ABSTRACT:In distance learning and online
education environment libraries needs to provide
the right information on a single platformto its
users from all resources or databases available
in the library in aminimum of time. A library
portal is single-user interface for accessing a
wide variety of electronic resources, both within
and outside the library. A few federated search
engines like EBSCO Discovery service, Summon
(web scale discovery service), Knimbus,
Mendeley, FedGate, ABCD open source
software, Google CSE etc are being used by
libraries to give access to all subscribed or free
online e-resources as well as library catalogues,
archives’ and other reading materials in the
library to save the time of readers and give
easy access to multiple databases and resources
through federated search tool. In this article the
author discussed about the selected commercial
as well as open source discovery tools used in
Indian Libraries and a case study of Modern
College of Arts, Science and Commerce,
Ganeshkhind for using Google CSE for their
library portal resources
Keywords:Information Discovery Tools,
E-discovery tools, Custom Search Engine,
FEDGATE, KNIMBUS, E-Discovery Tools,
Digital Libraries, Indian Libraries, Library
portals, Google CSE.
INTRODUCTION
Many resources in libraries are now available
online on the internet in the form of ebooks,
ejournals and databases which created a need of
a federated search tool for all different types of
databases which the library has in its holding and
has subscribed online. Digital library softwares
like DSpace, Greenstone, E-Prints, etc which are
Integrated Information Discovery Tools in Indian
Libraries: A case study
used widely all over the world are not enough
to handle all e-information and library holdings
and to bring the libraries online. New software
companies are working on finding solutions for
a single search platform for all the resources
in library. Western countries libraries are using
commercial and in-house softwares designed by
their IT team as per their readers’ requirements.
In India very few libraries are having separate IT
team or staffs. In most of the Indian libraries the
digital library is managed by library professionals
using DSpace, Greenstone or E-Prints Software
and other content management softwares like
Joomla, Drupal etc.