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This survey examines the popularity of LIS-Forum email discussion forum among Library and Information Science professionals in India. This study sort out the limitations of this email based discussion forum on the basis of perceptions of LIS-Forum users. LIS-Forum community also recommended new features and suggestions to improve the service in the context of web 2.0 phenomenon.

Teh paper introduces Koha Live CD’s. They are useful tools for learning and installing Koha. Availability of Koha live CDs have have contributed to the popularity of Koha among library professionals. With the help of Koha Live CD, library professionals can install Koha without having much technical know how. It also saves considerable time for the installation of Koha software during training programmes.

Open Source technology management in library and information centers is a challenge and an opportunity. A general perception rooted among library professionals is that Open Source softwares are difficult to implement and not user friendly. Lack of awareness and opportunities for training are the main barriers for wide adoption of Open Source software in libraries. Success rate of Open Source technology implementation depend on attitude to build skill set and dedication of library staff.

Open source library management systems are free alternative to costly commercial library systems. It helps to automate library functions and give a tremendous savings on library automation expenses. User ’s participation in all stages of software project ensures the development of the features that the library really wants. Lack of awareness and knowledge in open source technology among library professionals restrict wide adoption of open source library management system. This article gives an insight into the use and maintenance of open source library management systems.

Changes in society and technology made variations in the life style of Kerala people and their views and attitude towards libraries. In this situation new means of communication practices are necessary to keep in touch with library users. Mobile technology is feasible in terms of cost and efficiency to meet the communication needs of all types of libraries. SMS can reach large number of library users. This paper aims to signify the application of SMS technology in libraries for the excellence of services offered.

Public libraries have a social mission which involves in providing collections and services to meet a community’s information needs. They exist to serve communities. It is the local gate way to knowledge and provides a basic condition for life long learning, independent decision making and cultural development of the individual and social groups. But tremendous changes in the Information and Communication Technology and changing life style has greatly influenced the information seeking behavior of the library users. Library services based on the conventional service model lack the new information services and there exist a large gap between user needs and actual library service. The public library services should be re-engineered to meet the changing atmosphere. The paper stresses that the library leaders must have the skills to create and nurture a new type of library culture in which changeis encouraged and new visions of service implemented. It opines that a new focus on the needs of non traditional library users has also become necessary to attract the community.

Email is a friendly and cost effective technology for communication. Libraries effectively making use email for marketing their products and services. Library newsletters furnish with promotional and informative description of information products and services for the target audience. Newsletter development for libraries follows the more or less the same processes follow by business newsletters. But content of the newsletter depend up on the nature of library resources, services and users. Like any other promotional tools, success of email newsletter is depending on content presentation, layout, on time delivery etc.

Commercial content distributors prevent the free access of digital content using copyright law and technology. Open content licenses give opportunity to publish the work free without loosing creator’s ownership. And users have the right to use, copy, distribute, modify, perform, display and create derivative works. Open content license ensures community participation in content development and distribution, and give hype and hope for both content developers and users.

Library website is considered as communication tool, which help to create and publish the information regarding its activities and services. Creation and maintenance of an interactive library website consumes technical expertise, money and time. And maintenance of library website in traditional way also creates problems for library staff with little technical expertise. Content management systems (CMS) are computer software systems for organizing, displaying and facilitating collaborative creation of content. They consist of readymade functions and modules for manage and organize website content. Using content management system library professionals can create and update the website concentrate on the content and do not have to care about the layout. This paper checks the scope of content management system for the building of library website.

Open source software was a revolutionary concept among computer programmers and users. To a certain extent open source solutions could provide an alternative solution to costly commercial software. Open source software is, software that users have the ability to run, copy, distribute, study, change, share and improve for any purpose. Open source library software’s does not need the initial cost of commercial software and enables libraries to have greater control over their working environment. Library professionals should be aware of the advantages of open source software and should involve in their development. They should have basic knowledge about the selection, installation and maintenance. Open source software requires a greater degree of computing responsibility than commercial software. Library professionals do not think seriously about the advantages of open source software for automation and hence are reluctant to use it. They do not have the expertise to support open source software. Paper highlights problems of selection, installation and maintenance of open source library software.

This article gives an overview of how popularity of World Wide Web and open access concepts challenge the existence of traditional scholarly communication. New publishing outlets such as blogs, wiki and podcasting facilitate agile communication channels for scholarly communication. Open access concepts in scholarly communication enable free access of knowledge. Research community and information professionals hope that scholarly communication through Internet makes available wider access of knowledge.

Integrated library management systems can cut costs and enhance the efficiency of library services and therefore are absolutely necessary for the management of house keeping operations. But small and medium- size libraries face a difficult situation due to the high cost of commercial library management systems, foreign or Indian, available in the market. Naturally libraries without much financial resources need a cost effective way to automate their services. Free/Open source software was a revolutionary concept among computer programmers and users. To a certain extent free/ open source solutions could provide an alternative solution to costly commercial application software’s. Free/Open source software is, software that users have the ability to run, copy, distribute, study, change, share and improve for any purpose. About eight free/open source library management systems are available and libraries can consider these alternatives. The comparative study aims to evaluate the functional performance of three steadily improving free/open source softwares, Koha, PhpMylibrary and OpenBiblio. The functional performance was assessed by running the three software’s by entering sample data. A scoring scheme was defined to measure the evaluation of individual functional modules. Combined scores of individual modules were used to measure the total performance of three softwares. On the basis of functional analysis of Koha, PhpMylibrary and OpenBiblio, it was observed that, they can provide the essential functional modules ( cataloguing, circulation and OPAC ) required for the working of small and medium size libraries. Koha satisfies all the functional requirements of a library management system. In addition to the functional modules(acquisition, cataloguing, OPAC, circulation, and serial control), Koha can provide some features that are only available with costly ILS; web OPAC, document status inquiry, reservation and holds of documents through OPAC, customization of user and graphical interface, import and export of MARC data etc. PhpMyLibrary and OpenBiblio are not come up to the level of a comprehensive system. Free/Open source library software’s does not need the initial cost of commercial software and enables libraries to have greater control over their working environment. Library professionals should be aware of the advantages of Free/Open source softwares and should involve in their development.