National Library of India: A Very Brief Look at the Digitisation of Rare Books

From the Press Information Bureau, Government of India:

The Minister for Culture and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that digitisation of rare books and other print material is done selectively taking into account copyright and other issues. It is a part of the Annual Action Plan of the National Library, Kolkata. No article from the rare books division of the National Library has been reported to be lost or stolen in the last decade.
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today she said, under the 3rd phase of digitisation project 20,00,000 pages i.e. 6000 books are envisaged to be digitised at a cost of about Rs. 35 lakhs in next seven months. She said, the National Library has been accorded special status of an institution of national importance in the Article 62 in the Seventh Schedule of the Union List of the Constitution of India. There is no other National Library in the country. Recently, steps have been taken to improve the functioning of National Library, Kolkata. They include access to full text electronic journals, availability of library’s catalogue on the web and high speed internet connectivity for the readers. Some new proposals are under consideration in the 12th Five Year Plan.

Filed under: Libraries, National Libraries, Publishing