The Hindu Business Line : Digital library: Draft paper brings issues into focus

IMAGINE having access to all documentary resources of national significance including manuscripts, ancient literary works, census and statistical data and even research thesis, with a single click of a mouse.

Moving a step closer towards integrating the efforts of various Ministries and organisations who are involved in creating individual digital content, into a single pool - `National Digital Library', the IT Department has come out with a draft paper to debate policy issues including type of content to be digitised, required standards, and Intellectual Property Rights of material over digital domain.

"There will be a need to look into the content that should be digitised. Priority should be given for content relating to India, digitising legal documents such as plans and policies, history of legal access, census and statistical data, spatial data and other relevant information. Priority should also be attached to digitising material related to education and research purposes such as thesis, research work, reference material," the paper, which has now been circulated amongst various stakeholders including Ministries, research organisations, academic institutions and chambers for feedback, said.

The paper also proposed a registry of digital libraries in the country so connectivity can be provided to the NDL portal, and said that ERNET, STPI, NIC and IISc, Bangalore could be considered for housing the library.

"Given the vulnerability of materials accessible over the public access networks like the Internet, issues of IPR (Intellectual property rights) of material over digital domain have become a matter of serious concern. This necessitates amending the Copyright Act to include the technological advancements made in the area of connectivity," it said.

In the past, initiatives have been taken by many Ministries and Departments, including IT Department, for creating a digital library in their own domains. The National Digital Library is aimed at integrating all these efforts to provide a single point access to rare content in electronic format.

For instance, IT Department's project - Digital Library of India (DLI) - is aimed at digitising and indexing the Indian heritage and knowledge. Similarly, National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources, which came into existence in September 2002, has initiated a project on creation of Traditional Knowledge Digital Library. Another initiative, National Medical Library, provides information services to health science professionals in India while University of Mysore Digital Library called `Vidyanidhi' is aimed at developing a national repository for Indian doctoral thesis.

The National Museum of India has a small-scale digital library entailing areas such as decorative arts, pre-historic archaeology, paintings and archaeology.

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