Online avatar of library scripts a new chapter in Karnataka

Integrating a first-of-its kind user-friendly technology, digital library of Department of Libraries boasts of a whopping 2,50,11,312 registered members and 21,80,638 e content as on June 16.

The department’s decision to go digital materialised with the opening of first digital library in February 2020. Within a period of two years, as many as 372 public libraries were transformed into digital libraries in a phased manner under Karnataka Digital Public Libraries (KDPL) initiative, informed Department of Libraries Director Satish Kumar S Hosamani.

The digital library which had about 92 lakh members and 20 lakh e-books in 2021 has been expanding by leaps and bounds. Hosamani attributes the exponential growth of digital library to the decision on including education books that are useful for students and also for those preparing for competitive
exams.

Thousands of digitised education books, text books from classes 1 to 12 (of both state syllabus and NCERT), international journals, question banks among others had been made available in the form of e-books to help its registered 1,18,549 students prepare for competitive examinations like National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, Common Entrance Test, KAS and UPSC examinations.

The digital initiative also included lessons in Kannada, English, Hindi, Urdu and Marathi. The digital library, available as both web-based and app-based, helps registered users to access links of dailies, You Tube links, archives of All India Radio, Bengaluru station, among others. Hosamani elaborating on e-content usage says 16,00,093 users had accessed e-books in June.

While users had accessed 5,80,545 videos. The digital library has a collection of 10,30,594 educational videos, he added. Bengaluru Urban tops the list among 30 districts with 86,52,796 registered users while Dakshina Kannada district is a distant second with 21,38,775 registered users. Karnataka has a vast network of public libraries (6,890), all of which will now go digital.