You no longer need to look at dusty shelves of government-run libraries to find district gazetteers. The Department of Karnataka Gazetteer has digitised 20 district gazetteers in English, and more will follow soon.
“Seven out of the 20 district gazetteers are now actually out of stock. So, many people are accessing them online,” said N. Chandrashekaraiah, chief editor of Karnataka Gazetteer.
Other works
Besides district gazetteers, special volumes brought out by the department in Kannada and English, including Glimpses of Karnataka, Jewels of Administration, Karnataka Kaipid-2012, Tipu Sultan-A Crusader of Change, Karnatakada Minugunota, and A Hand Book of Karnataka-2015 are also available online on www.gazetteer.kar.nic.in The department will soon upload the gazetteers of Kodagu, Dharwad, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Mandya, Chamarajanagar, Kolar, Udupi, and Dakshina Kannada. “Work on compiling taluk gazetteers is also almost in the final stage,” Mr. Chandrashekaraiah said.
According to K.A. Dayanand, Director, Kannada and Culture Department, as many as 54 volumes of Karnataka Gazetteers have been uploaded online with the help of National Informatics Centre. “Attempts are being made to make Kannada volumes of gazetteers available on Kanaja , an encyclopaedic knowledge portal in Kannada,” he said.
Staff shortage
However, staff shortage has become a stumbling block for the gazetteer department to hasten the process. The department is functioning with only 30 per cent of the sanctioned strength. “We have written to the government to fill the vacant posts. In the absence of skilled staff, we have been outsourcing the work to experts in the field,” Mr. Chandrashekaraiah said.
Gazetteers are regarded an authentic source for the use of government departments, general public, and researchers.
K.A. Dayanand,Director, Kannada and Culture Department
