Govt asks varsities to digitise books on natl digital library

The Centre has asked all universities to digitise books and other study material in their libraries and forward them to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, for posting on the national digital library for students to access free of cost.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has also asked the vice chancellors to turn their respective varsities into “digital campus” by the end of this year so that students can avail the benefits of Swayam, launched recently to offer massive open and online courses (Moocs).

The national digital library currently provides students of higher learning with free access to more than one crore material, which includes about 80 lakh books, audio-visual lectures and other study material stored in digital format.

Set up under the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry’s national mission for education through information and communication technology, the digital library provides learning resources for students from primary school to postgraduation, with a single window search facility. It also seeks to facilitate researchers to perform inter-linked exploration from multiple sources. 

The national digital library is managed by the IIT-Kharagpur as the virtual repository of learning resources was created by it.

“To enrich the digital library further, all universities have been requested to get their library books and other study material digitised and share the same with IIT-Kharagpur,” official sources told DH.

At a recent national convention organised by the HRD Ministry to deliberate on digital initiatives for higher education, university vice chancellors and heads of various higher education institutions were apprised with the various features and facilities available for students and researchers at the national digital library.

A digital campus would mean computerisation of all processes like admissions, preparation of academic calendar, attendance, assessments, result declaration, administration, pay roll, financial and such other processes.

“Varsities may also consider installation of solar power and water recycling systems depending on their financial capacity,” official sources said.