Mysore/Mysuru: The e-library facility got a tremendous response during Corona pandemic with over 25 lakh persons taking membership for digital libraries for one year, said Satishkumar, Director, Department of Public Libraries. He was speaking after releasing the Kannada book ‘Chowpadiya Shishira’ by K.S. Simha under the aegis of Vaidyavartha at Institution of Engineers here recently.

Satishkumar said e-library was started on Feb. 26 last year to take library facilities to the doorsteps of people during COVID-19 pandemic. In one year, as many as 25 lakh people have taken membership for digital libraries. Among them, Dakshina Kannada district stands first with 4 lakh membership, followed by  Kalaburagi district with 3.97 lakh membership and Hassan district with 2.25 lakh membership. In Mysuru district, 11,000 citizens have availed membership.

He said 25 lakh members have read 25 lakh books so far. In the last 10-11 months, 31.51 million people have visited the digital public library website. For first time in the country, 30 district libraries, 26 city libraries and 216 taluk libraries have been digitalised. The State has a population 6.5 crore people and there are 7,500 libraries. However, Uttar Pradesh, with 25 crore population, has just 72 libraries, Haryana 15 and Rajasthan has 68 libraries. People having smart phones can take membership for e-library and read 4.34 lakh digital books. Besides, they can read books related to competitive exams and newspapers free of cost. 

Apart from this, text books from 1st to 10th std. (State, CBSE and NCERT syllabus) were also available online. If students lose textbook, they need not buy it from market as it was available free of cost in e-libraries, he said.

Share PDF files

Satishkumar opined if authors give PDF copies of their works, their books could be read by the entire world.  So, the authors can share PDF copies with the Department to put it on digital platform. Every year, around 8,000 to 10,000 books come before the Books Selection Committee which included Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Urdu and Marathi, and they were selected in a most transparent manner, he added

Dr. Siddaramaiah, Acting Vice-Chancellor, JSS Science and Technology University, Prof. K. Bhairavamurthy, litterateur, Dr. M.G.R. Urs, Founder Director, Vaidyavartha Publication, Dr. D. Thimmaiah, President, Urs Academy Charitable Trust, Halappagowda, noted limerick litterateur, A.S. Satish, President, Mysore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, B. Harish, President, Rotary Aisiri and K.S. Simha, noted writer, were present.