In the age of rapid digitalisation, the City Central Library has gone back to manual operations. Even its catalogue is not available in digital format. “We used to have Total Library Management System software and it was customised for us as we have books in eight languages. Now, there is no support for the software. Any other digitalisation effort will have to start from the scratch,” informs G. Srinivasa Rao, who is going to retire by the end of the month.
“We drew the attention of National Informatics Centre to this issue, but they have software support for only four languages,” he says. Lack of digital resources and shortage and ill-trained staff means books cannot be easily traced using the Dewey Decimal System.
The embrace of technology too has been hobbled by lack of funds. At a time when libraries across the world are turning to digital resources to stay relevant, the City Central Library has a few computer terminals where Internet can be accessed for ₹5 per hour. At the State Central Library, rewiring is being done due to frequent short circuits.
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Ironically, Hyderabad was a test case for digitalisation of books. In the aftermath of the big flood in August 2000 when books at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram were drenched, an international effort led by University of Chicago saved the situation. The books at Osmania University were digitised by Carnegie Melon University. Some of these books are available in PDF form on a few websites.