Defence Scientific Information and Documentation Centre (DESIDOC) is a nodal centre for information communication and dissemination in the Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO). As the publication wing of DRDO, DESIDOC brings out regular publications including Defence Science Journal, DESIDOC Bulletin of Information Technology, DRDO Newsletter, DRDO Samachar and Technology Focus. These periodicals cover a wide variety of topics in various subject areas targeting different user communities situated all over India. A pilot project was undertaken with an aim to provide online desktop access to the full text of these periodicals to the users including R&D scientists of more than 50 laboratories and establishments. The project also aimed at facilitating the Publications Division to directly upload the contents to the system. The open source software EPrints is used and customized according to the user requirements particularly on Intranet. Upon successful testing and evaluation, these periodicals will be hosted on Internet allowing subscription, access and downloading by users across the globe. This paper discusses the experience in using EPrints and customization at various levels for DRDO publications and explains various features of the model

Lakshmana Moorthy, A

Senthil, V

English

Librarians' Digital Library

Online Access to DRDO Periodicals using Open Source Software 
 
V Senthil and AL Moorthy 
Defence Scientific Information & Documentation Centre, Metcalfe House, Delhi–110054 
Email: senthil@drdo.com; almoorthy@rediffmail.com 
 
Abstract 
 
Defence Scientific Information and Documentation Centre (DESIDOC) is a nodal centre 
for information communication and dissemination in the Defence Research & 
Development Organization (DRDO). As the publication wing of DRDO, DESIDOC brings 
out regular publications including Defence Science Journal, DESIDOC Bulletin of 
Information Technology, DRDO Newsletter, DRDO Samachar and Technology Focus. 
These periodicals cover a wide variety of topics in various subject areas targeting 
different user communities situated all over India. A pilot project was undertaken with an 
aim to provide online desktop access to the full text of these periodicals to the users 
including R&D scientists of more than 50 laboratories and establishments. The project 
also aimed at facilitating the Publications Division to directly upload the contents to the 
system. The open source software EPrints is used and customized according to the 
user requirements particularly on Intranet. Upon successful testing and evaluation, 
these periodicals will be hosted on Internet allowing subscription, access and 
downloading by users across the globe.  This paper discusses the experience in using 
EPrints and customization at various levels for DRDO publications and explains various 
features of the model. 
 
Keyword: EPrints, e-journals, Metadata, Repository, Defence Science Journal, 
DESIDOC Bulletin of Information Technology. 
 
1. INTRODUCTION 
 
 The exponential growth in the volume of published information, the difficulty in 
retrieving information from libraries due to the literature seepage and scattering, the 
need to control and provide access to ever increasing volume of information, the faster 
rate of increase in the costs of raw materials used in publishing leading to the escalation 
of manufacturing costs of books and journals, the need to reduce the time required for 
conventional publishing, and the realization of the potential and unique features of 
electronic media are the reasons for the explosive growth of electronic publishing in the 
recent times. Although many types of publications are in vogue, e-journals gained a lot 
of acceptability and gradually these gave way to online journals. 
 
 The most important advantage of online journals is the savings in the run-around 
time and up to 24-36 per cent savings for publishers (Woolfrey, 1993) as printing and 
postage charges are eliminated. While some online journals are published in parallel 
with their print versions 3-5 weeks early, the instantaneous Internet journals are made 
available about 8-11 weeks in advance to their printed versions; this suits the R&D 
scientists who wish to keep abreast of current developments in their fields. Many online 
journals are available free of charge with print journals (for example Academic, Elsevier 
Science, Taylor-Francis, etc), some charge extra charges over print subscription 
charges (8 to 10 per cent, for example, Wiley, AIAA, IEE, etc) while some charge more 
than 100 per cent extra (for example, Jane’s) for providing online access.  The number 
of online journals is increasing year after year (for some statistics, see Parekh, 1999, 
Lakshmana Moorthy and Karisiddappa, 2000) and in a couple of years almost all 
 
International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL) 2006 – 5-8 Dec 2006, TERI, Delhi 
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journals including popular scientific magazines will be available online. Many Indian 
journals are available online. Taking this in to consideration, the DESIDOC has taken a 
pilot project to assess the viability and to evaluate the technology for making regular 
periodicals available online over Internet. 
  
2. DRDO PUBLICATIONS 
 
On behalf of the Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO), 
DESIDOC is bringing out the following regular periodicals: 
 
Defence Science Journal (DSJ): The journal is a quarterly research periodical of 
DRDO. The journal publishes research papers in various disciplines of basic and 
applied sciences, engineering and technology having direct defence applications. 
Review papers, short communications, research notes and scientific correspondence 
having a bearing on defence are accepted for publication in the journal. The articles 
published in the Journal are indexed/reviewed in over a dozen abstracting and indexing 
periodicals. 
 
DESIDOC Bulletin of Information Technology (DBIT):  It is a bi-monthly publication 
bringing out the current developments in library and information technology to its 
readers. It publishes original research papers and review articles and current 
developments in library and information science (LIS) and technology. It also covers 
professional developments including literature and book reviews, conferences, etc. for 
the benefit of the LIS professionals. 
 
DRDO Newsletter and DRDO Samachar: These two monthlies cover the manifold 
activities of the DRDO laboratories and establishments. Being house bulletins of DRDO, 
besides reporting technological developments, they cover socio-cultural activities, 
human resource development activities, etc. The main objectives of these publications 
are to disseminate information about the DRDO technological developments to the 
outside world besides bridging the communication gap among various levels of 
management and other staff of DRDO. While DRDO Newsletter is published in English, 
DRDO Samachar is published in Hindi.  
 
Technology Focus: This is bi-monthly periodical focusing on the technologies 
developed by DRDO. It covers the products, processes, technologies, systems, 
components, etc developed by the laboratories of the organization. 
 
DRDO Science Spectrum: This is an annual research periodical bringing out the 
articles which are delivered during the National Science Day by eminent scientist and 
researchers. The topic covers various disciplines of basic and applied sciences, 
engineering and technology.  
 
 The first two publications are available on Internet website (www.drdo.org) up to 
the abstract level. It is proposed to provide online access to the full text of these two 
journals with effect from January 2007 enabling individuals and institutional (library) 
subscribers access and download required papers. Also the other journals will be made 
available online free to these users. It is also envisaged that at a later date free online 
access to the back volumes of these journals are made available to the subscribers. 
 
 
 
 
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3. OPEN ACCESS THROUGH NETWORK 
  
DRDO Rapid Online Network Access (DRONA) is a wide area Intranet covering 
over 60 laboratories/establishments and units of DRDO spread all over India with the 
researchers mainly focused in science and technology fields. A pilot project was 
conceived and an electronic publication model has been developed to provide online 
access to and delivering the full text articles on the desktops of the DRDO R&D 
community.  The coverage of the articles for the pilot study starts from 2005 onwards 
and the file format includes HTML, PDF and image files.  
 
3.1 Open Source Software 
 
 Open Source Software describe as, it is a software created by programmers who 
want to share their source code, which is part of a program that is readable by anyone 
who might find the program, or a variation of the program, useful. In the other words the 
term open source refers to software in which the source code is freely available for 
others to view, amend and adapt. 
 
 There are many open source software are available for making digital library and 
Institutional Repositories. The widely popular and used software are Greenstone, 
EPrints and DSpace. In this pilot project EPrints software has been preferred to use due 
to the repository model is more similar to the online publication, easy to use and install 
and more over its used by many institutions and organizations compared to other 
software.  
 
The EPrints version 2.3.11 has been installed on a Linux server with all the 
supporting modules like mod_perl, DBI, Data-ShowTable, Unicode, Latex etc. Since the 
publication model is more similar to the repository model so the open source software 
EPrints has been used for DRDO online publications with minor changes in some of the 
fields. This module is in operation under the domain name 
http://publication.desidoc.deldom/ on DRONA, the common platform for information 
exchange across the DRDO laboratories and establishments. 
 
EPrints open source software is used to publish these periodicals and provided 
full text access to the entire DRDO user community on Intranet. This paper mainly 
discusses the experience gained using EPrints in designing the structure, database 
format and the way the customization has been done for the electronic publication 
model (Fig. 1).  
 
 
Figure 1. 
 
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Testing and evaluation of the model, at present the users are allowed searching, 
browsing, retrieving and downloading freely without any login or password. From the 
homepage the users can directly navigate to a particular publication by selecting the 
title. In addition, the Author- and Year-wise navigation facilities have been provided to 
access the full text articles. Simple and Advance search facilities are also provided to 
search the entire contents. Registration by the Publication Group has been restricted 
and the system won’t allow the users to register by themselves. Only limited accounts 
are used against the publication name to upload the content depending on the 
frequency. 
 
3.2 Data and Structure 
 
Different sections of Publication Division of DESIDOC are bringing out the periodicals 
according to the frequency of the respective publication. To incorporate the publications 
in a common window, EPrints open source software (Jeyakanth, 2002) has been used. 
Figure 2 shows interlinking of content uploading and access to various users situated in 
different zones on Intranet. It provides all the features of EPrints in addition to Author 
view and total number of records in the archive. 
 
 
 
Figure 2. Content uploading and access to publications archive. 
 
The researchers are placed in different zones and using the common Intranet 
platform for information sharing and accessing. This particular electronic publications 
archive is hosted by DESIDOC at Delhi. The Groups bringing out the individual 
publications has been assigned with user name and password at Group level for 
uploading the contents directly to the archive. Once the articles are submitted the Editor 
(Administrator) will check the authenticity of the information and move them to the main 
archive. Figure 3 shows the information flow into the main archive. The structure of the 
archive is defined as Publication Name, Year of Publication, Volume No and Issue No. 
One can directly access the full text of articles directly by selecting the above order. 
 
 
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Figure 3. Information flow. 
 
3.3 Configuration of the Subject Tree 
 
The EPrints subject tree has been customized (Rajashekar, 2003) with the 
publication name (see Fig. 4) by deleting the existing subject category using 
Administrator. The total number of articles is displayed within the bracket of each 
heading and sub-heading of the publication. The publications are displayed in the 
following sequence: 
a) Defence Science Journal ? Year ? Vol. No ? Issue No. 
b) DESIDOC Bulletin of Information Technology ? Year ? Vol. No ? Issue No. 
c) DRDO Newsletter ? Year ? Vol. No ? Issue No. 
d) DRDO Samachar ? Year ? Vol. No ? Issue No 
e) Technology Focus ? Year ? Vol. No ? Issue No. 
f) DRDO Science Spectrum ? Year ? Subject. 
 
 
 
Figure 4. The subject tree. 
 
 
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The subject tree can be directly edited through using Administrator account in 
the tree structure as follows, 
 
Subjects:Publication Name: ROOT: 0 
 DSJ: Defence Science Journal:subjects: 0 
  DSJ2005: 2005: subjects: 0 
   DSJ200555:Volume 55: subjects: 0 
    DSJ2005551:Issue 1:DSJ: 1 
    DSJ2005552:Issue 2:DSJ: 1 
    DSJ2005553:Issue 3:DSJ: 1 
    DSJ2005554:Issue 4:DSJ: 1 
 DBIT:DESIDOC Bulletin of Information Technology:subjects: 0 
  DBIT2005:2005:subjects: 0 
   DBIT200525:Volume 25:subjects: 0 
    DBIT2005251:Issue 1:DBIT: 1 
    DBIT2005252:Issue 2:DBIT: 1 
    DBIT2005253:Issue 3:DBIT: 1 
    DBIT2005254:Issue 4:DBIT: 1 
 Etc. etc. 
 
Since the journal volume and issue numbers are predefined, static and 
continuously grow, the numbers depend on their periodicity. So, it was found to be 
better to configure in graphic mode using Administrator account instead of edit or writing 
subject.txt file and importing subject trees into the existing subject category.  
 
The user can directly access the full text articles by selecting the periodical name 
and follow the sequence. To keep flexibility, accessing and downloading preferences, 
three different file formats viz. PDF, HTML and Image are used for the articles in the 
archive. 
 
3.4 Configuration of the Browse View for Author 
 
EPrints basically allows generating views for any metadata field in the repository. 
By default it provides subject and year browse views. Normally subject, year and author 
fields are sufficient for electronic publication model. To configure the browse view for 
author, the file name ArchiveConfig.pm in the archives folder has been edited and 
included the following array to the $c->{browse_views} hash reference {…}, 
 
{ id=>“people”, fields=>“creators/editors”, order=>“-date_effective” }, 
 
4. FUTURE PLANS 
 
The present Intranet based electronic publication model is under process of 
moving into Internet domain which is mainly focused on the journals DSJ and DBIT. The 
back volumes of DSJ (from volume 1, 1950), DBIT (from volume 1), DRDO Newsletter 
(from volume 1), DRDO Samachar and Technology Focus, will also be added to the 
archives to enable the subscribers to search and download articles from them free of 
charge. The e-journal website contains journal title and payment option. The subscriber 
can pay through conventional (by cheque or demand draft) means and fill in the 
payment particulars. The Login ID and Password will be provided to the subscriber 
through which the subscribers can access the full text articles. The Login ID and 
Passwords will be provided and maintained by DESIDOC. Incase of Institutional 
 
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subscribers, IP will be enabled at the server level and to enable full text access to the 
users of the institution. 
 
5. CONCLUSION 
 
The electronic/online publication model in India is still evolving. It is fascinating to 
bring the researchers close to their areas of interest over the Net. The users can access 
the information at any time, any where and any kind of material. To disseminate the right 
information to the right user at right time, the open source software E-Print was used 
and customized according to the requirements which are more flexible and simple to 
use. 
 
REFERENCES 
 
1. Lakshmana Moorthy, A. and Karisiddappa, C.R. Electronic publications: Issues 
and concerns. Paper presented at DRTC Annual Seminar on Electronic Sources of 
Information, 1-3 March 2000, Bagalore, India. 
2. Parekh, Harsha. Information resources on the Internet for higher education and 
research. In CALIBER-99: Academic libraries in Internet era. Papers presented in 
the Sixth National Convention for the Automation of Libraries in Education and 
Research, 18-20 February 1999, Nagpur. Ahmedabad, INFLIBNET Centre, 1999. 9 
p. (memeo).  
3. Rajashekar, T.B. Institutional E-Print archives: An alternative scholarly 
publishing model. Workshop on Electronic Publishing, IIMK, Calicut, 21-22 
February 2003. 
4. Jeyakanth, Francis. E-Print archives software. Workshop on Developing Digital 
Libraries: Using Open Source Software, NCSI, Bangalore, India, 15-20 April 2002. 
5. Woolfrey, S. Economics of journal publishing and the rhetoric for moving to an 
electronic format. In Proceedings of the 1993 International Conference on 
Refereed Electronic Journals. Winnipeg, University of Manitoba, 1993. 
6. www.eprints.org 
 
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Online access to DRDO periodicals using open source software

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Online access to DRDO periodicals using open source software

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