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Title of the Article: Library Networking in India for Resource Sharing: Present Status and Prospects

Bibliography:

Debal C. Kar, Parha Bhattacharya and Subrata Deb, “Library Networking in India for Resources Sharing: present Status and Prospects,”World Libraries 9, no.1 (1999), http://www.worlib.org/vol09no1/kar_v09n1.shtml (accessed May 11, 2010).

Summary/Salient Points:
Today’s information age resource sharing and cooperative functioning through networking have become inescapable for libraries and information centers worldwide. India is no exception; for that matter, it is even more necessary to network libraries in newly developing countries like India than in the developed nations.

Reasons of the need for resource sharing
• Deluge of information.
• Cost of collecting, processing, storing and disseminating information has been spiraling-up.
• Information buying power of libraries has been declining year after year.

Efficient resource sharing can be achieved by using the recent advances in information technology for realizing a network of libraries-this is what we so called “networking.”

Networking- Connecting two or more computer to communicate with others and share information, software, peripheral devices, and or processing power.
During the last six to seven years, library and information activities in India have entered a new era. Individual libraries are coming out of the proverbial “Berlin Wall” around them. They are trying to form a larger community with the use of networking.
Reasons for building up a larger community
• To be able to tackle the ever increasing demands for better services.
• Quantitatively and Qualitatively.
• Environment already over strained by financial pressures.
Forced, motivated, or logic driven the librarians are coming out of their shell in large numbers. This resulted in discernible change in the information scenario. Now large numbers of library resource sharing networks are under various stages of conceptualization, design and development.
The ultimate goal of information/ library networks is to interlink information resources in a metropolitan area, so that users could access information irrespective of its location, format, medium, language, and script.
In India, the need for resource sharing has been well recognized but the technology options available until now were limited.
Library networks in India
• Delnet- established in 1988 due to the limitation of financial resources and space for housing library collections on the libraries in Delhi. Provides access to the central union catalogue for books and monograph, efficient electronic mailing facilities to access databases of member libraries.
• Calibnet-Calcutta Library Network was inaugurated on December 21, 1993.Established a high-tech resource base and provides the ff. services: Online/ CD-Rom based global information search and retrieval service. Full-text document delivery. Database services.
• Malibnet- Madras Library Network. Visualized in the Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre (INSDOC) in 1991.
• MyLibnet-Launching of this in association w/ Mysore City Library Consortium (MCLC) took place on June 12, 1995.
• Bonet-Bomabay Library Network was set at the National Centre for Software technology (NCST), Bombay, on November 6, 1992. Aim is to build a low cost library information system which can possibly be used as a model for future expansion of this service even outside Bombay.
• Punenet- Members of this network are accessing data, using the e-mail and internet facilities.
• Adinet- Ahmedabad Library Network was formally inaugurated in February 1995.
• Inflibnet- Information and Library Network, was launched in May 1991.
Aim is to provide the end-users a mechanism for sharing and using information resources and for exploiting modern information technology.
With the development of several networks in India many members of the community had been benefited. There are three (3) major benefits which had been offered to member libraries of the particular networks.
Benefits of networks in India
• One gets access to a very large volume of literature without increase in the budget.
• Library budget can now be diverted to acquire the most important (even expensive) information required by an institution.
• One gets real time access to about 1,000 international databases apart from the electronic mail and remote log in facilities.

Conclusion:
Following the launching of several library networks in India, the library automation and networking movement in India is surely catching on. India is working on for not being behind with others.

Title of the Article: Align IT with a Health Information Exchange for SOA Solutions

Bibliography:

Jean Wang, Align IT with a Health Information Exchange for SOA Solutions, http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-soa-health/index.html?ca=drs- (accessed May 11, 2010).

Summary/ Salient Points:

Healthcare organizations are actively looking to service-oriented archeticture (SOA) for an IT solution to help transform the industry. Analyzing business vision and requirements and linking them to technology is the most essential step for SOA implementation. To be able to implement SOA, Health Information Exchange Network is necessary in a healthcare organization. But there are challenges of aligning IT with Health Information Exchange.

Challenges of Aligning IT w/ Health Information Exchange
 Requires an Effective Information Exchange Network to satisfy the demands of all participants.
 Requires tight collaboration of all parties.

Building a health information exchange network is never that easy, you need to face challenges you need too to fill-in the gap and the space that disconnects technology and health business together. Lets take a look at the several disconnects between the technology ad the business needs of a true health information exchange.

Disconnects Between Technology and Business Needs
IT Perspective
 Many IT groups developed components and assets either for internal consumption or for open source usage.
Business Perspective
 The requirements for a health information network are being identified by business users, but many of these people are not fully aware of the technologies available to support an SOA-enabled version of this.

Model that connects health information exchange requirements to IT
 Establish a reusable layer that connects business capabilities of the health information exchange to IT assets.
 Capture business requirements from entities in the health information exchange.
 Map requirements to functional capabilities.
 Transparently connect business objectives and requirements to technology assets.

Conclusion:
Bridging the gap between delivering healthcare services and adopting technology is a huge challenge for the healthcare industry while employing IT to advance the practice of medicine. An SOA provides an effective approach to meet this challenge while creating the healthcare information exchange system. SOA-enabling such a system starts with an understanding of business needs followed by how and what technology will satisfy these needs.

Reaction:
If information network is readily available to be use in library, offices, schools, business
then it would also be good to use in health organizations. Benefits of information networks such as- one gets near real time access to about 1,000 international databases apart from the electronic mail and remote log-in facilities would also be experience by health organization personnel’s, and patients, Building a health information network is not a one man work but rather a collaboration between health organization personnel’s and patients and with information technology experts.