Browsing by Author "Hettiarachchi, N."

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Comparative study on availability of digital libraries in universities and special libraries in Sri Lanka
(University of Kelaniya, 2011) Rathnabahu, N.; Hettiarachchi, N.
The three main objectives of this research are: 1) Availability of digital library in universities and special libraries in Sri Lanka, 2) Difficulties encountered in the initial phase, 3). Suggestions to surmount those difficulties. Twenty nine (29) university libraries and thirty eight (38) special libraries were selected as the sample, out of the 36 university libraries and 76 special libraries, and a questionnaire used as the method of data collection. The results revealed that 9.09% of the university libraries and 17.85% of the special libraries were initiating digital library facility within their libraries. Accordingly, 54.54% of the university libraries and 14.28% of the special libraries have been already planning to initiate their own digital libraries. Further, 36% of the university libraries and 67.85% of the special libraries did not have any proper plan to build up digital library facilities. Among the total number of libraries surveyed, which comprised of already initiated digital libraries, 50% of the GENISIS and 50% of the GREENSTONE software have been used for digitization in university libraries. Besides that, 20% of the WINISIS, 20% of the ACROBAT, 20% of the OMINIPAGE and 40% of the GREENSTONE software respectively had been used to initiate digital library in special libraries. In addition, 50% of the university libraries and 20% of the special libraries have online access facility. But majority of special libraries had only off-line access facility to their digital collections. Several critical problems pertaining to the initiative of digital libraries were lack of knowledge about creating a digital library, lack of sufficient infrastructure facilities, lack of financial support, lack of uninterrupted power supply and the limited number of computers available for clientele. To overcome this undesirable situation, it is necessary to organize and conduct proper workshops on training personnel for creation and effective managing of digital libraries. It is also of paramount important to establish extended in-house networking and internet facilities in the libraries.
Latest advancements in information and communication technology for better interactive virtual healthcare medical clinic
(4th International Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2019) Perera, S.N.; Hettiarachchi, N.
The medical record is a dynamic informational entity that helps to monitor the health condition of a patient, where it collects all the information from the clinical history and treatments to enable continuous monitoring of the health condition of a patient. It allows better information management and flexibility rather than paper records by providing many advantages such as quick access to useful information needed for decision-making at the point of care. There are many systems available only for telemedicine. However, there is no existing system which manages virtual online consultation, a repository for medical information management, decision support for medical advice, telemedicine and recommending medical tips from a central location. The goal of health information management is to manage and utilize information to improve the performance of health care and medical services. Delivering health care to the population is a complex task that is highly dependent on information about the individual patients, the techniques of care, the care provided, the outcome of the care, as well as the performance of the health care provider. With the rapid development of the Information and Communication Technology, virtual care may effectively use to treat common problems such as flu, acne, and urinary tract infections in the medical stream. Virtual Healthcare Medical Clinic is a research-based project designed for consultation among doctors and patients by using smartphones or personal computers which can be used anytime, anywhere with an internet connection. The system provides patient tracking and electronic medical records that include personal data, laboratory and diagnostic data and all clinical data including treatments, medical reports, and medication. This web-based solution facilitates with doctors where they would be able to view patient's past health records easily and can diagnose the disease of the patient by looking at the history of the patient and then the doctor can continue the medical treatments for a specific patient in an effective manner via video doctor consultation. As a trusted medical authority, this is an integral partner and resource for everybody
Migrating of Library Automation from Alice for Windows to KOHA: Experiences from the Library of University of Sri Jayewardenepura.
(Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Konpola, K.W.A.M.; Angammana, A.M.S.; Hettiarachchi, N.; Wijayasundara, N.D.; Ranasinghe, S.
Library ofUniversity of Sri Jayewardenepura used the “Alice for Windows”, a commercial library management software to automate its library resource collections and management activities of the library. During nearly ten year time it was able to process 90% of the library materials. However it was very difficult to fully implement the process due to issues like (1) lack of web interface, (2) inability to work in local languages like Sinhala, (3) high cost of as annual maintenance fee and (4) non availability of local maintenance team. In this circumstance, the library decided to shift to Open Source software named as KOHA. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the challenging experiences obtained from migrating from Alice for Windows to KOHA- an Integrated Library Management System mostly used in the library automation activities. The great challenge in the process was the exporting of bibliographic records from Alice to KOHA because there was no compatibility between the two. The migration process involved three steps and used the tools such as MARC editor, MARC21 Format and language converter tool and it was able to convert all the data within two month time without any losses of data. With some training and follow up workshops for the staff and familiarizing sessions for users, it was able to successfully implement the Circulation module, Serial module, Online Public Access catalogue and report module in September 2014. Users are able to search the OPAC using Sinhala keywords, can renew their borrowing period, and make reservations from anywhere using the Internet.
Users’ Searching Behavior Patterns in Library OPAC of University of Ruhuna: A Follow-up Study.
(Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya,Sri Lanka., 2017) Hettiarachchi, N.; Ramanayaka, K.H.; Jayasekara, P.K.
The use of ILS for library services has been growing rapidly over the years and plays an enhanced role compared to its traditional physical library while providing a wide variety of library services to its users. OPAC is considered as a one of major outcome of ILS while it provides an online bibliography of a library collection that is available to the public.The present research was undertaken in order to identify the mostly utilized search fields by patrons and the searching behavior of undergraduates from different faculties in University of Ruhuna with referencing Library OPAC in relation to user profile during 1stJanuary 2012 and 31stDecember 2016. The data, collected from the searching history records kept by the patrons’ user profiles, were processed and statistically analyzed. The findings of this study revealed that the OPAC searching was heavily used by undergraduates, i.e. 79.43% out of 17168 total searching frequencies. Furthermore, the highest number of searching (27.34%) was done in year 2013 while searching from the keyword option was become the most popular (56.72%) term followed by the title (17.54%) and author (13.13%) terms.ISBN was identified as an underutilized search field. On the other hand, the highest number of searching (29.02%) was done by the Faculty of Science patrons and then Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (28.69%). When patrons use keyword option as a searching field, OPAC performs the searching process by matching the requested word pattern in every place in the bibliographic records. As a result, the number of results is in high number and patronsneed to put more effort to filter required sources. Patrons can be used other searching fields like title, author, ISBN to obtain required information with minimum effort. Hence, librarians must design user training programs to emphasize the importance and ways of using different types of search fields to obtain specific search results effectively and efficiently.