Northeast India's first online digital library opened

Northeast India's first digital library with around 15,000 ebooks and journals was opened here Friday.

"The digital library project is the brainchild of former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. This library will make available rare and copyright-free books online," Tripura higher education department secretary Kishore Ambuly told IANS.

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) of the union ministry of communication and information technology helped in setting up the library, Ambuly added.

The library will operate from the Birchandra State Central Library, the oldest library in the region which was set up in 1896 in the Tripura capital Agartala.

"Birchandra library has a huge collection of books, journals, manuscripts and annual reports on all subjects," head librarian Subi Kumar Debbarma said.

The books and journals would be digitised so that they are accessible online via a searchable online database, he added.

Besides English, rare books in Bengali and tribal language Kokborok will also be available in the digital library.

Ambuly said the initiative was aimed at creating a portal of heritage books and manuscripts of India.

Kolkata based C-DAC has been involved in the book digitisation process at Birchandra State Central Library since June 2011.