SMS Interface for A Library Management Package : Soul Experience

Abstract

Information sharing using wireless medium has picked up momentum in the recent years due to the huge penetration of mobile devices to the critical mass. Cellular phone, Wireless, PDA, and other Mobile Devices are increasing in number among the academic community. Sharing the information by using the latest wireless network technology such as Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Wireless LAN, Bluetooth and cellular technology such as GSM, GPRS, CDMA, TDMA, WAP / WAP 2.0, WML, WMLScript, XHTML MP, WCSS / WAP CSS and SMS are predominantly becoming most sought after development platform now. Leveraging this development in technology, it is also important to explore the possibility of such technological advantages for the effective management of Library activities. SOUL is a software designed, developed and distributed by INFLIBNET to academic institutions in the country for Library Automation. SMS interface to such a package will be an added advantage for the timely alert for the services rendered by the software. This paper discusses the development paradigm for the SMS interface for the new SOUL software for reminder module, alert for the vendor/publisher, user service, CAS service etc. using standard solutions for information sharing using mobile devices.