A two-day exhibition of rare books that got under way on Friday at Connemara Public Library here has on display one of the earliest published books in India – a bible – dated 1608.
Among the other books featured at the exhibition are the first Tamil book – Gnana Muramaigalin Vilakkam published from Tarangambadi in 1781 and an original print of the Constitution of India.
The exhibition is being organised as part of the World Book Day, celebrated on April 23 to commemorate the birth of William Shakespeare.
Inaugurating the exhibition, School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu said the out-of-print books were displayed with the aim of bringing more people to the library. “The exhibition showcases the history of print technology in India,” he told mediapersons. Connemara Public Library is among the four depository libraries in the country, which receives free of cost all books, newspapers and periodicals published in the country.
Launching the library's online catalogue, Mr.Thennarasu said it was the first step in networking the public libraries in the State. The project, which aims to cover branch libraries, is estimated to cost Rs.150 crore. The library's catalogue can be accessed through www.pallikalvi.in, the official website of the School Education Department. The project would help put on the Internet titles of six lakh books in the library. So far, 3.5 lakh books had been catalogued and by the end of next month all the books would be added to the online catalogue, he said. By the end of May the catalogue would be ready and readers in the district libraries in Tirunelveli, Coimbatore and Madurai would be able to access them, he added.
The project was launched by the library with assistance from the Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation. Once the catalogue is online, the library would provide e-mail and text message (SMS) services to enable the library users to seek information on a publication listed in the catalogue, said G. Arivoli, Director of Public Libraries.
The delay in cataloguing and offering online services was due to the low quality of data entry, he said. “We do not have the required international standards. They need information for 27 columns but we have for only 13,” he said.
The National Resource Centre for Free/Open Source Software in Anna University designed the software for the project. The Centre is a unit of the Central Government's Information Technology Department.
