GULBARGA: The Karnataka Public Libraries Department has taken up an ambitious project of digitising more than 1 lakh popular Kannada Books and literary works. The digitised form of these books will be made available free of cost.

Speaking to The Hindu here on Friday, director of the Karnataka Public Libraries P.Y. Rajendra Kumar said an expert committee headed by noted writer and former Vice-Chancellor of the Kannada University Chandrasekhar Kambar had been appointed to select the books to be digitised after getting permission from the writers.

He said more than 17 lakh pages had been converted into digital form, and by the end of this financial year more than 1 lakh Kannada books would be available.

Mr. Kumar said the project was supported by the U.S.-based Carnegie Mellon University, which had sanctioned ten high-resolution scanners that could scan 18 lakh pages a day.

The work of scanning and digitising had been entrusted to the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in Hyderabad.

He said most important works in Kannada including the ones that won prestigious awards such as the Jnanpeet Award, Pampa Award and others had been included in the project.

Digitisation would not only help in preserving priceless works in Kannada, but would also increase sales of these books.

The list of the Kannada writers whose books had been digitalized along with the details of their other works would be made available on the net.

Referring to the establishment of a Braille corner in all the district libraries, Mr. Kumar said for the first time Kannada books were being introduced in Braille form.

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