Pavements and Curb design

Nation Wide Networked Digital Library System

This is about bringing a nationwide networked library system connecting the  entire country. This will benefit youth of our country if library system is made efficient.

1. Online Catalog : The entire books needs to be cataloged digitally, so as to enable check in and checkout of books and media from one part of the nation can be checked out from another corner of the country within 30 days time. The repository of books and documents that can be accessed get an incremental lift by networking the libraries under one system. The cost per person for the facilities increase if its restricted to a small area (which is presently the case) , so currently library systems are not efficient.

2. Connected Nodal libraries : "State nodal library" at state level and "Regional nodal" libraries at district level should be established. District level nodal libraries should act as the interface to the public. This should be built with government spending. The strength of this libraries can be augmented by linking the already state run libraries to the system and cataloging books and contents in that system.

3. Subscription to entities and Individuals : Schools and other educational systems should be allowed to subscribe to this nationwide grid. Employment exchange can subscribe to this and  turn it into a career center.Individuals also should be allowed to subscribe to this network. Nominal security fees should be charged on a yearly basis so that value of the book supplied is always less than that, there by risk is transferred to the body \individual who subscribed to the system.

4. Volunteering : Our country has a very poor volunteering culture. This needs to be changed. Volunteering should be seen as a valuable asset in ones career building. Volunteering for this library system to perform jobs could help poor students to learn by giving access to the educational material for free. One who works for this should get credits while applying for jobs.

5. Linking with Postal system: India post can be used as a medium to transfer books \content between libraries. A nominal charge can be applied for delivering the books content. Which increase the postal volume for India post.

6. Value add services : Value added facilities like DVDs, Door delivery could be done by charging nominal fees.

7. Donations : Thousands of books lay around in our homes. This include academic book as well. What a waste of resources. The library system can augment the repository of books by allowing people to donate these valuable books which can kindle the light of hope for someone else. See the possibilities when this is happening in a big nation like ours.

I see that  through out developed world you could see such networks of libraries, which hugely  benefit children and youngsters. I want to take it to the next level in India where its a nation wide grid.