The Tiruchirappalli City Corporation has begun the process of setting up a digital library to digitise civic documents dating from 1950.
A section of officials have been pressed into the service of scanning the documents. Civil works to house the computer systems with an exclusive server have been undertaken at the top floor of the corporation building.
The civic body has roped in the services of Srimad Andavan Arts and Science College, Srirangam, for getting technical inputs for establishing the library. A team of officials led by corporation commissioner V.P. Thandapani and executive engineer R. Chandran visited the college recently to study the functioning of the digital library there.
Mr. Thandapani told The Hindu recently that it was focussed on collection of digital objects that included video material, visual material, text, print material, and others pertaining to the corporation since its inception in 1994. The records and documents of erstwhile Tiruchi municipality since 1950 were being collected for organising and storing in the library.
The electronic content would be stored locally and accessed and controlled remotely via computer network. It would collect, update, manage, and preserve the files for long time and they could be used by the officials, local body planners, and so on. It could be used as long-term archives for future references.
He said that a team had been formed to collect details of all documents, including Memorandums of Understanding, land records, population, pattern of population growth, birth and death registration records, map of the corporation, details of households, roads, map of roads, details of water supply, coverage of water supply, details, and system of pumping stations, balance sheets, revenue records, revenue sources, sanitary complexes, coverage of underground drainage system, parks, dispensaries, and others would be stored in the library.
Similarly, history of the corporation, the past and present representatives of the council, past and present officials and employees would find place in the library. The minutes of council meetings, agendas, resolutions, and related documents would be digitised. These inputs would be sorted out in such a way for enabling systematic reference.
