Abstract
This paper describes an Afghanistan digital library initiative of building an integrated library system (ILS) for Afghanistan universities and colleges based on open-source software. As one of the goals of the Afghan eQuality Digital Libraries Alliance, the authors applied systems analysis approach, evaluated different open-source ILSs, and customized the selected software to accommodate users’ needs. Improvements include Arabic and Persian language support, user interface changes, call number label printing, and ISBN-13 support. To our knowledge, this ILS is the first at a large academic library running on open-source software.
Highlights
This paper describes an Afghanistan digital library initiative of building an integrated library system (ILS) for Afghanistan universities and colleges based on open-source software
The last quarter-century has been devastating for Afghanistan, with an uninterrupted period of inva sions, civil wars, and oppressive regimes
Schools and colleges were closed, looted, or physically reduced; student bodies and faculties were emptied by war, migration, and eco nomic hardship; and libraries were gutted.”[1]. Kabul University (KU), for example, was largely demolished by 1994 and completely closed down in 1998
Summary
This paper describes an Afghanistan digital library initiative of building an integrated library system (ILS) for Afghanistan universities and colleges based on open-source software. Improvements include Arabic and Persian language support, user interface changes, call number label printing, and ISBN-13 support. To our knowledge, this ILS is the first at a large academic library running on open-source software. Based on Rawan’s assessments of KU Library, most of its collections were damaged or destroyed. She found that there were approximately 60,000 to 70,000 books in English, 2,000 to 3,000 books in Persian, and 2,000 theses in Persian.
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