Seeking to create a national online educational asset for students interested in research and innovation, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, recently put forth a proposal to form a National Digital Library (NDL) to the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
The MHRD not only approved of the project, but also granted Rs. 100 crore for the project to be kick-started by the IIT Kharagpur, one of the premier tech institutes in the country. This was announced by institute’s director Partha Pratim Chakrabari at the 60th convocation ceremony in July-end.
Talking to The Hindu over phone, one of the core team members who ideated the NDL Partha Pratim Das said the project’s main aim was to create a knowledge base for students of all ages, especially for those interested in research.
“Every university has its own digital archive of its intellectual output and syllabus, known as the Institutional Digital Repository (IDR), whose access is limited to the university’s own staff and students. The NDL is modelled on the IDR, but will consist of IDRs of several universities and any student will be free to access it. For instance, a student of IIT Madras will be able to access study material of a specialisation taught exclusively at IIT Kharagpur. The NDL aims to streamline IDRs and other study material into one common online,” Prof. Das, also a professor of the computer and engineering department, said.
Except for copyrighted content, the data will mostly be available for free.
While the NDL is a relatively new concept in India, it has already made its appearance in most universities in the west. The content for the NDL will be derived from institutes of all types of specialisations and will include school-level study material as well.
The multi-faceted project would start by incorporating digital content of about 50 institutions at the primary level, keeping the next target at about 100 institutions.
Another focus of the project is to create e-content, comprising video lectures, interactive questions and answers and books, in multiple languages.
Stating that ‘a lot of activity is planned in vernaculars’, Prof. Das said: “Initially, the knowledge base will be created in English. We will gradually include vernaculars and create a multi-lingual interface so that students from across India can freely access it without facing a language barrier,” Prof. Das said.
The brainchild of a four-member team will be launched in 18-21 months and a prototype will soon be launched to test the project’s feasibility. About 100 courses will be launched at a preliminary level.
Headed by Prof. Chakrabarti, the proposal was worked on by professor in charge of the institute’s central library Subrata Chattopadhyay, professor of the computer and engineering department Sudeshna Sarkar and librarian of the central library B. Sutradhar along with Prof. Das.
Keeping in mind the evolving technology, plans are on to make the interface available across all platforms — cell phones, tablets and laptops. Content will also be developed keeping in mind the needs of differently-abled students.
