TV, (they record 20 news channels 24x7) and take coverage of 9/11, which Internet Archive packaged and posted in October 2001. “What did the world see? CNN was saying that Palestinians were dancing in the streets. Were they? Let's look at Palestinian TV. Comes across very differently. I think we really know now that news comes with a point of view in this country (the U.S.),” he says. Kahle is showing off his newly relocated centre like Willy Wonka on a tour of his chocolate factory. He even has ompa lumpas, but that's another story.
“This [congregational hall] is the next generation library… Don't think of it in a row [of terminals] like an Internet café. Think of big screens where you might be collaborating with other people.” He and his team are still cooking up ideas. Awe-inspiring and interactive are the baselines.



We see the scanning centre, with their purpose built copiers complete with museum lighting and professional-grade digital cameras. Later on, in the old Sunday school, we see a machine about the height and width of a five-door filing cabinet, filled with rows of flashing slivers. It's a computer that stores 320 terabytes. Which is small. Their storage centre is made up of blocks of one petabyte (a million gigabyte) cabinets, named the PetaBox, which anyone can buy. “It's inexpensive because we designed it ourselves, even bent the metal. I think it's the first open source computer,” he says.
Kahle runs a tight ship. Internet Archive is non-profit making and runs off government subsidy and other donors. The goal was transparency. “We want people to know that we are not jet setting around on their material,” he says. There are 300 employees but only 40 are office workers, administrators and programmers. The other scanning centres are in Canada, the U.K. and Guatemala.
“What we want is more other people to be doing this stuff. They just aren't… What they are doing is often really ‘niche-y' or they just protect it. That's the Google problem,” he says.
Open access
Kahle is referring to the controversy over Google Books, which in 2002 set out to digitise millions of books and was sued for violating U.S. copyright law. In 2008 Google negotiated an agreement with the Author's Guild, so that over half Google's advertising and e-commerce revenues from the project go to copyright holders. Google can index the books but only display snippets in search results for free; any book downloaded must be paid for.
All things old enough not to have rights restrictions in the U.S., Internet Archive gives away. “The idea of downloading a million books is a good day for us. It's not something we are fighting against. Let's find out and do interesting things, non-traditional things, with our material,” he says.
Therein lies the rub. “We've got some structural problems with the web,” he says. “We gotta figure out how people keep publishing on the net and make money…We wish that capitalism would just work but it doesn't because it just goes to monopolies and kind of crushes everybody else.”
Rights issues, he says, are an artefact of power structures, and we are in the middle of a big transition. What it's really about, he says, is “institutional responsibility”; who is supposed to do what.
His ideal solution is open source at the core, with competition on services: “A distributed system for helping people set their own terms and have their own customers is the only way to make the Internet grow to the next level.”
Whatever that is, it's not the iPad. According to Kahle, instead of a shrunken general purpose Mac, the iPad is just a big iPhone - an environment that's too controlled by Apple. “That's sort of sick. It's not exploiting the better part of humans,” he says.
“I want to see these tablets prosper. But … it's the web-based applications that are the ones that are interesting. In terms of a publishing platform we have to make the web version of our for-sale products work. Because this app thing really favours a few power centres. If we want to keep power distributed let's go with open standards as mechanisms to distribute it. So that somebody in a garage can make a really cool tablet. And it doesn't have to be someone working at Google or Apple.”
Quick links

  • www.openlibrary.org is an online catalogue of books
  • www.archive.org for the Way Back Machine
  • http://www.capricorn-tech.com/to know more about the PetaBox
  • Wednesday, April 18, 2012

    Paperless libraries


                                                   
    While electronic access has begun to redefine the roles of publishers, librarians and booksellers, it seems unlikely that e-libraries will make good old books redundant, says Akhila Seetharaman





    A character from an imaginary future world in American science fiction writer Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" remarks, "It's not books you need, it's some of the things that were once in books..."
    Today, it's possible to get all the things you may ever need, sorted and edited, without physically opening a single book. Libraries without books, or e-libraries, make this possible.
    Like with all things `e', the concept of the e-library is also hazy in the minds of most people. An e-library or an electronic library can either be on the Internet or simply in electronic format and shared in a limited way.
    The first step to an e-library is digitising information. Several reputed university libraries in the country, including university libraries in Chennai have significant portions of their resources in electronic format.
    This, coupled with subscription databases and online journals, give users wide access.
    "While we subscribe to 130-140 journals in print, we receive as many as 2000-3000 journals online," said M.K. Jagadish, Director of American Information Resource Centre.
    Not only does the electronic format widen access many times over, it also enables multiple users to access the same text at the same time and protects the valuable content from being lost due to accidents like fires and attacks.
    Electronic access alters the way we look at information and knowledge altogether. In the beginning, libraries were sanctums of knowledge and librarians were the watchdogs.
    "There was a time when librarians thought that a good library is a library full of books," said M.S. Ananth, Director of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. "But if all the books are in, it means that nobody is reading," he pointed out, speaking to a gathering of librarians at a convention of the Society for Information Science. Even today, many old-style librarians guard their books both from and for the reading community.
    With the sum total knowledge doubling every year, digitisation is the most practical way to save information in terms of both accessibility and storage, said Dr. Ananth.
    After digitisation, putting electronic versions of books and journals on networks like the Internet, is the logical next step. This enables knowledge sharing, not just with those in the immediate environment, but also with people with common interests in other areas.
    Apart from digitising existing information from books and journals, e-libraries offer potential for new forms of content with increased levels of interactivity.
    E-libraries provide opportunities for educational materials to be reached to remote areas and provide access to a range of information materials to all students irrespective of their location.
    The Ministry of Human Resource Development has initiated a few programmes to network information resources in universities in the country.
    The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) aims at developing web and multimedia learning content for undergraduate science and engineering students across the country.
    INDEST, a consortium of 38 institutions, offers online access (by subscription) to vast electronic resources on science, engineering and technology.
    Several non-governmental organisations are also experimenting with electronic educational resources. Vidyanidhi (vidyanidhi.org.in), is one digital library experiment that has catalogued and archived over 50,000 Indian doctoral theses.
    With fonts being rapidly developed in Indian languages, literature in various languages, including Tamil, is being organised and archived in electronic format.
    Electronic access has begun to redefine the roles of publishers, librarians and booksellers. Copyright issues lurk round every corner of the e-library. But it seems unlikely that paperless libraries will make good old books redundant. Many librarians feel that a mix of print and electronic resources is best.
    "Although people talk of e-books, there's nothing like the comfort of reading a book in print," said Mr. Jagadish. "Books will never go, that is for sure."

    Open access to journals — a noble movement



    IN HIS book Animal Farm, George Orwell wrote, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". The need for a level playing field is heard much today in the wake of WTO and farm subsidies. But it is also increasingly heard in the world of professional scientific publications.
    Look at the situation in science libraries. The cost of journals has steadily gone up while the budget of science libraries has remained static or even gone down. The library budget of the top science institute in India today is about Rs. 30 million a year ($650,000).
    With this, it is expected to buy books and subscribe to at least 300 scientific journals. A book typically costs about $100, while the annual subscription of journals ranges from $500 to, yes, $18000. As a result, when the library committee asks whether some titles can be discontinued, a battle royal rages among researchers (who actually want to add more journals).
    Page charges
    On top of this, many journals charge `page charges' from authors whose work they would find worthy of publication. (This practice of page charges is almost exclusively prevalent among science journals, not in those of liberal arts and humanities. When I approached the University of Hyderabad way back in 1977 to pay the page charges for a paper I was publishing, my colleague Prof. Shiv K. Kumar of English exclaimed: "What! I get paid when I publish a paper in my subject. You scientists pay to get your work in print?").
    Irony of the situation
    The irony of the situation is well captured by the Canadian science historian Jean-Claude Guedon who says, "The beauty of science is that it has been the first operational example of how humanity can create a system of distributed intelligence. Right now it's not working in the best possible way with regard to communication we haven't scaled up so well".
    Things were not so bad two generations ago. The playing field was not that level for Indian science even then, but not that off-level as it has become today. There were not too many commercial instruments, and most equipment had to be home-built using "strings and candle wax". Hence the much-quoted example of the discovery of the Raman effect for less than a few hundred rupees. A good chemistry lab in India until the late 1950s had the same equipment and chemicals as those at Cambridge or California, though acquired at a higher price.
    And science still operated on a non-commercial, non-IPR, fashion and results were freely exchanged across the world. One of the major spin-offs of the participation of scientists and engineers in the war efforts during 1939-44 was the technological advance leading to highly sophisticated scientific instruments. This gave birth to the scientific instruments industry, which has been raking profits since the 1950s. This led to the great divide in science between the rich nations and the poor.
    Side by side, the world of science publications also underwent a change again with a profit motive. While a generation ago, there were hardly 1000 professional scientific journals, today there are 28,000. These are scored based on their `impact factor', i.e. how many people read a given journal and refer to it in their own publications.
    Journals with greater impact factors naturally have a longer clientele and make more profit. Their subscription rates are also higher — plain market economics. (The firm Elsevier publishes 1700 scientific journals, and made a pre-tax profit of close to $2 billion last year). This too has produced an asymmetry in the practice and publication of science among nations.
    Changed complexion
    The advent of electronic communication and the Internet changed the complexion of science publications remarkably. (Interestingly enough, E-mail and the Internet were born out of the free electronic exchange of scientific information among nuclear physicists).
    Science publishers began putting out electronic versions of their hard-copy journals; some journals were started purely as e-journals and not hard copies at all. The subscriber had to pay to access these e-versions. While this made the reach of the journals worldwide (and no postage expenses), the subscription costs are still a hindrance to scientists in the poorer nations.
    Man-made asymmetry
    It is clear that there is a man-made asymmetry here. People of no nation are smarter or brainier than those of any other nation. As Guedon remarked in this context, it is affordability that calls the tune: "only the wealthiest institutions from the wealthiest countries can afford these things (journal subscriptions). Brains are being wasted".
    Happily, he is not the only one to think so. Several professional societies and academies (such as the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society London, or journals such as the Journal of Biological Chemistry) began making special concessions such as free web access to their journals (six months old issues, or even current ones).
    A number of new initiatives aimed to provide everyone in the scientific community access to, at least, publicly funded research. These include BioMedCentral which publishes 90 Open Access (OA) journals (where those authors who can, pay up to $ 500 as publication fee while others do not, but all are treated fairly and equally), the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), the Joint Information Systems Committee and the Open Society Institute, which gave rise to the Budapest Open Access Initiative 2001 that brought the OA movement to the forefront.
    This in turn led to SciDevNet (which is focused to cater to the developing world), HINARI of WHO which allows free (or small fee) access to about 2000 journals in health-related areas to over 140 nations of the world, and Sciencedirect, which asks for institutional subscription and allows OA to over 1500 journals.
    The free search engine Google lets you have some basic information, while the US National Library of Medicine's PubMed allows free queries on who published what where and also gives the abstract of the work, and hyperlinks to many of the journals where these are published.
    The tide truly turned in our favour with the start of the non-profit Public Library of Science (PLoS) by the Nobelist Harold Varmus, Pat Brown of Stanford and Michael Eisen of Berkeley. Their OA journals PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine (authors who can, pay publication fees), started in challenge to commercial journals, have become popular. Further, actions like this have led the U.S. and U.K. governments to mandate the authors of all government-funded research output to "self-archive" their work, so as to offer free and open access on the web. In addition, the U.K. has also decided to fund the author-institution the costs of publishing in OA journals and also to support further experimentation with OA journals.
    The distinguished scientometrist of India, Dr. S. Arunachalam of the MS Swaminathan Foundation Chennai, has been leading the crusade for OA to and from India. He has been requesting all Indian science agencies to follow the U.K. and U.S., lead and to mandate Indian scientists to self-archive their work and allow OA.
    Maximal knowledge base
    He points out that this would benefit us to (a) maximize the visibility and impact of India's research output, and by symmetry (b) help create maximal knowledge base for us regarding the rest of the world's research output.
    I am sure that our science agencies, the University Grants Commission and also the National Informatics Centre will support Dr. Arunachalam in his selfless public-spirited request.
    D. Balasubramanian

    Reference and bibliography - B.S. Warrier


                                      

    To wrap up this multi-part series on thesis writing, here is an overview of how to list the bibliography and references.



     
    FAMILIAR GROUND: Those who are familiar with the classification systems generally used in libraries will find the going easy.

    "Classification, broadly defined, is the act of organising the universe of knowledge into some systematic order. It has been considered the most fundamental activity of the human mind."
    Lois Mai Chan (Expert on Library Science)
    A bibliography is an alphabetical list of all the sources such as books, journal articles, or other materials from which you have derived information for your research and the preparation of the thesis. The citation has to be in a standard format. The listing is usually arranged by author, date or subject. There are accepted forms of citing authors, papers, and books in the bibliography part of your thesis. You have to follow them. Some of these are indicated below.
    Books
    When a book is cited, you should indicate the author's full name, full title, edition, number of the volume if it runs to two or more volumes, place of publication, publisher's name, and the year of publication. The author's name is reversed; the last name comes first, then a comma, then the first name, and a period after the complete name. Titles such as Dr, Sir, and Ph.D may be omitted. The title (name of the book) is underlined. The sequence for the publication can be as follows: place of publication, a colon, name of the publisher, a comma, and the date, and then a period.
    Rao, Krishna. The future of floriculture in India. Bangalore: Pioneer, 2006.
    If a book has been written by two or more authors, show their list in the same order as given on the title page. The name of the first author alone need be reversed; the other names may be given normally. If there are more than three authors, it is sufficient if you name only the first, and use ``et al'' to indicate the remaining authors. However, there is no harm in listing all the authors. In such a case, separate the names with commas and put an ampersand (&) before the last author.
    Article in a journal
    You should show the author's name, title of the article, title of the journal, volume number, year of publication, and page numbers. The title of the article may be shown in quotation marks. Put a period before closing the quotes. The name of the journal may be underlined. The year of the publication is given in parenthesis. It is followed by a colon, the inclusive page numbers and then a period.
    Menon, Jayanth. "Women in management - a sociological study of women and their professional attainments in the IT industry." Sociology Today 32 (2006): 27-39.
    Internet
    Apart from information on author, and URL (uniform resource locator), the access details may be given. The sequence and style of citing have to be uniform. Never try to show in full the URL including the link wherefrom you retrieved the information. This may be too long and complicated leading to errors in transcription thereby spoiling its utility. The URL of the home page of the site would be adequate.
    The following sequence may be followed.
    · Author's name
    · Title of document, in quotes
    · Title of complete work (if relevant), in italics or underlined
    · Date of publication / last revision
    · URL, in angle brackets
    · Date of access, in parentheses
    See the example shown below.
    Basu, Mohan. "The Music of the Ganga." The Bengal Heritage, 25 April 2005, {lt}http://www.tagore.edu.htm{gt} (16 October 2006).
    If information about the print publication is given in the website, that may also be indicated.
    It may be noted that only basic information on bibliography can be provided here because of space constraint. There are numerous possibilities of multiple authors, different works of the same author, journals that do not publish papers on continuous pages, articles from a newspaper / reference book / encyclopaedia / anthology, translations, audio / video records / CD ROMs, paintings, manuscripts, etc. There are reference books and websites that furnish full information on all these. A fine reference book that is generally followed is the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers by Joseph Gibaldi (The Modern Language Association of America. Reprinted by East-West, New Delhi).
    Effective use of library
    While using a library, it would be of great advantage to you if you were familiar with the style of classification adopted there. One popular style is the Dewey Decimal Classification System, in which the basic classification of titles is as follows:
    000 Generalities
    100 Philosophy & Psychology
    200 Religion
    300 Social sciences
    400 Language
    500 Natural sciences & mathematics
    600 Technology (Applied sciences)
    700 The arts
    800 Literature & rhetoric
    900 Geography & history
    Further sub-classification has been made systematically. The full details cannot be covered here for space constraint. However, the following examples indicate the approach.
    000 Generalities
    001 Knowledge
    002 The book
    003 Systems
    004 Data processing Computer science
    005 Computer programming, programs, data
    006 Special computer methods
    010 Bibliography
    064 General organisation & museology In France & Monaco
    098 Prohibited works, forgeries, hoaxes
    103 Dictionaries of philosophy
    155 Differential & developmental psychology
    222 Historical books of Old Testament
    325 International migration & colonization
    415 Structural systems (Grammar)
    521 Celestial mechanics
    672 Iron, steel, other iron alloys
    798 Equestrian sports & animal racing
    873 Latin epic poetry & fiction
    959 General history of Asia Southeast Asia
    Another popular system is Universal Decimal Classification that was developed by the Belgian bibliographers Paul Otlet and Henri la Fontaine at the end of the 19th century. It is based on the Dewey Decimal Classification, but is much more powerful and is used especially in specialist libraries.
    In UDC, every number is thought of as a decimal fraction with the initial decimal point omitted, which determines the filing order. A great merit of UDC is that it is infinitely extensible. When new subdivisions are introduced, they would not disturb the existing allocation of numbers.
    Main categories in UDC:
    · 0 Generalities. Informatics and Information Sciences
    · 1 Philosophy. Psychology
    · 2 Religion. Theology
    3 Social Sciences. Statistics. Politics. Government. Economics. Law.
    Administration. Military. Folklore
    · 4 Unassigned
    · 5 Natural Sciences. Mathematics
    · 6 Applied Sciences. Medicine. Technology
    · 7 The Arts. Recreation. Entertainment. Music. Sports
    · 8 Languages. Linguistics. Literature
    · 91 Geography
    · 92 (Auto-) Biography
    · 93 / 99 History. Archaeology
    The full version of the UDC has more than two lakhs of subdivisions.
    Whatever is the system followed in a library, it will certainly be of great advantage to you if you get yourselves familiar with it, as otherwise a lot of time would be wasted in searching for the titles in the area of your choice.
    It is true that modern libraries offer the facility for computerised search of the titles available at any point of time, based on author, subject, title, etc. Even then, knowledge of the classification system followed in your library will be of help.


    Source:- The Hindu 
    http://www.hindu.com/edu/2006/12/18/stories/2006121800240400.htm

    The art of managing information - K. Lakshmi

        
     Career opportunities for librarians have increased manifold in this digital era.



    OPPORTUNITIES GALORE: Librarians need to keep themselves abreast of the latest technology to facilitate quick retrieval of information.

    Libraries have come a long way from being mere storehouses of books and periodicals. And the work profile of librarians has also undergone a tremendous change.
    According to librarians in the government sector, only a few chose library for a career a few decades ago and most of them were based in the public sector. Now, the number of libraries and the scope of the career have increased manifold.
    Officials of the Public Libraries department said a degree or postgraduate degree in library science is a must to take up job as a government librarian. Knowledge in computer science has also become a necessity to keep up with the emerging trend of digitisation. Many universities offer library science courses in distance education mode and regular stream. A. Amudavalli, professor and head, Department of Library and Information Science, University of Madras, said it is a misconception that such courses are now being offered only through distance education. The regular college students have better opportunities than the students of distance education mode.
    Various courses
    The Department established in 1937 offered certificate and diploma courses. Over time, undergraduate and postgraduate courses were merged together as a two-year Integrated Course in Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS). Later, the course was renamed M.Sc. in Library and Information Science as a full-time (regular) programme, she said.
    As the data is not limited to books anymore, the scope for careers in different fields has widened. Besides opportunities in traditional libraries, including those at schools and colleges, candidates could get placement in government department libraries and private sector libraries such as in IT firms and hospitals.
    “We constantly update the curriculum with new topics based on the current trends. The students are exposed to latest concepts such as digital libraries, computer applications and soft skills. This provides required competence for employability in various fields,” she said. As the new courses train students in management information system, they could also apply for jobs in banks for record and data management. Another important aspect of the curriculum is the one-month internship training at various major libraries.
    Career scope
    Most institutions, including non-governmental organisations, research and development labs, defence organisations and media houses, now have library equipped with latest technology and need qualified candidates.
    The department is also introducing P.G. Diploma in Digital Library Management in the coming academic year.
    Students would learn about digital data preservation, management and retrieval through this evening college programme.

    New vistas in Library Science

                             
     LIBRARY AND Information Science deals with the challenge of how to organise, control and access information. With the onslaught of information technology, libraries are making a rapid transition from card catalogues to digitalised services including making available information on CD-ROMs.
    In the ever-changing environment, it is the job of the library and information science professional to ensure that the information gets to the right user in the right place at the right time. It is a course for people who have a flair for reading and keep a tab on the developments on the information front. A degree programme in Library and Information Science is intensive in nature, and thereby demands students who are highly motivated and dedicated to learning. Librarians and information officers are expected to be organised, with an inquisitive mind, have an appetite for unearthing information, and acquire and prepare materials for use. Outstanding communication skills, quick grasping ability, skill for organising facts, speaking and writing skills, diplomacy, and knowledge to evaluate technical material is required.
    It is their responsibility to oversee the management of the library, supervise assistant librarians to prepare cards and computer records, and read book reviews, publishers' notifications and catalogues to be informed of current literature and other available resources. It is their endeavour to select and purchase materials from publishers, wholesalers and distributors, and arrange books and other library materials in an easily accessible mode.
    Job avenues
    Avenues for professionally qualified librarians are increasing. With computerisation and electronic storage systems, a course in library and information science has acquired a new look. Openings exist in information centres, which include public enterprise, industrial and commercial firms, public and institutional libraries, digital libraries, online libraries/archival services. There are opportunities in libraries run by schools, universities, colleges, professional bodies, libraries attached to embassies societies and research associations.
    Undergraduate courses
    Degree, diploma, vocational and specialised courses are available in library and information sciences. Undergraduate degree courses in library science and related disciplines include:
    Bachelor's Degree in Library Science (B.Lib).
    Bachelor's Degree in Library and Information Services.
    Bachelor's Degree in Library and Manuscriptology.
    Bachelor's Degree in Library and Documentation.
    The duration of the courses is one year. Only graduates (from any discipline) are admitted. Subjects covered include cataloguing, bibliography, documentation, research methodology, information storage and retrieval, manuscriptology, preservation and conservation, information systems and computer applications.
    Postgraduate programmes
    Postgraduate degree courses in library and related sciences include:
    Master's Degree in Library Science (M.Lib).
    Master's Degree in Library Science and Documentation.
    M.Phil and Ph.D in Library Science.
    Master's Degree in Library and Information Sciences.
    Only graduates with B.Lib are admitted to the Master's degree programmes. The courses are one year long. The eligibility for M.Phil and Ph.D. programmes is M.Lib.
    Areas of specialisation available at the PG level are library planning; management of Information Service (MIS); translation; archives management; technical writing; reprography; special library services; electronic solution to documentation etc.
    Vocational courses
    Vocational courses in library science are also offered to non-graduates for which the eligibility is Standard X.
    Specialised courses
    Specialised courses, meant for librarians and other in-service personnel, are also available. These include:
    Diploma in Medical Librarianship (by correspondence).
    Fresher and Advanced Courses in Library and Information Sciences.
    Postgraduate Diploma in Library Science.
    Computer Applications in Library Science.
    Some of the universities offering courses in Library and Information Science are:
    1. Bangalore University, Jnana Bharathi, Bangalore-560 056.
    2. Karnatak University, Pavate Nagar, Dharwad.
    3. University of Mysore, Crawford Hall, P.B.No. 17, Mysore-570 005. 4. Gulbarga University, Jnana Ganga, Gulbarga-585 106.
    4. Mangalore University, Mangalagangotri, Mangalore.
    5. Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal.
    6. Kuvempu University, Shankarghatta, Shimoga-577 451.
    The National Centre for Science Information, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, offers a course in "digital library and information services in enterprises" as part of the Information and Knowledge Management training programme. The Indira Gandhi National Open University offers distance education programme in Bachelor Of Library & Information Science (BLISc). The duration is one year and the eligibility is graduates with two years experience in a recognised library.