National Centre for Digital Publications
(Published in India and on India)

In India, the Delivery of Books Act (BDA) covers only print on paper products. There is no legislative instrument to make it mandatory for the publishers to deposit electronic and optical publications with a national centre. To bridge the gap, National Information System for Science And Technology (NISSAT) has established a centre to systematically collect and collate information on CD and electronic publications made (a) in India, and (b) on topics with focus on Indian items published outside India. In parallel, NISSAT will make an effort to give a legislative back-up to the activity/centre.

The National Centre for Digital Publications was thus established at the Foundation Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT), at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. The IIT is well known for its quality education and research in modern information technology.

Products that need to be covered, inter alia include publications on:

• CD media e.g., CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW
• DVD
• Internet

In addition, the following types of publications need to be covered.

• audio tapes & discs
• audio - video tapes & discs

It is not possible to start right away on all fronts because of paucity of resources. The present concentration is on:

1. knowledge and information products and
   
2. those published on CD media with following exclusions:

• Software ported on CD
• Games packages
• Music
• Other entertainment products
• Reproductions of foreign CD publications for the Indian market

Initially the centre interacted with the publishers of CD-ROMs directly. The officers of the centre visited IT exhibitions held in New Delhi on a systematic basis. The centre also advertised in national dailies, which yielded good response.

Initially the centre procured all the products at prevailing market price. Now it is being impressed upon the CD publishers that their product is a part of national heritage worthy to be preserved and that they should cooperate in this national venture. Some of the commercial publishers and many non-commercial publishers have seen the reason. The centre now gets some of the publications free of cost or at a heavily discounted price. Agreements are being worked out with some of the educational CD producers for the transfer of the entire set of titles at a price that would cover only the media and the replication costs. However, a scenario in which all the publications get deposited free of cost may not obtain.

The budget of the centre is small and is not enough for the acquisition of all titles published in India, especially the CD publications with business information which are very expensive.

For the present, products costing up to Rs.20,000/- (US$465) are procured after the content is reviewed by a committee. However, the descriptions of all titles are maintained in a database.

• Users may visit the centre and view the titles free of cost.
• The centre compiles a union catalogue of CD titles (both Indian & foreign) held in Indian Libraries. The respondents get a copy of the union catalogue free of cost, others pay a small price.
• The website being set up exclusively for the centre will help the users to get general description of Indian CD publications available in the market, the source, price, etc.

• Irrespective of whether the publishers provide the titles free, discounted or at the prevailing market rates, the publications figure in the database being created. The same catalogue with vendor information will also be installed on the website. Thus the publishers would get national and international publicity for their products. This website will also have links to the publishers' websites.
• It is proposed to start a service on evaluation and review of prototype and final CD publications. Apart from bench-marking the performance of the search engines, the evaluation and review will also cover the contents including the aesthetic aspects.

Presently all the titles are being organized on the basis of the accession number. A proper system for classification and cataloguing of the titles is being explored.

Parameters that could be used for evaluation and review of CD products have not yet been finalised.

- A. Lahiri at alh@alpha.nic.in