Digital library a hit in IT city

Y. Maheswara Reddy | NT

Karnataka State has beaten the United States in the number of registrations to enable the members of libraries to read books online anywhere, anytime on an electronic device – on mobile, laptop or computer.

The Karnataka Public Digital Library has 2,21,81,300 members as on March 13, 2022. “We have completed digitization of 31 districts, 27 city central and 216 taluk level libraries during the Covid pandemic. Our staff have attended duty during the pandemic to digitize the content for the benefit of members registered with us,” said Satishkumar S Hosamani, Director, Public Libraries Department.

The Director has said that he was very happy with the positive response from the public to register their names to avail the digital library. “I am very happy to know that Karnataka Public Digital Library has more members than similar facilities in the US and National Digital Library of India. The number of registrations has been increasing day by day,” the director said.

He said that 100 libraries among the 210 libraries owned by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in the city are digitized during the second phase. “All these libraries are equipped with dedicated computers with a wi-fi connection. Remaining libraries will be digitalized soon,” he said.

According to him, there are 5,766 village panchayat libraries, 100 libraries at various slums, 127 libraries for nomads, 31 community libraries for children apart from 82 reading rooms, 27 city central libraries and 31 district libraries under the Public Libraries Department.

“We have been providing quality study material to more than 10 lakh students of government schools and colleges. We have also provided more than 10 lakh e-contents and educational, national and international videos for the benefit of the public. The total number of e-contents and journals is 16,20,543,” he said.

The members registered with Karnataka Public Digital Library can now read e-books on their gadgets. They are given a login and password. Bengaluru Urban leads the list of registrations at 62,73,200, followed by Dakshina Kannada (21,37978), Haveri (18,62,849), Kalaburagi (16,69,262). Chikkamagaluru is at the bottom of the table with 3,907 registrations.

In Bengaluru Urban, South Zone leads the list with 16,33,979 registrations while East Zone relegated to the last position at only 12,263 registrations during the first phase of digitization. In the BBMP limits, South Zone leads the list with 14,89,420 registrations while East Zone stands last at 1,32,423 registrations.

The website is www. karnatakadigitalpubliclibrary.org. Mobile App is e-Sarvajanika Granthalaya.