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Unit 7: Development of Libraries in India

            televisions, and computers and connecting them to the Internet is simple compared to developing  Notes
            corresponding instructional materials. For a visual artist about to create a new work, the choice of
            medium is a question of supreme importance. Each medium carries within it a certain relationship
            to the gesture, a demand for restraint, limitations of texture, hue, value, plasticity. For the
            educationist, the term, “multimedia,” has become much more definite. It signals high cost, a
            simplistic blend of visual and aural information, and low return. Today multimedia as a means of
            learning is equated with tightly structured content built by a commercial vendor a developer. It is
            a product, not a possibility. The excitement of choice, of trial, of process is absent.
            Yet, multimedia in its broadest sense is among the most effective and egalitarian of computer-
            based resources available. By establishing the potential for the artful interaction between learners
            and content intertwining information, skills, and even the synthesizing vision that is so important
            to comprehension multimedia “content ware” is effective across the wide range of circumstances.
            Multimedia can be designed to:
                  enhance learning in different locations and in schools of diverse quality;
                  present opportunities for students working at different rates and levels;
                  provide (tirelessly, without holding up other students) repetition when repetition is war-
                  ranted to reinforce skills and learning; and
                  compensate, in the short term, for high student populations and limited numbers of trained
                  and experienced teachers in combination with robust teacher development initiatives and
                  improvements in teachers’ working conditions.
            In dynamic fields, such as astrophysics, genetics, or political geography, updates to content ware
            can ensure that teachers and students encounter and have the chance to work with current and even
            cutting-edge knowledge. Such encounters tie learning to the most important events of our time
            and underscore the general idea that knowledge itself is not fixed and finalized, that there is a
            universe of discoveries and a library of analyses that can be available to students. Finally, computer-
            based and Web-based multimedia content ware is itself dynamic, built of bits and bytes, using
            software development tools that combine, in some cases, the power to create with the simplicity of
            use. Unlike textbooks or library based resources, content ware has the potential to engage all
            stakeholders in the education system from software developers to ministry personnel to education
            researchers to teachers and students in the development of multimedia learning resources.
            In this chapter we present multimedia as a tapestry of possibilities for creation, experimentation,
            and communication that is woven by students, teachers, researchers, and professionals, working
            with different tools across the range of media. We address:
                  the context for multimedia development;
                  the nature and modalities of multimedia;
                  the authors of multimedia resources;
                  environments and tools for multimedia development; and
                  ensuring quality in multimedia.


            Self Assessment
            Fill in the blanks:
               1. .................... established a library system in India.
               2. .................... is the process of officially accepting items into National park service (NPS)
                  museum collections?
               3. .................... is a voluntary organization formed to establish uniform terms of book sup-
                  plies to libraries and to ensure a fire working margin to book sellers and an efficient
                  service to the libraries.
            State whether the following statements are true or false:
               4. The activities ad programmes of the Trust are initiated, implimented, monitored and
                  controlled by the EC.
               5. Accessioning is the process of officially accepting items into National park service mu-
                  seum collections.

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