Centre asks universities to digitise books for the national digital library

The Centre has asked all universities to digitise books and other study materials available in their libraries and send them to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, for making them available to students at the national digital library free of cost. 

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has also asked the vice chancellors to turn their varsity 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 higher education students with free access to more than one crore items which includes about 80 lakh books, audio-visual lectures and other study materials stored in digital format. 

Set up under the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry's national mission on education through information and communication technology, the digital library provides learning resources for a primary school to postgraduate students 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 materials digitised and share the same with the 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 educational institutions were apprised with the various features and facilities available for students and researchers at the national digital library.

"All higher educational institutions have been asked to immediately join the digital library. They have also been asked to turn their varsities into digital campus and smart campus by the end of this year," sources added.

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.

A smart campus would have a system for efficient and economical use of water, electricity and waste. "Varsities may also consider installation of solar power and water recycling systems depending on their financial capacity," official sources said.