Greenstone digital library software

[Andreailcujo]

Hi everybody,

I wonder if anybody has ever used this software for managing digital library collections.

You can find its page here: http://www.greenstone.org/

If so, which has been your impression?

I'm really interested in trying it but I'd like to have a comment from users to understand its potential and requirements.

Thanks

andrea

[Diego Spano]

Andrea,

I´m using Greenstone since 2003. It is an excellent software for building digital libraries and also to distribute contents in a cd or dvd. It is widely used in Latin America where you can find a users community: www.greenstone-la.org

Try it yourself. It is very easy to use and to configure. If you have any doubt, ask me!

Regards!

Diego

[Andreailcujo]

Thanks for your feedback Diego.

I've visited today the system installed at the Afghanistan Center at Kabul University and had a very good impression. Light and user-friendly. I'll give it a try and see what it comes out.

I'll let you in case I'm in trouble. Thanks

andrea

[Abby Clobridge]

Andrea, 

Greenstone is an excellent open source digital library system. It is easy to get up and running and maintain. It is a good choice for an all-purpose digital library, although other systems might be better suited to your particular project, depending on your exact needs. What is the primary objective for your project? What kinds of digital objects are you planning on including in the system? How many different collections are you planning on hosting? What are your metadata needs? What sort of workflows do you envision? 

If you have any specific questions, I'm also happy to answer them. I've been working in the field of digital libraries/digital repositories for over a decade and have worked with several different systems. 

Good luck, 

Abby

[Andreailcujo]

Hi Abby and thanks for your reply. I'm about to put my hands on a copy of the software and then I'll try to work on it and let you know something.

Our primary objective is to provide valuable material in remote areas of Afghanistan, especially reading material for women improving education and literacy but also to bring material difficult to be found in the country about education, history, geography, science which are black-hole subjects for some particular categories of our beneficiaries. Providing hard copy of the materials would be very difficult and extremely expensive; with a digital library we could benefit of a central database shared with different locations, where new material could be uploaded regularly. As said  before I've visited the ACKU which has an ongoing process of digitalization of loads of volumes, maps, newspapers and other on several subjects but focusing on afghan culture and history. this would be amazing for us to be disseminated to our target youth in areas where we work.

Other things could come in the future, as our centers could be opened for a wider range of beneficiaries, so if the software works well it could really of great help.

I'll let you know my impressions after I can manage to work a bit on it. Thanks anyway for your support .

andrea