Project to digitise rare Malayalam books on anvil

Rare and old books in Malayalam language, whose copies are either difficult to find or disappeared forever, are to get a digitised version soon.
Seeking to preserve the precious literature in the language, Malayalam Wikimedia has launched a programme to digitise rare and valuable books to 'Wikigrandhasala', a free library of wikimedia.
The programme is organised as part of the 10th anniversary of Wikimedia Foundations's wikisource programme.
As many as 55 rare books are planned to be converted into digital format as part of the month-long initiative, which began on January 1, its organisers said.
Kerala Sahitya Akademi and IT@School have joined the foundation in the initiative.

The collection of books released to the public domain by the Akademi would be given priority in the programme, they said.
The books which are under consideration for digitisation include rare books like 'Sampshepavedartham' (1772), one of the earliest Christian works in the language, 'Malayazhmayude Vyakaranam' (1863), 'Hastalakshanadeepika' (1892) and magazines like 'Rasikaranjini' and 'Mangalodayam', sources added.