A Study of Digital Libraries Design and Development towards Usage in India

The emergence of Internet has added a new dimension to information technology which gave birth to the new concepts of Digital Libraries (DLs), Knowledge Management (KM), and archiving of indigenous culture and heritage materials. The Digital Libraries have emerged as a crucial component of global information infrastructure, adopting the latest Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to promote an organisational structure that encourages communication and resource sharing between the academician and scholars across the nations. In India, a number of digital library initiatives and digitization programmes have been initiated across the country. Most of the digital library initiatives are government funded. The Ministry of Communications and Information technology has also established the Digital Library of India. This paper discusses various problems, challenges and issues involved in design and development of digital libraries in India.