BRC Participates in International Open Access Week

BRC was pleased to have the opportunity to participate in Open Access Week this year from the 24-30 of October. Open Access Week is an event whose purpose is to bring awareness to the potential applications and benefits of Open Access to scholarship and research throughout the world.

BRC's participation is in line with our commitment to preservation and dissemination, Offering our digitized material freely to the public domain. The Open Access Movement supports the idea that research should be freely accessible online, at no cost to anyone.This free exchange of ideas facilitates more rapid advances in research of many kinds.

In only seven days, BRC scanned 2681 pages from 15 rare books and uploaded them, a truly amazing feat made possible to the dedication and commitment of our Head Librarian, Angelo Pugliese (Acyuta Dasa,) and L2C2 Technologies Consultant, Indranil Das Gupta.

BRC Establishes Open Source Integrated Library System (Koha)

BRC staff is in the process of implementing some new technological guidance we've acquired with the great help of Koha expert, Indranil Das Gupta. After many trials and errors, we have finally worked out the optimal system for processing the digitization workflow for our rare book and manuscript project. We are using Koha ILS as both a catalog as well as their digital repository.

Koha is generally considered to be the first open source library automation system, and originated in 1999. ILS stands for open source integrated library systems. BRC is exploring cutting edge ways to implement Koha, innovating and testing new applications of this system.

An Overview of BRC's Process of Adding Files to the Digital Catalog

We wanted to provide a more detailed update about the processes involved from scanning texts to uploading to our digital catalog for those among you who are interested in tech-related details:

This illustration describes the steps in the process that are involved from generating the initial image from a scan or photo until we upload the file for reading and accessing from our digital database.


- compiled by BRC's Tech consultant, Indranil Das Gupta

New Technology Advisor at BRC

Mr. Indranil Das Gupta of L2C2 Technologies has joined the BRC team as a consultant. He is a software architect and has been a Free and Open Source (FOSS) technology and is expert in Koha, the world’s first and also the largest Open Source Integrated Library Software.

He is working diligently along with BRC Librarian Angelo Pugliese (Acyuta Prabhu) to implement systems for our server to be able to upload huge amounts of content without crashing.

Currently, they are designing a framework for manuscripts; including a cataloging form where details are given (meta data) including title, author, and year to increase accessibility for consultation by scholars and library patrons online.

This manuscript framework is an entirely new contribution to library technology, and will be made available as open source to libraries worldwide that are using the Koha cataloging system. BRC is very pleased to be involved with such a exciting and cutting-edge project.