Greenstone is a suite of

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

tools for building and distributing

digital library A digital library, also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, or a digital collection is an online database of digital objects that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital documents, or other digital me ...

collections on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

. It is

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

, multilingual software, issued under the terms of the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the Four Freedoms (Free software), four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was th ...

. Greenstone is produced by the New Zealand Digital Library Project at the

University of Waikato The University of Waikato ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato), is a Public university, public research university in Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton, New Zealand established in 1964. An additional campus is located in Tauranga. The university perfo ...

, and has been developed and distributed in cooperation with

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

and the Human Info NGO in Belgium. The developers of Greenstone received the

International Federation for Information Processing The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a global organisation for researchers and professionals working in the field of computing to conduct research, develop standards and promote information sharing. Established in 196 ...

's 2004 Namur Award for "contributions to the awareness of social implications of information technology, and the need for an holistic approach in the use of information technology that takes account of social implications." Greenstone may be used to create large, searchable collections of digital documents. In addition to command line tools for digital collection building, Greenstone has a graphical Greenstone Librarians Interface (GLI) used to build collections and assign metadata. Through user selected plugins, Greenstone can import digital documents in formats including text, html, jpg, tiff, MP3, PDF, video, and Word, among others. The text, PDF, HTML and similar documents are converted into Greenstone Archive Format (GAF) which is an XML equivalent format. A project on

SourceForge SourceForge is a web service that offers software consumers a centralized online location to control and manage open-source software projects and research business software. It provides source code repository hosting, bug tracking, mirrorin ...

was created in October 2005 for version 3 of Greenstone. In 2010, Greenstone version 2.83 was included, along with the Koha Integrated Library System, in an Ubuntu Live-Cd.

References

* K. T. Anuradha and R. Sivakaminathan. 2011
Enhancing full text search capability in library automation package: A case study with Koha and Greenstone digital library software.
''2009 International Symposium on Computing, Communication, and Control (ISCCC 2009) Proc .of CSIT'' vol. 1, p. 330-333. * George Buchanan, Matt Jones and Gary Marsden. 2002. Exploring small screen digital library access with the Greenstone Digital Library. Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries ''Lecture Notes in Computer Science'', 2458/2002, p. 583–596, . * Dion Hoe-Lian Goh, Alton Chua, Davina Anqi Khoo, Emily Boon-Hui Khoo, Eric Bok-Tong Mak, and Maple Wen-Min Ng. 2006. A checklist for evaluating open source digital library software, ''Online Information Review'', 30(4):360–379. Includes evaluation of Greenstone relative to other digital library software. * Michael Lesk. 2004. ''Understanding digital libraries.'' Second edition. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, p. 171-172. * K.S. Raghavan, A. Neelameghan and S. K. Lalitha. 2010. Co-creation and development of digital library software. ''Information Studies'' 16(2):65–72. * K. Rajasekharan, K.M. Nafala, and Bimal Kanti Sen. 2009
''Digital archiving of audio content using WINISIS and Greenstone software: a manual for community radio managers''.
New Delhi: UNESCO Office New Delhi, p. 73-92. * Art Rhyno. 2004. ''Using open source systems for digital libraries''. Westport: Libraries Unlimited, p. 83-84. * B.S. Shivaram and T.B. Rajashekar. 2005. Building Indian language digital library collections: Some experiences with Greenstone software. Digital Libraries: International Collaboration and Cross-Fertilization ''Lecture Notes in Computer Science'', 2005, 3334/2005:189-211, . * Sharad Kumar Sonkar, Veena Makhija, Ashok Kumar, and Dr Mohinder Singh. 2005. Application of Greenstone Digital Library (GSDL)software in newspapers clippings. ''DESIDOC Bulletin of Information Technology'', 25(3):9–17. * Walter E. Valero, Claudia A. Perry, and Thomas T. Surprenant. 2007. History on a postcard. ''Library Journal Net Connect'', Winter 2007:6–9. * Allison B. Zhang and Don Gourley. 2006. Building digital collections using Greenstone digital library software.''Internet Reference Services Quarterly'', 11(2):71–89.

External links

Eprint archive containing easy-to-follow documents on Greenstone Digital Library Software
* {{Official website, 2=Greenstone official website
Greenstone beginner's guideThe New Zealand Digital Library
built with Greenstone Free institutional repository software Digital library software University of Waikato