The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Networking of libraries urged

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 31, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Networking of libraries urged

Staff Reporter

National Library in Kolkata digitising rare books

CHENNAI: The National Library of Kolkata, Directorate of Public Libraries, Tamil Nadu and Madras Library Association jointly organised a seminar in commemoration of the golden jubilee of the `Delivery of Books and Newspapers Act' (1954) recently.

The Act, originally framed in 1948, was later amended to include newspapers too.

Publishers, authors and many from public and private libraries participated.

"Around 60,000 publications come out every year. Of these, only a portion reach national libraries," said R. Ramachandran, Principal Librarian of the National Library in Kolkata.

The library approximately receives copies of 20,000 publications annually.

Publishing cost

While reasons for this were discussed, publishers said cost of publishing was high and postal charges had also gone up.

Moreover, when books written in regional languages were sent to national libraries in other States, there was no one to read the title and acknowledge receipt.

Mr. Ramachandran said the National Library in Kolkata had begun converting manual catalogues into machine-readable formats and digitising rare books.

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