digital archiving of medicinal plants with the open …€¦ · software greenstone mohanlal e.k...

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International Journal of Library & Information Science (IJLIS)

Volume 6, Issue 5, September–October 2017, pp. 49–62, Article ID: IJLIS_06_05_006

Available online at

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ISSN Print: 2277-3533 and ISSN Online: 2277-3584

© IAEME Publication

DIGITAL ARCHIVING OF MEDICINAL PLANTS

WITH THE OPEN SOURCE DIGITAL LIBRARY

SOFTWARE GREENSTONE

Mohanlal E.K

Research Scholar, DLIS, Karpagam Academy of Higher Education,

Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

N. Krishnaswami

Librarian, Karpagam Academy of Higher Education,

Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

ABSTRACT

Recognition of the role the Information technology can play in Knowledge

Management is well acclaimed. Digital libraries and archiving have significance in

preserving and disseminating knowledge in art, culture, education, science,

technology, literature and humanities. LIS professionals increasingly take up the

responsibility in preserving and disseminating not only the metadata of information

sources but also experimenting and associating with the risks of untested methods and

areas of knowledge. Launch of Open Source Digital Library Software has added

further fillip to their efforts and in democratizing sharing, distributing and

transmitting it for the effective of information/knowledge in the realms of research and

development, teaching and learning. The strategies for digital preservation are shaped

by the needs and requirements of the users of scholarly information . The article gives

an account of developing a prototype of Digital Repository of Medicinal Plants by

using Greenstone Digital Library Software. Though the prototype targets the

learning-teaching community, the Greenstone Digital Library Software provides

enormous capacity to incorporate documentation on protocols on safety, efficacy,

standardization, ethno pharmacological knowledge, bio images, audio etc., providing

ample scope for further research on the subject.

Key words: Digital Library, Digital Repository, Greenstone Digital Library Software,

Knowledge Management, Medicinal Plants, Open Source Digital Library Software.

Cite this Article: Mohanlal E.K, N. Krishnaswami, Digital Archiving of Medicinal

Plants with the Open Source Digital Library Software Greenstone. International

Journal of Library & Information Science, 6(5), 2017, pp. 49–62.

http://www.iaeme.com/IJLIS/issues.asp?JType=IJLIS&VType=6&IType=5

Mohanlal E.K, N. Krishnaswami


1. INTRODUCTION

Plants have been used as principal sources of medicine for thousands of years and were our

very first health care solutions. The earliest indication of the medicinal use of plants is found

in the Rig Veda, the oldest storehouse of human knowledge which is believed to be written

between 1500 and 1600 B.C. The ancient Sanskrit text on medicine and surgery „Susruta

Samhita‟, was written not later than 1000 B.C and the Charaka Samhita, was written in the

same epoch, which gives a remarkable description of the materia medica. India has 15 Agro-

climatic zones with 47,000 different plant species and harbors about 3,500 medicinal plants,

out of about 20,000 known medicinal plants of the world. The Indian Systems of Medicine

have identified 1,500 medicinal plants, of which 500 species are mostly used in the

preparation of drugs[1].

A medicinal plant is any plant which, in one or more of its organ,

contains substance that can be used for therapeutic purpose or which is a precursor for

synthesis of useful drugs[2]

. Medicinal plants gain significance because of their contribution to

local health support systems, generation of local income, foreign exchange earnings and

contribution to bio-diversity. Most of the phyto-chemical constituents are potent bioactive

compounds found in medicinal plant parts which are precursors for the synthesis of useful

drug[3].

.Kerala is one of India's largest producers of traditional medicines. From down south

Agastyarkoodam to northern Nilamboor of Kerala there are different forests which provide a

rich supply of medicinal plants. Since the medicinal plants are exceptionally subtle to climate,

the tropical medicinal plants in Kerala may not be found anywhere across the globe . The

impact of the globalization and market oriented development of medical systems including

alternative systems, the demand of medicine plant as the integral component for its products is

increased. The elimination of plants is hundred times more than the power of the nature to

reproduce it which is fastening the extinction of all such plant species from the earth. It is

very important to take legal and other measures to prevent their destruction and to create

awareness for supporting the nature by boosting up sustainable production and conservation.

Conservation of the medicinal plants and development of this specific sector in the country is

suffering from scattered and inadequate research on various crucial aspects. One of the

greatest difficulties confronting the research on medicinal plants is the paucity of authentic

information. Very little work in organizing the valuable and ancient knowledge on medicinal

plants was done till the early part of this century and earlier publications on the subject

contain confused data derived from old literature copied without critical appraisal.

Information on the traditional usage of medicinal plants are most frequently found in books

and periodicals but many of which are out of print and are not available even in the large

libraries. An organized and authentic digital database on medicinal plants provide the

medicinal properties, on the identity, habitat, parts used, chemical properties, medicine in

which it is major constituent , dosage, conditions of collection and their common usages will

enhance the research in this field. Digital preservation and establishment of digital libraries

facilitates information retrieval over computer networks and other electronic media. The

primary aim of digital preservation is to ensure long-standing access of information to the

needy users at the right time in useful formats. The advent of internet has brought immense

chance to bring the outcome of research to faculty, scientists and scholars at any time

anywhere in the universe. Though the Open Source software concept was emerged in 1960‟s.

It has gained momentum from the past few decades.

Digital Archiving of Medicinal Plants with the Open Source Digital Library Software Greenstone


1.1. Knowledge based on Medicinal Plants

The selected list of medicinal plants of Kerala are approaching their fast extinction . This is

provided in Table –I.

Table 1 Red Listed Medicinal Plants of Kerala

Sl No. Common Name Scientific Name

01 Vayambu Acoruscalamus L

02 Karimuthukku Adeniahondala (Gaertn.) de Willde

03 Koovalam Aeglemarmelos (L.) Correa

04 Nagadhanthi Baliospermummontanum (Willd.) Muell.-Arg

05 Panthapayyin Canariumstrictum Roxb

06 Jothishmathi Celastruspaniculatus Willd.

07 Maramanjal Cosciniumfenestratum (Gaertn.) Colebr.

08 Veezhal Embeliaribes Burm. f

09 Menthoni Gloriosasuperba L

10 Adapathiyan Holostemmaada-kodien Schult.

11 Karimkurinji Strobilanthesciliatus Nees

12 Palakapayyani Oroxylumindicum (L.) Benth. ex Kurz

13 Thippali Piper longum L.

14 Moovila Pseudarthriaviscida (L.) Wight &Arn.

15 Rakthachandanam Pterocarpussantalinus L.f.

16 Amalpori Rauvolfiaserpentina (L.) Benth. ex Kurz

17 Ekanayakam Salaciafruticosa Heyne ex Lawson

18 Asokam Saracaasoca (Roxb.) de Wilde

19 Chandanam Santalum album L.

20 Pachothi Symplocoscochinchinensis (Lour.) Moore ssp.

laurina (Retz.) Nooteb.

21 Neermaruthu Terminaliacuneata Roth

22 Chittamruthu Tinosporacordifolia (Willd.) Miers.

(Source: Kerala State Medicinal Plant Board)

Extracts of these plants form very important ingredients in many lifesaving drugs of

western medicine as well as most of the indigenous systems of medicine. Successful

implementation of any programme for conservation, production and extraction of the red

listed medicinal plants need backing of comprehensive knowledge management system.

2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Krishnan Nambiar(1985)[4]

describes that forests of Kerala are gifted with a large number of

medicinal plants but an authentic publication on this forest resources is still lacking ; therefore

very little information is available on the medicinal properties of many species. He also

pointed out that the shrinking habitat of the medicinal plants and the ever increasing demand

for the raw drugs pose great threats to some species that are in the verge of extinction.

Anami(2008)[5]

has mentioned about the development of a machine vision system for

medicinal plants as an urgent necessity as this tacit knowledge dies with the experts in the

field. Retrieval of relevant information through content based approaches should be the

ultimate target. According to Marchionini(1995)[6]

digital libraries have active role to play in

formal learning settings by providing teachers and learners with knowledge in a variety of

media. It may allow teachers and students to use information resources and tools that have

traditionally been physically and conceptually inaccessible. Baskaran(2009)[7]

has made

evaluation of the Digital Library Environment in Indian Research Institutions and suggested

that the users of digital libraries are the universal users who should have the facility to access



to all created and acquired digital sources of information in the form of electronic text, image,

map, sound, video and multimedia. Zhang (2006)[8]

describes the advantages of Greenstone

Digital Library software for building and publishing digital collections on the Internet.

According to them, since 2002 the Washington Research Library Consortium has created

twenty-two digital collections using the Greenstone software. In their case study the authors

has evaluated the cause for the choice of the software, and how they customize it for

organizational requirements and it‟s integration into digital library environment.

Witten(2004)[9]

suggest that the Greenstone Digital library software can handle large

collections of text, images, music, video and other information objects in an organized way

and also provide very efficient and retrieval of them.

3. OBJECTIVES OF THE WORK

The study “Digital documentation of medicinal plants using open source digital library

software Greenstone” has discussed the importance of conservation of knowledge on

medicinal plants and evaluates digital achieving technology customized for the purpose. The

study aims at experimenting the untested methods of digital preservation and documentation

of information on medicinal plants on all aspects the botanical features, protocols, safety,

efficacy, standardization, metadata, citation, study for evolving into a knowledge management

system of medicinal plants. The present study also aims at developing a prototype of digital

library of medicinal plants for teaching and learning, research and development. The main

objectives of the work is :

To survey the available infrastructure for the management of knowledge on medicinal plants

in Kerala

To identify the possibilities of Information Communication Technology especially in the field

of digital achieving packages and technologies to manage and conserve the knowledge on

Medicinal plants.

To identify the appropriate solution and develop an improved format for digitally conserving

knowledge on medicinal plants in Kerala

To develop a prototype digital repository of medicinal plants in Kerala by using Greenstone

Digital Library software.

4. NEED OF THE STUDY

Digital preservation is largely experimental and is also associated with risks of untested

methods. Digital preservation of the medicinal plants is the need of the hour which enhances

sharing, distribution and transmission of knowledge for sustainable utilization and cultivation

of medicinal plants for future prosperity. With the advent of Open Source Digital Library

software, democratization of access and sharing became manifold. However, efforts for

archiving knowledge/information on medicinal plants is not undertaken. The study is

embarked upon acknowledging the importance of archiving medicinal plant information

especially the existence of many of the medicinal plants are in danger.

5. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

To disseminate the knowledge on medicinal plants in the form of a fully-searchable, metadata-

driven digital library which could act as a ready reference tool to endow with the information

support for research and development, learning-teaching activities.

To document medicinal plant bio-diversity and promote their ex situ conservation

To create awareness among local communities on the urgent need of conservation of

medicinal plants



To enhance the proficient visibility of the LIS professional in formulating strategies for digital

preservation shaped with consideration of scholarly information in the vicinity of medicinal

plants.

6. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The geographic location is limited to a certain selected institutions/universities in Kerala for

specimen medicinal plants. A feedback on the prototype is not in the preview of the study and

therefore opinion of a sample survey of users are not conducted in the study.

7. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The programme was supported by the departments of Medicinal & Aromatic Plants, College

of Horticulture, and Aromatic and Medicinal Plants Research Station, Odakkali of Kerala

Agricultural University, Thrissur, Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research

Institute, Palode, Thiruvanathapuram, Centre for Medicinal Plants Research ,

AryaVaidyasala, Kottakkal, Malappuram, Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi, Thrissur,

Kerala Forest and Wildlife Department, State Medicinal Plants Board, Thrissur, Indian

Institute of Spices Research (IISR) Calicut, Directorate of Arecanut and Spices Development

(DASD), Calicut, ICAR-Directorate of Medicinal & Aromatic Plants Research (ICAR-

DMAPR), Anand, Gujarat, Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) ,

CSIR) , Lucknow, National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) , Central Council for Research

in Ayurvedic Science (CCRAS), under Department of AYUSH, Government of India. The

available metadata on the medicinal plants of the herbarium of the Kerala Agricultural

University is analyzed by selecting fifty medicinal plants for designing prototype digital

library . The data were collected, collated and organized to form the sample database with

multiple searchable options with full text facilities. It was organized under the titles general

search, search under scientific name, common name and diseases. Full text searching was

made with the search interface which could be further customized according to the

requirements of the users. The procedures involved are as follows:

7.1 Selection of Medicinal Plants: The selected fifty plants are from KAU Herbarium and

their metadata collected from the department of Medicinal & Aromatic Plants of College of

Horticulture and Aromatic and Medicinal Plants Research Station, Odakkali of Kerala

Agricultural University.

7.2 Scanning/Digital Picture Capturing :Literature and images of the selected plants were

created by either scanning the literature or by photography using high resolution digital

equipment.

7.3 Creation of Digital Object: The scanned articles and pictures were stored as digital objects

in the formats of JPEG,BMP, PDF etc.

7.4 Metadata: Metadata are assigned for specific fields such as scientific name, common

names, parts used, habit &habitat, chemical composition and therapeutics.

7.5 Data Access and Retrieval: Information searching and retrieval through appropriate

Digital Library Software.

The flow chart of the procedures is shown in Fig 1 below:



Figure 1 Flow Chart of Digitization process

8. SELECTION OF DIGITAL LIBRARY PACKAGE

While setting up of software for digital requirements, an institution may consider for a

powerful, well architected repository suitable for handling of large collections with the

technical expertise and support. Cost of proprietary digital library software is too high to

afford for most of the libraries, due to the present day budget constraints. Biswas [10 ]

had

mentioned about the advantages of open source software such as unrestricted use,

customization at the users end, free of cost; community involvement in the development and

maintenance of software; competence compared to other commercial software; and the issues

of copyright etc. The following meritorious factors ushered the investigator to select open

source software instead of the customary or proprietary software for the study .

Free access and good level of functionality

Budgetary cost of computing

No discrimination among person or groups

Free distribution of technologically neutral license

Better communication

Community collaborative effort

Availability of source code

The main yardsticks for a stable digital library package being it‟s competence in

Content Management

User Interface:

User administration:

System administration:

Interoperability

On a par with DL standards

Document explication and categorization



In consideration with the aforesaid standards, the investigator studied the merit and

demerits of the following popular open source Digital Library software packages.

8.1. E-prints[11]

E-prints is a generic archive software developed by the University of Southampton. It is

intended to create a highly configurable web-based repository. e-prints series began in early

2000 and the e-prints 1.0 was released during November 2000 with OAI 0.2 support. The

project was originally sponsored by CogPrints, but is now supported by Joint Information

Systems Committee (JISC) , as part of the Open Citation Project, and by NSF. As the first

professional software platform for building high quality OAI-compliant repositories, E-Prints

is already established as the easiest and fastest way to set up repositories of open access

research literature, scientific data, theses, reports and multimedia. E-Prints 3 is a major leap

forward in functionality, giving even more control and flexibility to repository managers,

depositors, researchers and technical administrators. Website: http://www.eprints.org/.

8.2. DSpace Digital Library Software[12]

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Hewlett Packard (HP) has created the

DSpace software as a digital repository to manage the intellectual output of multidisciplinary

research and development organizations. DSpace supports digital preservation, planning, and

managing as institutional repository in a large institution. DSpace allows for workflow and

customization. It supports community/collection-based content and submissions by different

user communities . Website : http://www.dspace.org/.

8.3. Greenstone Digital Library Software (GSDL)[13]

The Greenstone Digital Library Software was developed by the New Zealand Digital Library

Project at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. It is a suite of software for building and

distributing digital library collections that provides a way of organizing information and

publishing it on the Internet and or on removable media i.e. (CD-ROM/DVD). The aim of the

Greenstone is to empower users, particularly universities, libraries and other public service

institutions throughout the world, to build their own digital library collections in the field of

education, science and culture. The software is distributed in cooperation with UNESCO and

the Human Info NGO. Website: http://www.greenstone.org/

8.4. Fedora Digital Library Software[14]

Fedora software development began in 1997 as a DARPA and NSF funded research project at

Cornell University. The University of Virginia and Cornell University jointly developed

Fedora with funding provided by a grant from the Andrew W.Mellon Foundation. Now the

Fedora Repository open source software has been supported by the DuraSpace a not-for-profit

organization . Fully equipped institutional repositories and interoperable web based digital

libraries can be built by using the Fedora Digital Library Software. Website:

http://www.fedora.info/.

The Software evaluation was done by analyzing the feedback of interviews with

professionals working from similar arena and also from the relevant literature reviews. The

evaluation studies ascertained that the Greenstone Digital Library software (GSDL) is the

suitable package for the construction of a digital repository of medicinal plants.



9. ADOPTION OF GREENSTONE DIGITAL LIBRARY SOFTWARE

(GSDL)

The open source “Greenstone Digital Library Software” was developed by the New Zealand

Digital Library Project at the University of Waikato in 2000. This software is being

distributed in cooperation with UNESCO and the Human Info NGO. UNESCO has been

promoting it from the year 2000 and arranges user support, organize training and workshops

on Greenstone. The first version of the Greenstone was made available during 1997 under the

GNU Public License[15].

The GSDL software is very popular in the developing countries since

it is too much user friendly at the time of building collections. One of the most heightening

feature is the capacity of exporting collections on CD-ROM. This has been found very useful

where there is no Internet connectivity . The study found that the following strength and

features which had been positioned the GSDL software as the most appropriate one for

developing the prototype digital library of medicinal plants.

Flexible browsing facilities such as users can search from the list of authors, titles, dates,

hierarchical classification structures, etc.

Multilingual interface .

Greenstone collection contains text, pictures, audio and video clips. The non-textual material

is either linked to the textual documents or accompanied by the textual descriptions which

allows full-text searching and browsing.

Greenstone Library Interface creates library collections effortlessly. Granting appropriate

permissions, the GSDL Collections can be served either locally from user‟s own web server,

or remotely on a shared digital library host.

Permitted end users can easily build their own formatted collections with their style and

comfort. The collections can be updated and the new ones are brought on-line at any time.

The Greenstone has extensive full-text search facilities with browsing indexes based on

different metadata types. There are easy ways for the users to locate and access information,

even if , they differ with the metadata available .

Runs on Linux and Windows platforms.

Featured by full-text and fielded search facilities. Users can search the full text of the

documents, or choose between indexes built from different parts of the documents.

Searching and browsing structures are built directly from the documents themselves. If new

documents available in the same format, they can be merged into the collection automatically.

Existing hypertext links in the original documents, leads both within and outside the

collection.

Considering the above advantages GSDL had been selected for the creation of digital

library of medicinal plants titled “ MEDPLANTLIB”. The following procedures are used for

installation, customization, database development and creation of digital archives.

10. DEVELOPING COLLECTION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS BY USING

GSDL2.82

The Greenstone Digital Library version 2.82 was selected for the creation of medicinal plants

database, since it is the most used and proven stability. The Greenstone‟s, Librarian Interface

(GLI) allow to collect or import documents and assign metadata standard to build collections

documents into a digital library, which later can be converted into a CD-ROM library. The

main steps in developing a GSDL collection are as mentioned below :

Collection of Information

Data description

Configuring collection



Building the collection

Viewing and accessing data on collection and

Publishing the collection on Internet or copying on CD-ROM

The Java2 Runtime Environment is required for the installation of GSDL 2.82 .This can

be downloaded from one the following links:

http://greenstonesupport.iimk.ac.in/our_mission.htm/ or http://java.sun.com/

The GSDL 2.82 software is available and can be downloaded from

http://www.greenstone.org/

10.1. Starting a New Collection

Select the Greenstone Librarian Interface from the Start menu and choose Programs. Click the

“New” from the File menu as shown in Fig 2 .

The name “MEDPLANTLIB” is assigned as the Collection Title. A brief description

about the collection may be given in the appropriate column in the pop-up window.(Fig 3) 9.2 Gathering Documents

After creating new collection title go to the Gather panel which was grayed out before

will become now active . The Gather panel aids to place the relevant files from the work place

to collection building area. The searchable fields and selected languages can be identified by

using the Gather panel. It will guide to collect the required documents through exploring the

entire works place or over the web by selecting files or directories through browsing the

folders in the computer (Fig.4).

.

Figure 2 Starting a new collection



Figure 3 Information about the Collection

For convenience drag and drop provision at the right hand panel can be used . The

documents can be dragged one by one or as entire sets within folders and subfolders. When

gather the documents, the software usually prompts to select the Plug-Ins. Select suitable

Plug-in, if it is not displayed , do click on the add Plug-in button.

Figure 4 Exploring computer for Gathering documents

10.2. Enriching Documents

The next phase in MEDPLANTLIB collection building is to enrich the documents by

providing metadata. The documents can be enriched by manually adding metadata such as

author, title, keywords etc. By clicking on the enrich tab, a panel will be displayed with its left

side showing files. The right side of the panel allows provision for adding each metadata field

Database description

Collection Title



in the value box against the component. Since the “Dublin Core”(DC) metadata is adopted for

the current project , the abbreviation dc. gets prefixed with all metadata elements like author

,title, keywords etc. (Fig 5)

10.3. Designing of MEDPLANTLIB Collection

The design panel is to facilitate the structure, organization, and the presentation of the

collection being created. It is for customizing the interface once the files are marked up with

metadata. The components required for designing the collection are shown as many facets on

the left side of the plane. The Design procedure involves a series of separate interaction

screens each dealing with different aspects of collection design.

10.4. Document Plug-Ins

The document plug-ins are the feature of the design tab for configuring the document Plug-ins

so as to convert the documents in to the greenstone archive format or document format. The

plug-ins are written in PERL language, which translates the document into a common form,

for extracting metadata by packing them. For example, the html plug-in converts the web

pages to greenstone archive format and extract metadata that is explicit in the original

document from the html source tags. At the time of installation , all the plug-ins required for

converting documents into common form will be loaded by default. If a particular plug-in is

not been with the software, it will not build the digital library collection with that document

type.

.

Figure 5 Assigning Metadata using the Enrich view

10.5. Search Indexes

The search index is to limit the search into a paragraph, a chapter or the entire text of the

document. There are default indexes such as ex. title and ex. Resource identifier which may

either be removed or can be added from the index description of assigned indexes. The search

will not be done without proper search index. 9.3 Browsing Classifiers

The Design Tab has browsing classifiers which will help to surf within the built up

collection. A new classifier can be added from the pull down list by clicking using “Add

Click here to select Document

Type the Metadata



Classifier” . The same way one can remove a given classifier from the list by clicking on the

“Remove Classifier”. Required browsing classifiers can be added by selecting A-Z List or A-

Z Compact List of classifiers . Here required classifiers had selected and listed the browsing

classifiers for title, subject and keywords, resource identifier etc. being the default button

names for dc. title, dc. subject and keywords and dc. Resource identifier . The button name

can be changed by marking the button name check box and by typing the new button name

while configuring the browsing classifiers. The investigator has selected “Scientific Name” as

the button name for dc. title and “Diseases” for subject and keywords and the button name

“Common Names” for Resource Identifier.

10.6. Formatting the Database

The Format tag will help to configure the appearance of the collection. The page-display of

the subsequent digital library on clicking the browsing classifiers or on making a search, are

being governed by the format features.

10.7. General Format

The General Format tab provides general information about the collection. An image having

size not more than 100x100 pixels can be displayed as an icon of the collection in the

homepage. The the full path of the image would appear in the address box lying against the

browse button. The same icon or another one could be set for the about page picture (Fig 6)

Figure 6 Designing the Collection

10.8. Building up of MEDPLANTLIB Collection

For saving data and build up database, the create panel is used. Progress and process of

collection building will be shown.

10.9. Pre-viewing the MEDPLANTLIB Collection

The last step of the MEDPLANTLIB repository building is it‟s pre-viewing. After the

successful competition of the buildup process, the collection gets displayed by clicking on the

preview collection button. The “GNU Data Base Manager” is a program used by the

Select General Click here to select home page Images



Greenstone software to store the metadata of each document. “Managing Gigabytes” is the

program used by the Greenstone system for indexing with compression techniques[16].

Figure 7 Home Page for MEDPLANTLIB collection

11. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

The prototype of MEDPLANTLIB (Digital Library on Medicinal Plants) is found to be useful

with the scientists, teachers and researchers working on medicinal plants for gathering

information of specific medicinal plants which otherwise are dispersed over a wide variety of

sources and integration not attempted previously.

There is enough potential for the establishment of a Digital Library system with more

numbers of medicinal plants included, developed which can function as a large digital library.

The findings with regard to GSDL Software during prototype testing are:

1)GSDL Software is successful for creation of Digital Library of Medicinal Plants due to it‟s

modest search facilities, greater flexibility and user- friendly features.

2)GSDL software supports organization and publication on the Internet or CD-ROM in the

form of a fully searchable, metadata-driven digital library.

3)GSDL software is a fast retrievable and easy collection building system.

4)GSDL software provides stable platform for developing state-of-the-art digital library

applications.

12. CONCLUSIONS

GSDL is the most suitable open source suit to build up and archive Medicinal plants

collection . The prototype database “MEDPLANTLIB” acts as a model for digital archiving

initiatives in the field of agricultural sciences in a resource sharing and consortium basis at the

inter departmental and research units level. It is suggested that library professionals may take

up similar initiatives by using Open Source software which can facilitate the research and

development programmes of academic institutions. Training and proper orientation may be

given to the scientists and library professionals in linking the digital libraries with the web

Browsing Classifiers

Search Index



sites of their the organization concerned. Institutions can also adopt a permanent policy in

digital built-up of their subject knowledge by employing the expertise of qualified library

professionals in knowledge organization, management and dissemination.

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[4] Krishnan Nambiar, V.P.Sasidharan, C Renuka and M Balagopalan, Studies on the

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