Digital library development : major issues of externally published contents

A library may procure contents in various sources and forms to service their clients. In the predominantly paper based erstwhile environment all these contents were put to similar types of use, and copyright restrictions were imposed based on the quantum of pages copied etc. In the electronic and digital perspective, owners of information are resorting to punitive measures regarding the use and contents in digital form. Some of the constraints faced by our libraries to engage in serious digital initiatives are three fold that of money, manpower and contents. Most of our libraries, particularly in the higher education and research institutes solely depend on the information providers and publishers in the developed world to satisfy their urge for vital contents that inspire indigenous research. Since contents are a major ingredient in digital library development, the pragmatic and viable way out for libraries is to judiciously judge them as available in electronic forms in optical media or on Web and procure at least some of them for hosting locally. This paper presents some of the major issues involved in such a critical activity with some illustrative examples available like IEE/IEEE Electronic Library, Indian Standards on CD-ROM, Science Direct and Web access of Indian Academy of Sciences journals. The justification for selecting external contents has also been mentioned. A detailed checklist for evaluating contents is presented from various angles, like authenticity of content, user interface, search and display capabilities, documentation and technical support, and Media dependent features.