Sibal stresses on digitalisation of books

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal today stressed on digitalisation of books to help the reader access the material in a convenient manner and asked experts to evolve a policy to address the issues of copyright and creation of infrastructure for the purpose.

Inaugurating a three-day conference on 'Digital Libraries', he said that digitalisation of books will help a sizable section of readers get access to material.

However, there is need for a policy to address the issue of standardisation and copyright, he said.

There should be a software to help the reader to access specific material in the digital world, Sibal said.

According to him, the nature of libraries and librarians will have to change to cope with the changes. Sibal said choice of material is important during digitalisation.

Minister of State for HRD D Purandeswari harped on more research for preservation of material in the digital space.

Prof N Balakrishnan of Indian Institute of Sciences said there is need for a law for digitised copyright. He said there are nearly four million books which need digitalisation.

The conference is being organised by The Energy and Resource Institute and IGNOU.