e-GRANARY

With permission, we copy thousands of educational Web sites and deliver them to intranet Web servers INSIDE our partner institutions in developing countries and other under-served places around the globe. We deliver millions of multimedia documents that patrons can instantly access over their local area networks at no cost.

The eGranary Digital Library – also known as “The Internet in a Box” – has been adopted by over 2,000 institutions that lack adequate Internet access.

The eGranary is much more than just static information: the digital library contains built-in tools for subscribers to upload and edit local materials as well as create and edit their own websites, which are stored locally.

Delivering digital teaching materials to practitioners and scholars in the developing world

The eGranary Digital Library — “The Internet in a Box” — is an off-line information store that provides instant access to over 35 million digital resources for those lacking adequate Internet connections.

Through a process of copying web sites (with permission) and putting them on the internal networks of our partner institutions, the eGranary delivers instant access to a wide variety of educational resources including video, audio, books, journals, and websites.

A single eGranary, connected to a wired or wireless local area network (LAN), can serve thousands of patrons.

The eGranary comes in three form factors: a full-sized eGranary server optimized for rugged conditions; a 12-volt server than can be run on battery or solar power; and a stand-alone USB drive that turns any Windows computer into a server.

The eGranary Digital Library includes a built-in proxy and search engine that emulates the Internet experience. It has a catalog with over 50,000 professionally organized items. As well, it hosts a bevy of services, like Moodle (course management software), WordPress, PHP, and MySQL. It also includes built-in tools that allow subscribers to easily create and edit unlimited websites as well as upload local materials .

The eGranary Digital Library was founded in 2001 and is developed by WiderNet@UNC, a service project based in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. It is distributed by WiderNet, an affiliated nonprofit based in Durham, North Carolina that focuses on field implementations and training.

Over 2,000 institutions – schools, clinics, and universities – have adopted the eGranary across Africa, India, Bangladesh, Haiti, Papua New Guinea, and many other locations. Its sister library, the Corrections Offline Education Platform (COEP) is also installed in over 25 correctional institutions in the U.S.

The project aims to expand its use to thousands of schools, hospitals and universities in underserved areas around the globe as well as engage librarians and educators to develop custom collections for their communities.

Current Subscribers

The eGranary Digital Library is currently installed at more than 500 educational institutions and organizations across the world.

You’ll find eGranaries in…

Primary and secondary schools
Colleges and universities
Medical schools
Engineering schools
Hospitals and medical clinics
U.S. embassies
Churches
Prisons
Businesses

The eGranary Appliance

Also known as “The Internet in a Box”™

The eGranary Digital Library is delivered as a plug-and-play server that fits effortlessly into any local area network, providing instant access to millions of digital documents.

Here are just a few features the eGranary has to offer:

Easy installation
Fast – up to 5,000 times faster than a satellite connection
Can cut Internet connectivity costs by 70 percent or more
Looks and acts just like the real Internet – users need no additional training.
Content and software are updateable via a subscription to the eGranary Digital Library Update Service
Fast and comprehensive search capabilities
Reliable and fast platform for building and delivering any curriculum
30 million documents and growing…

Some of the key technical features of the eGranary include:

Runs on Microsoft Windows 7 (or newer) Operating Systems
Can be configured to provide all basic network services (DNS, DHCP, etc.)
Customized proxy
Users find resources using their original URLs
Integrates easily with existing Internet connection
Search services based on Lucene indexing and Java search interface
20GB of space for the development of local Web content
Local content indexed along with eGranary Digital Library content
Full-time tracking of usage and errors
Real usage feedback for contributing authors/publishers/curriculum builders
Provides librarians statistics on patron preferences
Accounts for amount of bandwidth conserved
Indicates what additional content is desired by patrons

Production & Distribution

Wondering how we get all that knowledge into a tiny little hard drive? It’s a multi-step process that we’ve developed over the last 18 years to ensure that everything in the eGranary is usable and useful.

Step 1: Identify Web sites with rich educational content

Since the advent of the World Wide Web, millions of individuals and organizations have digitized their information to share with the general public over the Internet.

Building on this phenomenon, we look for Web sites with pertinent digitized academic information (often guided by requests of our subscribers) and add these to our “wish list.”

Step 2: Secure the author’s or publisher’s permission to copy their materials

We contact authors and publishers via email and simply ask, “Can we replicate your materials for institutions in developing countries with inadequate Internet connectivity?”

Depending on the subject area, we receive from 50% to 90% positive responses. So far, librarians lead the pack; medical resources are harder to come by.

Step 3: Copy the permitted materials to a hard drive at the WiderNet Project

Using HTTrack, a Web site “scraping” software — and a number of other tricks — we make a duplicate of the permitted materials on our server.

We do not change the content, although we remove links to annoying advertisement servers and “hit” monitors.

Sometimes we copy an entire Web site, sometimes just the portions that contain the most useful information.

Step 4: Make copies of the collection and distribute to subscribers

Using large hard disks, we deliver copies of the eGranary Digital Library to subscribers.

Most subscribers already have servers and local area networks in place, so they simply add the eGranary hard drive to their existing server.

We work with other universities and institutions to set up their first servers, sometimes using donated computers and software.

Step 5: Provisions for Update

We’ve learned that the logistics of updating hard drives is expensive and cumbersome. Most of our subscribers are not able to afford this.

Instead, some will replace their hard drive every few years; the new one is always bigger, has much more content, and a slew of improved features.

Some run their hard drives until they die (some sites are still running 10-year-old eGranaries!)

And others use the built-in content uploading and Web development tools to incrementally add to their eGranary collection.

MIT OpenCourseWare

The world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology has provided their entire OpenCourseWare (OCW) package for distribution inside the eGranary Digital Library.

MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content, including lecture notes, exams, and videos.

OCW, which currently includes nearly 2,000 MIT courses, is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity.

Community Information Platform

What is the CIP?
The Community Information Platform, or CIP, is a new addition to the eGranary Digital Library. The previous edition of the eGranary only allowed users to view information that had been pre-installed. With the CIP each eGranary is interactive: it allows users to create and edit their own content to add to their eGranary.

The Community Information Platform, sponsored by Intel, includes a host of Web 2.0 technologies, like built-in Web editors, LDAP security, Moodle, MySQL, PHP, WordPress and others. Subscribers can set up unlimited Web sites on their server and use free, built-in software to make Web pages, upload files and share local information with each other.

How do I use it?
Using a simple interface, users can create Web sites that are stored in their local eGranary. The interface makes it easy to upload files, like photos, slideshows and documents. Your Web page or site can be about anything you want. Examples of the type of content you might want to create using the CIP are:

a page or site for a community club or group;
a community directory;
a Web site for a school, library, hospital or other community organization;
a course Web site;
a personal Web page about yourself or your family, with information and photos;
social networking sites.

Is it difficult to create a Web page using the CIP?
Creating Web pages on the Community Information Platform is easy. The built in Web editing software contains a wysiwyg style editor to help users build web pages, upload images and other files and contains and on-line file browser to organize the files on the website.

Who can create and edit Web pages on the CIP?
The built-in software allows editors to add and edit content. The eGranary administrator can create an unlimited number of web sites that can be viewed by anyone within the community. Users can only alter their own Web sites, not the original eGranary content or the sites of other users.

An Intel-Sponsored Addition to the eGranary Digital Libary

The Intel Corporation has joined the WiderNet Project in a partnership sponsoring the development of Community Information Platforms that has been added to eGranary Digital Libriaries used by Intel in their World Ahead Program and all future versions of the eGranary.

Community Information Platforms make it possible for teachers and students along with other members of communities to add content to their own eGranaries, also enabling them to develop curriculum and create Web sites easily.

This is a feature that WiderNet has wanted to add to the eGranary Digital Library for some time, but was unable to until Intel Corporation’s generous involvement.

It was possible in the past to add content to the eGranary, but only for those with technical skills. Intel’s Community Information Platforms make it possible for anyone to add content to the eGranary using simple tools — without needing technical training.

Bridging the digital divide

The Intel Corporation has helped to bridge the digital divide through their generous donation and partnership with the WiderNet Project. Other organizations and corporations can look to Intel and their exemplary work as progressive activism toward quality education innovation.