Bengal records successful digitisation of 34,000 rare books

Kolkata: In a major development, the state government has successfully digitised 34,000 rare books. At the same time, the work of digitisation of books is also going on in full swing in the district level.

In reply to a question in the state Assembly on Thursday, Siddiqullah Chowdhury, minister of state for the Library Services department, informed the House about the digitisation of books and the e-library initiatives of the Mamata Banerjee government.

He said: "As many as 34,000 rare books have been digitised. The work of digitisation of books in the district level is also getting executed with equal responsibility."

It may be mentioned that the condition of libraries in the state has improved a lot in the past seven years. Chowdhury informed the Assembly that the budget of the Library department in 2010-2011 was Rs 14.88 crore, which has now gone up to Rs 50 crore.

He further said that in the current financial year, books worth Rs 11.43 lakh were bought for different libraries. At the same time, steps have been taken to fill up the vacant posts of librarians. "Process is going on to fill up 182 vacant posts and will get completed soon," said Chowdhury, adding that

the librarians at present ensure that all the libraries function properly.

He further said that there are many libraries in the rural parts of the state and in different localities as well. Steps have also been taken to extend support for development of infrastructure of these libraries and to ensure addition of new books in the same.

He said that 1,455 such libraries were supported in the 2017-18 financial year and the amount spent for the same was Rs 3.20 crore. "This time, we have set 2,000 such libraries as our target to extend similar support and the amount for the project has also been increased to Rs 6 crore," said Chowdhury.

The state Library department has also released a book in August, containing details of 2,480 libraries in the state.