Old religious books stacked in the library of the Srirangam Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple are being digitised to preserve the prized collections for posterity. The Srimad Andavan Arts and Science College at Tiruvanaikoil here has taken up this initiative upon getting concurrence from the temple authorities.
The college management has set apart Rs. 7 lakh for the digitisation work which began in the temple library a few days ago.
The library, situated within the sprawling temple complex, has a good collection of over 2,500 religious books written in Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu and Grantham, besides English. Many of them are out of print now. The college has procured an advanced, high resolution ‘face up’ scanner to scan the pages and copy them in DVDs.
Two more hi-tech scanners would be procured soon so as to complete the digitisation work in two years.
The scanner will flatten the image and the image size will automatically change according to the book size, says K. Sridharan, Director, Computer Science Department of the College.
Twenty-five books have so far been digitised, says S. Lakshmi, college librarian. Extreme care is being taken as pages in many old books were brittle, says Dr. Lakshmi.
The scanned book could be uploaded on the temple website.
The DVDs could be inserted in the computer and the whole book could be read, says Mr. Sridharan adding that some of the rare books in the library were over 200 years old.
The rich collections include Paadhothara Puranam dealing with temple agamas, Yatheendra Madha Deepika dealing with V ishistadwaitham and Perumanthrartham published in 1893 and written by Azhagiya Manavaala Jeeyar.
As these old religious books mirror our rich culture and heritage, the college management felt the need to do its bit to preserve them for the next generation, says Principal J. Radhika.
