The Hindu : National : To save rare, old books

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 16, 2006

National

National

To save rare, old books

Antara Das

Kolkata: For years, rare and priceless books such as The Works of William Jones (1799) and The Tagore Family by James W. Furrell (1892) lay in a tattered condition at the library of the Raj Bhavan, the Governor's residence in Kolkata.

All that maybe part of history now with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee inaugurating the digitisation project of the Raj Bhavan Library and Record Room here on Tuesday. Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi was present.

Efforts to restore the books took place over the last few months, with extensive curative and scientific conservation undertaken by a Raj Bhavan team with the assistance of the National Library, the State Archives of West Bengal, the National Archives of India and the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library of Patna.

Scholars will be allowed regulated access to the 7,000-odd books and 16,000 files. Many of these documents date back to the pre-Independence era and some of them have been part of the personal collection of past Governors.

A copy of the Quran, hand-scripted in Arabic in 1783-84 A.D., and a copy of Kimia-e-Sadaat, by 10th century Islamic philosopher Abu Hamid-a-Ghazali were in such pitiable condition that the Khuda Bakhsh Library in Patna had to be roped in to restore them.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National