Digitisation to allow maximum usage of library resources: President

President Pranab Mukherjee Monday launched the National Mission on Libraries (NML) and emphasised the need to meet existing and emerging challenges with a flexible and coherent multimedia approach.

"Digital libraries open up the possibility of far more flexible and coherent multimedia collections that are both fully searchable and browsable in multiple dimensions," an official release from Rashtrapati Bhavan said.

"As each generation becomes more in tune with the internet, their desire to retrieve information as quickly and easily as possible has increased. I am confident that this initiative will largely facilitate the internet savvy people in making maximum use of library resources," he added.

The president said: "Libraries are social institutions which are repositories of knowledge and information. Their goal is the improvement of society by helping the individual to understand himself and the world of which he is a part.

"Libraries provide easy access of knowledge to all. A public library is often called 'the people's university' because it is available to all sections of society, regardless of age, gender or skill levels. Thus, through democratisation of access to knowledge, libraries contribute in promoting inclusive and sustained development of the people," he added.

An initiative of the culture ministry to modernise and digitally link public libraries across the country, Union Culture Minister Chandresh Kumari Katoch said the government has allocated Rs.400 crore to be used in the next three years for this mission.

"The goals of NML cannot and will not be accomplished without the active participation of different state governments and union territories," an official statement said.

She urged every partner to extend support and cooperation for effective and time bound implementation of these projects.

Six libraries under the ministry, 35 central libraries in states and 35 district libraries will be developed as model libraries under the scheme, with emphasis on economically backward districts.

Kolkata-based Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation has been roped in as the nodal agency for the implementation of NML.

The scheme will also provide 629 district libraries across all states with network connectivity.