Kolkata: The School of Cultural Texts and Records (SCTR) of Jadavpur University is all set to display rare cultural heritage objects, both digital and analogue, including handwritten manuscripts by eminent poets, directors and playwrights on the occasion of ‘Open Day at the Archives’ to be held on Tuesday.
The event will be held at the 5th floor of Rabindra Bhavan inside the university campus.
“The present generation is mostly oblivious of the value of archiving and have a simple notion that old things are of no value and should be discarded.
The event is aimed at arousing interest among the young generation in museology, ethnomusicology, digital
archiving and preservation of records,” Amritesh Biswas of SCTR said.
The school that started its journey from 2003 is home to a rich digital collection of not just rare textual material but also photographs and audio-visual materials.
The archive of North Indian Classical Music which has about 8000 hours of recorded music, Bichitra Online brings forth the different versions of same literary works in which Rabindranath Tagore had himself made changes during his lifetime.
A huge collection of chap books with both physical copies and digitised versions will be the major highlights of the event.
A live demonstration of the digitisation process and record players of different types will be an added attraction.
“The digitised collection of comic books of India like Anandamela, Sukhtara, Kishore Bharati, to name a few that date back to several decades will also be on display and will provide an understanding of the transformation these popular books have undergone with the passage of time.
The significance of all the exhibits and the efforts behind its digitisation will also be explained by the concerned resource persons associated with the same,” Abhijit Gupta, Professor of English department of JU and the director of SCTR said. Rare manuscripts of noted director and cinematographer Dinen Gupta will also be on display.