The workshop, which is intended for researchers, librarians and information managers, will be held at Marian College Kuttikkanam, a beautiful campus in the Sahyadri mountain ranges of Kerala, India, from 6 to 9 September 2008.

Various electronic documentary collections, either personal or institutional, need to be organized in retrievable way through search, copying and dissemination facilities. Digital libraries/archives applications allow to structure, make accessible and preserve texts, images, audio/video, etc. Now, a researcher or librarian without sufficient knowledge of e-document management cannot work efficiently. However, most available digital library solutions are complex systems, which require training to use and experts to configure.

During the workshop participants will learn how to: develop and manage digital archives, libraries and personal e-document collections using WINISIS and GenISIS; make them accessible through search engines on the Intranet/Internet using GenISISWEB; publish them on CD-ROM using GenISISCD. All the above applications are simple and easy to use open source packages developed by UNESCO. At the end of the training, participants will be able to create electronic publications with search and full text retrieval facility, and launch digital libraries/archives of full text, image, audio and video files accessible over the web.

Experts in e-document publishing, led by K. Rajasekharan from the Kerala Institute of Local Administration, who has developed the simplified manuals on the concerned packages, will handle the workshop sessions. The training will be supported by a CD-ROM containing the software, manuals and course materials.