The Director of Libraries (DoL), Gujarat has decided to digitize more than 70,000 books over the next 2-3 months and make them available online, reports Business Standard. The books will be available to the members of the libraries via an ‘e-Library Reader’ software for desktops, and an Android app for mobile phones. The converted books will be the ones belonging to two state-owned libraries, the Central Library in Vadodara & the State Central Library in Gandhinagar, and the State Book Repository Centre in Mehsana town. Currently, the Director of Libraries is looking for a service provider to scan the books and convert them into PDFs, to disable unauthorised copying of texts online. The DoL expects the whole process to take 2-3 months as many of the books are rare and old and will require special attention to clean scanned pages of stains and black spots, which a user might find unappealing. The selected service provider for this project will also be responsible for developing a specialized ‘e Library Reader’ for both PCs and Android. According to the DoL, the software interface will reflect a library setup where books are kept on shelves and users can select a book by touching the related number or clicking on the menu of the books. National e-library: Earlier this year, the HRD Ministry had announced that the national e-library portal is expected to become operational in academic year 2015. The Ministry had claimed that this portal will assimilate content from central universities and premier educational institutions and…
