First workshop of national digital library held in Mumbai

First workshop of national digital library held in Mumbai 

The National Digital Library of India (NDLI) recently organised its first workshop at Guru Nanak Institute of Management Studies (GNIMS) in Matunga to instruct 82 faculty members and librarians from across the city about the e-library.

The NDLI is an initiative sponsored by the Ministry of Human Resource Development and is available to everyone free of cost either through its website or app. The library, whose app was launched in June last year, has over 3.19 crore books.

The workshop was conducted by Dr. Vignesh Sornamohan, chief strategic and outreach officer, NDLI. Dr. Sornamohan said, “We have books available in almost all streams, be it science, law or fiction. The government has also given us a national licence. This initiative is primarily for educational purposes and not commercial. Multiple challenges can be solved by inculcating e-libraries. In a library there may not be many copies of one book, or the library timings might be a problem, but by using e-libraries one can access a book any time.”

The workshop introduced the app and instructed users on how it can be operated. K. Joshi, a faculty member at Ramnarain Ruia College, said, “The faculty members and librarians who participated in the worshop were not aware of quite a few resources that are available. This initiative is useful and we are getting familiar with whatever is available to us.”

“The session was very enriching as we actually used the e-library. As a librarian we need to first get ourselves acquainted with the resource and pass it to our students,” Dr. Kuljeet Kahlon, Librarian, GNIMS, said.

Dr. Jyoti S., a faculty member at GNIMS, said, “I think most students think of libraries as a last resort as they have to physically come to a place and search for material, but with this app, using a library will also be simple.”

5 crore books soon

Dr. Sornamohan said that the NDLI is trying to add around five crore books to the app by the end of the year. The State government requires all educational institutes to introduce their students to the NDLI.

Source | The Hindu | 10^th July 2019