eChapters

Touch Screen Kiosks
 
A touch screen is a device, which allows users to control a Personal Computer by simply touching the display screen by finger or pin. This type of input is suitable for a large number of computing applications. Most PC systems use a touch screen as easily as other input devices such as track balls or touch pads. If a touch screen computer system is installed at the kiosk it is known as touch screen kiosk. It may be Just like ATMs or modern plasma TV set which are developed as information kiosk and the information are made available to the users. A visitor can see the visuals and interact with kiosk to get the desired information. He can elicit the expert information by pressing keys or touching icons. Users can also follow the method of application of any technology through seeing of clippings at touch screen kiosk. In the touch screen kiosks, information is made accessible in the form of images, voice, video, graphics and texts. A large number of touch screen kiosks have been established by Indian railway, government offices, Banks and private companies where by touch of finger users can get access to various services (G2C and B2C) offered by the organization or company.

A mobile phone often referred to as a cellular phone or cell phone is an electronic telecommunication device that can make and receive telephone calls through radio wave or satellite transmission whilst moving around a wide geographic area. Most mobile phones provide voice communications, Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Message Service (MMS), short range wireless communication (Infrared, Bluetooth), business applications, gaming, photography and internet services such as web browsing and e-mail. Mobile communication technology has become the world’s most common way of transmitting voice, data and services, and no other technology has ever spread so fast. The mobile phone is especially important for India because it is growing here faster.

Like many other developing countries, agriculture is the primary occupation of the rural people of North East India. They depend on farming but because of the nature of practices followed, it hardly goes beyond subsistence and so agricultural extension is an important thing in their lives. But in this particular part of the country basically because of the topography which makes it difficult to reach the clusters of villages deep in the hills, forests and valleys, it becomes more and more important to use technologies that reach them like mobile phones, TV and radio. Agricultural information is not something that is needed 24X7 round the year but require on the critical times of the year like before sowing seasons advisories, forecasting diseases and pests when the crop is standing in the field and during harvesting.

The vision 2020 document of the Department of Agriculture and Co-operation envisages that “the tools of ICT will provide networking of Agriculture Sector not only in the country but also globally and the Centre and State Government Departments will have reservoir of databases” and also “bring farmers, researchers, scientists and administrators together by establishing ”Agriculture Online” through exchange of ideas and information”. To get realize the vision 2020 a large number of agriculture based websites and web portals have been established in India which is working for wellbeing of farming community. Majority of agricultural websites and web portals are providing need based technological information to the farmers as well as extension professionals. To revitalize our extension system these web based services can be used as ICT tool by extension personnel and farmers also. Therefore, to get access services from these websites and web portals or to replicate these ideologies in other part of country, elementary knowledge of working process and services available on these websites & web portals is essential. This chapter will provide a brief description about major ICT based projects dedicated to Indian farmers.

Introduction

The world is said to be a global village organizations and people must learn, unlearn and relearn to expand their capacities and survive in the highly competitive market place. In view of rapidly changing socio–economic circumstance, it is a challenge to survive, excel and grow. It is knowledge which can make difference in getting the competitive edge. Thus, organizations need to pool their internal knowledge and find ways to update, enhance, share and create value. Organizations need to analyze their collective knowledge and use them most efficiently. Need for new and new technology is driving people to innovate in every sphere.

There are many problems in the fields and offices for which we seek the advice of an expert. We recognize persons and experts not only for their knowledge through study but also their ability to apply the knowledge very effectively by virtue of the experience gained over a period of time. The need for experts increases in both dimensions as numbers as well as in the spheres to which expertise is needed. The sphere in which the opinion of an expert can influence decisions or actions is referred to as the domain of the expert. For last few years application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has brought revolution in many fields. It is the need of the hour that we explore the possibility and the fields of application in agriculture to acquire maximum benefit from the most promising technology of this information era. ICT is one of the thrust areas in the list given by the planning commission (Now Policy Commission), where emphasis can be given to increase the production and productivity of agriculture commodities. During last 50 years, lot of research has been done in the field of Agriculture, which has not been properly extended to the farmers. ICT could be applied as a means in extending the technologies brought up by National Agricultural Research System (NARS) to the farmers.

A cellular phone is also known as a mobile phone, cell phone, portable phone and a hand phone. It is a device that can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link while moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile phone operator, allowing access to the public telephone network.

The cell phone was invented by Dr. Martin Cooper who led a team of developers at Motorola and made the first cell phone call in April 3, 1973 at Motorola.

Today, cell phones are becoming capable of doing almost anything a computer is capable to do. Below, are few examples of what a phone can do?

What is Computer Network?

A computer network is a collection of computers and devices connected to each other. The network allows computers to communicate with each other and share resources and information. The Advance Research Projects Agency (ARPA) designed “Advanced Research Projects Agency Network” (ARPANET) for the United States Department of Defence. It was the first computer network in the world in late 1960’s and early 1970’s

A tool is a handheld item that aids in accomplishing a task. It is an instrument or machine that aids in achieving a task. Tools are something you use to do a job. ICT tools that can be used for betterment of Agriculture Research, Education and Extension are discussed here.

    1.    Computer: Computer is an advanced electronic device that takes raw data as input from the users and processes these data under the control of set of instructions (called progamme) and gives the result (output) and saves output for the further use. It can process both numerical and non-numerical (arithmetic and logical) calculations.

The present era is rightly termed as an “Information era”. Therefore, information and wide access to it is considered as wealth. People want adequate and authentic information as early as possible. In recent years, information delivery system has been changed from old ways to the modern ways. At the present time information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly being used as effective tool for reaching and delivering professional services among urban and rural communities. Yet the benefits of the information revolution are still much debated, particularly, in case of developing countries like India. There is a growing concern about the gap between the information “haves and have not’s”, which will continue to grow unless the developing countries acquire the infrastructure and resources to access these new ICTs.

Introduction

As we all know that the 21st century has witnessed the changing phenomenon of information and its communication resulting a dynamic transformation not only in the social structure but also in the perception of human mind.  Exchange of information and knowledge has empowered the human being and enabled them to achieve sustainable development. From paper- based society to paperless society, information has remained the most valuable commodity.

Introduction

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research is the apex body for co-coordinating, guiding and managing research and education in agriculture including horticulture, fisheries and animal sciences in the entire country with more than hundred and above ICAR libraries and fifty six state agricultural universities libraries spread across the country this is one of the largest national agricultural library network in the in the country under consortium of e-Resources in Agriculture. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has contributed a lot towards strengthening of Agricultural Libraries via modern Information Technological (IT) tools. ICAR has sanctioned so many projects under National Agricultural Technology Project and National Agricultural Innovative Projects i.e e-Granth, CeRA, Krishiprabha, Krishikosh Agricat etc. for strengthening and development of agricultural libraries. These are useful to manage knowledge explosion and helpful in libraries to providing information effectively to the end user of society.

Introduction

E-publishing and information accessing have become easy and convenient mainly because of Internet and the World Wide Web technologies. Most digital libraries were developed in the past by taking up projects based on specific disciplines and then developed into full-fledged digital libraries. The inter-networking communication links, low cost storage solutions, powerful desktops, workstations, servers and multimedia hardware and software technologies are now available for initiating the Digital Library projects in India. Development in ICT (Information Communication technology) have brought about the merger of the computing, information, Communication, entertainment, mass media industries thereby providing a means of exchanging information in the digital format used by computers.

Introduction

Marketing and promotion are important for any organization that provides services to consumers. Marketing and promotion allow an organization to inform, remind, or persuade the consumers by sharing information about goods or services, community involvement, or societal impact. Simply stated, these efforts encompass anything libraries do to let the community know who they are, what they do, and what they offer. The goal of marketing is to keep the product in the minds of the customer: in the case of libraries it is to keep the customer aware of the library, to provide them with knowledge about the library’s physical features, resources, services, programs, and events, and to let them know about the benefits libraries offer. Marketing and promotion benefit the library by increasing usage, educating users, and increasing or at least maintaining a positive perception of the library.

Introduction

Due to the advent of new technologies now-a-days e-resources became more popular and essential. The information technology has made it possible the availability and accessibility of e-resources. The e-resources are made available both online and offline. Further some are free and some are paid. The free e-resources can be accessed anywhere and anytime on the discretion of the user. But for the paid e-resources to get comprehensive access by using best possible tools and techniques is the library. Multiple resources in the present electronic environment can be seamlessly integrated with a single login gateway which makes is user friendly. Further the explosive growth in network connectivity and rapid advances in computing power systems have altered the speed of communications. Recent advances in the information world have transformed the role of libraries in disseminating information to users. Increase in the number of users and their different needs have made modern libraries apply new communication technology. As a result of this there is a worldwide need and trend to collect, organize, manage, protect and distribute information in digital form.

1. Introduction

Over the years, the library and information environment has seen remarkable changes in its collection, organization and services due to impact of Information Communication Technology (ICT). One of the most significant benefits which libraries have acquired with the help of ICT during past two decades is the Institutional Repositories (IR). IR has changed the image and importance of academic libraries in preserving the institutional knowledge to a great extend. "With the rapid development of Information Communication Technology (ICT), many new services have been introduced in libraries to satisfy the need of users in a better way. Institutional Repository is a type of information service which involves collection, organization, preservation and dissemination of digital scholarly materials such as theses, dissertations, technical reports, journal articles and teaching materials.

1. Introduction

Electronic journals are an important source for scientific technical research and development. This resource is widely used by research and development workers and other users of the libraries to carry out qualitative research, education and gain knowledge. In recent years there has been a surge in the number of electronic journals available to libraries for their users to access. More titles are made available by publishers and subscription agents. There is a common view amongst Liberians that libraries are forsaking traditional print resources in favor of electronic resources. With the application of information technology, particularly internet, there has been a shift from traditional print journal to electronic journals. This type of use survey is essential to improve the existing library services, to plan new services, rationalize the use of the limited financial resources in an economic way, evaluate the performance of the library and enhance the user satisfaction.

1. Introduction
 
Today we are living in the Era of Information. Over last decade, electronic resources have become increasingly substantial components of academic library collection. This is due to the continuous development of Information Technology and its impact on library collection development policies due to changing demand of users for the pin pointed and exhaustive information within a short time. With the growing popularity of e-resources, the traditional libraries are gradually migrating from print documents to e- resources where providing access to information is considered more important than owning it. This is further augmented by the advent of Internet. Which has opened up windows of opportunity to different Information sources.

1. Introduction

Radio Frequency Identification popularly known as RFID is a term used for a radio-enabled device that communicates with or interrogates a tag or smart label, which is embedded with a single microchip processor and an antenna. "This is an automatic identification method that relies on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices such as RFID tags or transponders (Mamdampur and Rajgoli, 2011)". This technology is similar in concept to a cell phone (Singh and Midha, 2008) which refers to the subset of automatic identification that uses radio waves to automatically identify bulk or individual items (Chavan, 2012).While the origin of RFID lie more than 50 years in the past, passive RFID technology is actually only in its infancy (Sarma, 2008).

Introduction
 
Library automation in the first giant step towards the use of ICT based products & services in libraries. It brings great revolution and saves tremendous time of users and library staff for collecting and disseminating information. Library automation refers to use of computers, associated peripheral media such as software for automation, magnetic tapes, disks, optical media etc. Library automation makes the provision to provide the 'right information to right reader at the right time in a right form in a right personal way' it is the basic aim of libraries. There are some open source software available e.g. Evergreen, CDS Invenio, Koha, NewGenLib, PMB, PhpMyLibrary, OpenBiblio as well as many commercial software: SOUL, Alice for windows, Netlib, LibSys etc.

Introduction
 
Electronic resources for libraries includes online databases , electronic( e-) journals , electronic(e-) books ,full text articles and web sites, where online journals have firmly established themselves as essential resources for libraries and information centers  and their users, as appointed books in most of disciplines. Electronic books (e-books) have not found the same favour. The potential of e-books to support learning activity has been acknowledged, and new services have emerged in recent years, but uptake has been slow.

Introduction

Studies have indicated that four significant forces viz. IT, Mobile, Cloud and Social Media would create unique work environment in the coming years. Social media presents both opportunities and challenges. It has reached a stage where a single tweet can make or mar an organization. It has emerged as a force to reckon with.

Introduction

Increasing quantum of information being generated and distributed in electronic form and management of these resources has become a real challenge to the library professionals.  How to integrate and handle this information increasing at phenomenal speed and how quickly and effectively it can be accessed and provided is the real concern. This has given rise to the concept of 'poly-media library'. This concept has brought to the front the importance of Information Literacy (IL) for academic pursuits as well as for life-long learning.

Introduction

Information Technology (I.T.) with its multi advantageous services has influenced the working of every sector whether it is education, industries, livelihood, agriculture, and other sectors viz government, business, health, employment, environment and security etc. Consequently, taking the benefit of I.T.,  most of the organizations have automated their systems to perform their routine activities in a better way as well as to offer more improved services.

Introduction

The total area of education is continuously changing where imperative information is exploring constantly.  There is highest need of information and knowledge for best and efficient education and the library plays a vital role in it. The users demand various aspects of information and enhanced quality of information service. Therefore present day’s library has gone from traditional environment to e-environment. We can use e-journals, e-books; CD & DVD etc .Library consortia play a most important role of academic libraries.

Inroduction

In the present I.T. (Information Technology) environment a number of libraries are being converted into digital libraries as the advantages of being a digital library is now well understood by every one. Over the years information has been produced digitally and libraries have become major providers of information in digital format. The information managers should have knowledge of computer, networking, internet and digital resources, etc to manage these resources and provide access to end users.

1. Bibliometric

Bibliometrics is the application of quantitative techniques to analyze the volume, the movement, the frequency and the characteristics, etc of published documents and the related activities. Alan Pritchard was first to use the word “Bibliometrics” in an article “Statistical Bibliography or Bibliometrics” published in the 1969 issue of the “Journal of Documentation”. He defines Bibliometrics as “the application of mathematical and statistical methods to books and other media of communication.” In a later article, Pritchard explained Bibliometrics as the “metrology of the information transfer process and its purpose is analysis and control of the process”. Bibliometrics is a set of methods used to study or measure texts and information (Wikipedia, 2011).

Introduction

There are a growing number of academics and publishers who believe quite firmly that once the transition from print to electronic journals has been made — particularly within the scientific, medical and technical (STM) sector of the journals market — there will be no role for libraries in the scholarly communication chain. Electronic journals can be delivered directly from the publisher  to the user’s desktop. Such a scenario is certainly possible, but it is unlikely for a number of reasons.

Paperless to Paperless Libraries

Ancient Gurus in ancient Gurukulas used to impart knowledge to their pupils through oral teaching. The Gurus themselves were treasure troves of knowledge, without the need to refer to hard and soft copies, and online resources. How interesting it is to note we are right now in a nostalgic phase, that takes us back to those ages, when disciples were taught, learned and accumulated oceans of knowledge through oral and moving libraries, which were in the form of their revered Gurus. It is truly fascinating how history has flair to repeat itself. The long-driven transition from paperless back to paperless, that is, from oral instruction through palm leaves through copper plates through virtual paper through electronic to digital libraries is as arduous as it is fascinating. Hence the million dollars question … where to from here – Digital Library, whither thou goest?

Introduction

The past few years have been characterized by changes in every walk of life and libraries are no exceptions. Certainly there have been profound changes in the ways we approach and manage libraries and provide basic library services such as bibliographic control, document delivery, presentation, and physical facilities for reading.  The evolution of traditional interlibrary loan services into a full range of document delivery services, new avenues for document acquisions and delivery from traditional methods to “high tech” with the most efficient pathway defined by the user within desired cost and time parameters have set new standard for library resources and services management.

Introduction

The basic concept of digital libraries is the sharing of information and resources globally for providing right and nascent information to the right user at the right time. It is the computing terminals having linkage to different sources of information in electronic or digital form. Digital library is a collection of information that is both digitalized and born in digital form, which offer capabilities beyond those of the agricultural and traditional libraries. Digital library is not only digitization of physical resources, but also thoughtful organization of electronic collection for better access.

Introduction

Electronic resources represent an increasingly important component of the library collection building. “Electronic resources” refer to those materials that require computer access, whether through a personal computer, mainframe, or handheld mobile device. They may either be accessed remotely via the Internet or locally. Some of the most frequently encountered types are:

Introduction

The library and information centre is an important component of any educational institution. It is a hub of specific information where the end users can explore the vast resources of information. In the era of old age libraries users had to spend more time for searching a small piece of information and for that had to depend on library professionals. But now we are living in the age of information and communication technology, computers are being used for day-to-day work of library which saves the time of users and avoid the redundancy work of library staff.

Introduction

The innovative use of web technologies enables us to reach both local and distant users much more easily and effectively. Technologies such as email and Web provide tremendous opportunities for library & Information Scientists to deliver the information to the desktops of users. Web offers significant advantage by integrating different library & information services with a common user interface offered by Web browsers.

Introduction

The Web-enabled infrastructures, practices and strategies are creating confusions disruptions for virtually every institution and enterprise. The responses to these disruptions are progressively leading to new practices, business models, and strategies in a variety of domains posing challenges to the profession of librarianship. The acquisition, assimilation, and sharing of knowledge is one such sphere that is really experiencing a revolution.

Introduction

Cloud computing is now evolving like never before, with all types of establishments irrespective of shapes and sizes adapting to this new technology. The experts believe that this trend will continue to grow and develop even further in the coming years. While cloud computing is undoubtedly beneficial for mid-size to large establishments, it is not without its downsides, especially for smaller establishment.

Introduction

The libraries of 2020 become multi-media centres of information resources, leaving behind their dull and drab image of repositories of old dusty books materials like micro-films, audio and video cassettes. Various electronic products for use both off line and on line representing the special type of materials need special equipments of different makes for their effective use.

Introduction

Modern libraries have evolved from paper-based storehouse of books and journals into network of digitized information and knowledge, now known as digital libraries. Libraries these days have consortia, and use electronic resources and databases so that they can provide better services to the users. Librarianship has shifted from use of printed and manually operated system to world wide access to information. Modern academic library is a conglomeration of printed books and journals as well as electronic resources where both forms of the documents can be stored, retrieved and delivered as and when required.

Introduction

Libraries are universally recognized as important social institutions for diffusion of knowledge and information. The modern and highly equipped libraries are found in the universities since they are the centers of higher education, training and research. The universities libraries are essential to achieve the objective of university education and research.

Introduction

While tracing the history of veterinary medicine, we come across the Chinese writings about the diseases of horses, oxen and buffalos in the past about 2500 B. C. Similarly we can find about 4000 years old.  Indian art showing the people caring the horses and elephants. Even we can find in the art about ancient Egypt how they cared for their cattle and dogs health. The Ancient Romans had a word for the people that are doctors for animals, which is, veterinarius. In about A.D. 500 a Roman wrote a book on what veterinarians do.  In 1598, Carlo Ruini, an Italian author wrote a book named as, “Anatomy of the Horse”.

Agriculture is the key force in India and nearly two-third of the work force is directly or indirectly depends on agriculture to support their livelihood. In every day situation, farmers are facing complex problems viz., pest hazards, weed control, moisture insufficiency, soil fertility, farm credit, labor shortage, soil erosion, crop production technologies and so forth to improve the production and productivity. It is not sufficient to give agricultural related information to farmers alone and it is very essential to give information on newly released technologies to the people involving in the extension activities or extension personnel’s.

Rationale of the Study

Greens are the cheapest of all the vegetables within the reach of poor man, being richest in their nutritional value. The problem of malnutrition is assuming seriousness in the vulnerable groups viz., adolescents, pregnancy, lactation and school children, not because of poverty but because of ignorance, illiteracy and callousness of the people. The lack of knowledge especially on the nutritive value of these green leafy vegetables among the public in general is the main drawback in their lower consumption. (Jyoti, 2008)

The agricultural production is inherently a risky business characterized by seasonality; perishability and variability which make it susceptible to vagaries of climate and markets and thus farmers face a variety of agricultural risks. In response to these risks over a period of time, several risk management mechanisms have been evolved. Risk management strategies refer to ex-ante measures taken before such an event has taken place, whereas risk coping strategies are, ex-post strategies dealing with the consequences of the event (World Bank Report, 2005). Invariably, farmers use both ex-ante and ex-post strategies. It is interesting to note that so far agriculture risk management has been in terms of risk avoidance and risk reduction and mostly these risks are addressed at farm or production level. Currently there has been a shift in agriculture risk management from risk avoidance and risk reduction strategies to risk mitigation strategies. Similarly, there exist shifts from production to market orientation in agriculture. To understand this phenomenon involved, it is felt necessary to study the agricultural risk management behaviour farmers. Keeping this discussion as focal point, the study was conducted with an objective to assess risk management behaviour of farmers.

Livestock sector plays a vital role in the welfare of India’s rural population by acting as an important source of income and employment in the rural sector (Dastagiri, 2004). India possesses the largest livestock population in the world and ranks first with (520.6 million), and accounts for the largest number of cattle (world share 16.1%), buffaloes (57.9%), second largest number of goats (16.7%) and third highest number of sheep (5.7%) in the world (FAOSTAT) and sustaining all these in less than 5% of world’s and one-third of Asia’s agricultural land area (MOA, 2003).

In conventional agriculture, spatial variability over the landscape is ignored and fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides etc. are applied at a uniform rate throughout the crop field. Precision Farming emphasizes on the infield variability which is first recognized, located, quantified and recorded, then managed by applying farm inputs  in specific amounts at specific time and at specific locations.

Climate change referred as, a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods (IPCC, 2001). In other words, it is any long term conspicuous deviation from usual prevailing climate bringing variations in normal temperature, rainfall, atmospheric circulation with abnormal expression in extreme climate such as floods, droughts, extreme temperature etc.

Sustainability issues have infused sanity in utilizing interventions without much damage to the environment. The wisdom of the practitioners, who had over generations developed their own eco-friendly practices, is being appreciated. Recent researches have aimed at documenting, rationalizing, and blending the Indigenous Knowledge with the so called Scientific or Western knowledge so as to take care of the sustainability issues. Many researchers have contributed to this pool of knowledge by documenting many of the technologies, crop wise, area wise and operation wise and so on.

Cassava is one of the leading staple food crop which is consumed as food and rest is used in industries and as feed to animal. Cassava has the potential to increase farm income, reduce rural and urban poverty and help to close the food gap (Nweke et al., 2001). It is used in many sectors like food processing, textile industries, glucose production etc. Salem stands first in area and has about 650 sago and starch industries acting as a prime reason for the intensive area under the cassava cultivation in Salem also 60 per cent of the starch produced in India comes from Salem District alone. Nearly 200 products can be made from cassava which leads to implementation of several interventions in the district which helped in imparting knowledge on cassava value addition techniques and improve adoption. Present study was undertaken to analyse the perceived impact by focusing on the effect of interventions of CTCRI and TNAU among the women growers in enhancing group approaches and empowerment through entrepreneurship activities.

Tank irrigation is passing through a critical juncture in India today. Tank irrigation contributes significantly to agricultural production in India in general, and in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, in particular. The tank irrigation system is one of the vast networks of thousands of water bodies that constituted a distinctive landscape which was medieval in origin but still the basis of livelihood in the dry Southern plains(Mosse, 2003, P-4). Tank is a small reservoir constructed across the slope of the valley to catch and store water during rainy season. Water is controlled by sluices attached to the tank bank and is delivered to paddy field by distributing channels. Tank is considered as a common property resource. The National Sample Survey Organization defines common property resources as the resources that are accessible to and collectively owned, managed by identifiable community and on which no individual has exclusive property rights (NSSO, 1999).

In the semi-arid tropics, where small farmers depend heavily on rain-fed agricultural systems, variability in precipitation has a dramatic impact on crop production and livelihoods. Because small-scale agriculture depends on rain-fed cultivation, it is vulnerable to factors such as flooding and drought. Unfortunately, the frequency of unexpected heavy rainfall or flood events has increased in many areas of Africa, including Southern Zambia. About 75% of farmers in Zambia engage in small-scale farming, with an average farm size of 2 ha (VAM Steering Committee Zambia, 1998). Most of these farmers cultivate maize, which is a staple food in Zambia, and stable maize production and increased productivity are important both for food security and to provide a livelihood to farmers.