PROBLEMS OF DDS AND ROLE OF INTERNATION ORGANISATION:

Copyright issues, non-availability of publications and restrictions imposed on the storage and delivery of documents electronically are some of the problems faced by DDS operators. Copyright law prevent unauthorized reproduction of any created literary, musical or artistic work. Copying for DDS also comes under this law. International Convention on Copyright and Universal Convention on Copyright, of which India is also a signatory, acknowledge the exclusive Tights of authors and publishers over their literary work, but at the same time permit to make single copy of the document for educational or research purposes for the benefit of the users. However, the laws of copyright in relation to electronic media are ambiguous and are continuously changing. This is because there is little protection for material in electronic form and copying of electronic material is easier. Once it is released, it can be printed and manipulated without recompense and without the owner even being aware of what is happening .Not only material be manipulated within its own form, but also multimedia packages can be created through information from different sources by downloading, copying, editing and repackaging to generate completely a new product for sale in the open market. To prevent unauthorised use and exploitation of electronic material, most of the CD-ROM publishers are selling their products under licence agreement. The licence agreements have rigid clauses which impose a number of restrictions on the librarians. Some of the restrictions include making limited print copies of the search output and restriction on distribution of search output electronically over a network. The use of CD-ROM over local area network is permitted but with additional subscription fee and use is restricted to the in-house users only. In some cases only 8 simultaneous users are allowed, which means only 8 terminals are allowed per site. Libraries are also prohibited from down-loading or loaning the CD-ROM products. These problems are being discussed at international forums and many international agencies are actively involved in finding solutions to them.