The growth of digital and virtual libraries

Open-source software is driving growth in online information repositories that can be used free of charge, according to experts who attended an event held to commemorate the tenth anniversary of FAPESP's Virtual Library.

By Elton Alisson

Agência FAPESP – The number of digital and virtual libraries has increased in recent years. One reason for this growth is the development of open-source software for digital asset management, such as DSpace, Greenstone, Fedora Commons and other tools that facilitate the construction of these repositories on the internet.

“Many institutions in the public and private sectors are using these tools to create digital libraries in different areas, from education to culture and science,” said Murilo Bastos Cunha, a professor at the University of Brasília’s School of Information Science (FCI-UNB), in a presentation delivered during an event held to commemorate the tenth anniversary of FAPESP’s Virtual Library (BV-FAPESP) on August 21, 2015, at FAPESP in São Paulo.

The development of digital libraries took off in 1996, when the commercial stage of the internet began in Brazil. Traditional libraries, which had hitherto focused mainly on preserving their collections and providing physical access to print publications, then introduced online public-access catalogues.

“These automated catalogues enabled many more people here and abroad to access library collections, which until then had been confined to a limited physical space,” Cunha said.

Among the advantages of digital libraries for users, according to Cunha, is the ability to access digitally scanned documents anywhere and at any time. They also allow information to be exchanged more easily and rapidly with other databases.

“Using metadata and information exchange protocols, digital libraries can easily share data and enhance operability,” he said.

Since 2009, BV-FAPESP has implemented a number of measures to increase interoperability with FAPESP’s own internal systems, as well as with outside systems. One of these entailed the importing of reference data for scientific articles resulting from grants and scholarships awarded by FAPESP and published in journals indexed by Web of Science and SciELO, as well as masters and PhD theses held by digital libraries at three public universities in São Paulo State: the University of São Paulo (USP), the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), and São Paulo State University (UNESP).

The Virtual Library’s functionality has also been expanded in several ways, such as by the inclusion of profiles of researchers with completed or ongoing projects supported by FAPESP.

The site offers links to researchers’ curricula vitae in the Lattes database, citation indexes (My Citation) and ResearchID, when available, as well as keywords for their research topics and scientific publications that are supported by FAPESP, provided due credit is given to FAPESP and the process number is cited.

“BV-FAPESP initially focused on indexing scientific literature, but in recent years it has become a public-access reference system, providing comprehensive information on all grants and scholarships awarded by FAPESP, including references to published research findings,” said Rosaly Favero Krzyzanowski, Head of BV-FAPESP, in her presentation at the event.

“Following the implementation of this series of enhancements, the number of visits to BV-FAPESP rose by 896% in 2009 compared with the previous year,” she added. “The number has risen steadily since then and now exceeds 4 million visits per year.”

BV-FAPESP currently has 200,000 records of research grants, scholarships in Brazil and foreign scholarships granted by FAPESP. It also has more than 58,000 records of scientific publications resulting from this support, and 18,000 records of academic publications (masters and PhD theses), dating from 1992.

Some 40,000 records for the period 1962-91 have been digitized and are now undergoing standardization in preparation for inclusion in BV-FAPESP from end-2015.

According to Krzyzanowski, BV-FAPESP contains references and links to the complete texts of scientific articles published in online journals or indexed by knowledge repositories, in contrast with digital libraries or repositories that contain the complete texts themselves.

Important reference

“BV-FAPESP is making a valuable contribution to the expansion of access to the scientific and technological knowledge produced in São Paulo, for users throughout Brazil and worldwide, by publicizing the research funded by FAPESP, and to the conservation and dissemination of FAPESP’s own history,” said Celso Lafer, President of FAPESP, in his opening remarks at the event.

For Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, the foundation’s Scientific Director, BV-FAPESP not only helps keep taxpayers in São Paulo State and citizens everywhere in the world up to date on FAPESP’s activities but also serves as an extremely important tool for the foundation in its own work via use of the functionality offered by the internet.

“BV-FAPESP is intensely used by my own scientific department, and by our area panels and head coordinators, to analyze the projects that apply for funding,” Brito Cruz said.

“When we’re analyzing a project, we can query BV-FAPESP to find out whether the applicant has received funding for other projects, for example.”

The event was also attended by Joaquim José de Camargo Engler, FAPESP’s Administrative Director, and Carlos Vogt, ex-President of FAPESP and current President of São Paulo State Virtual University (UNIVESP).