Digital Library
Digital integration of the region’s libraries: a single platform giving students access to literature.
- single catalogue
- CDL model
- web and mobile app
- Ust-Kamenogorsk
- Region
- Item 2 of protocol No. 1/214 of 18 November 2024
- Basis
- Web platform and mobile app
- Platform
- July 2025
- Date
Relevance and challenges
- 01
Schoolchildren have no access to the regional digital book collection
- Item 2 of protocol No. 1/214 of 18 November 2024
- 02
Demand for equal access to educational and general-interest literature
- 03
Incompatible library systems (IRBIS64, KABIS, ALAKAN and similar)
Libraries use different systems with different sets of modules:
- Circulation
- Acquisitions
- Cataloguing, etc.
- 04
Legal requirements for digital lending (copyright)
- Law on Copyright and Related Rights, Article 4 “International treaties”
- Berne Convention of 1886, ratified by Kazakhstan in 1998. Three-step test: special case, no harm to the market, no harm to the author
One collection where access depends on copyright
Single inventory of printed books
Splitting into groups
Organising access
- 1 book — 1 copy
- 1 copy = 1 reader
- Time-limited
- Online viewing
NoteThe CDL (Controlled Digital Lending) approach does not infringe copyright because it follows the “one copy — one loan” principle.
The reader’s journey: from sign-in to automatic return
- Sign-inschoolchild, student
- Choose a book from the catalogue
- Open access
- Reading
- Copyrighted/Available
- Online reading via CDL
- Automatic return
- Copyrighted/On loan
- Reservation
- Online reading via CDL
- Automatic return
Web platform and mobile app
Catalogue by genre
“Top in every genre” and “Bestsellers” collections, genre navigation and search. Books with a limited number of copies show a counter on the button — for example, “Read 5/24”; when no copies are free, the book can be reserved.
Book page
Author, genre, rating, year, language, publisher and number of physical copies. A book can be read, downloaded, added to favourites and shared; in the mobile app it can also be reserved, with the library that holds it shown.
Modules and functional requirements
- 01 · 4 weeks
Management and coordination
- Forming the project team, schedule and roles
- Organising communication with all project participants
- Reporting and tracking stage deadlines
- 02 · 4 weeks
Inventory
- Organising a single inventory of the libraries’ printed collections
- Classifying the collection: public-domain books and copyrighted books
- Applicability of the CDL model
- 03 · 6 weeks
Digitisation and catalogue
- Preparing the scanning and storage methodology
- Organising scanning and text recognition
- Linking digital copies to printed items
- Building the bibliographic and subject catalogue (metadata, tags)
- 04 · 16 weeks
Development
- Designing the platform architecture
- Web platform
- Mobile app
- Protection and the CDL model
- Hosting and technical infrastructure
- 05 · 2 weeks
Training, support and growth
- Writing user guides
- Running training webinars
- Supporting librarians and users during rollout
- Tracking reading statistics
- Updating and developing the platform based on feedback
32 weekstotal duration of all stages
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