• Over 43,000 take to e-learning across State till Apr. 22

• Mysuru stands third in number of registrations

Mysore/Mysuru: The Department of Public Libraries, Government of Karnataka, transformed its legacy libraries into digital libraries and launched a Library App in February. Since then thousands of people have taken to free e-learning. However, the COVID-19 lockdown has led to an exponential growth in downloading of the Government’s Digital Library App — ‘e-Sarvajanika Granthalaya.’

There are over one lakh e-books available on the Department’s digital platform ranging from arts and humanity to school curricula, competitive exams and self-help to classic novels, all for free for the readers. Not just the books, the app contains over 600 educational videos too.

The digital library is available as both web-based ( www.karnatakadigitalpubliclibrary.org) and app-based for users. Users can download the app “e-Sarvajanika Granthalaya” from the APP store.

Karnataka has a vast network of Public Libraries which includes State Central Library at the State level (2), District Central Libraries (30) at the district level, City Central Libraries (26), Mobile Libraries (13), Branch Libraries (488), and Gram Panchayat Libraries (5766).

The library modernisation project covers 272 Public Libraries consisting of 26 City Central Libraries, 30 District Central Libraries, and 216 Taluk Libraries.

Mysuru stands third

From Mar. 22 to Apr. 22, a total of 43,219 people have registered across the State in the Government’s Digital Library platform. Mysuru district stands third in number of registrations and Digital Library App downloads with 1,887 registrations while Bengaluru Urban has 12,849, Bagalkot – 3,137, Belagavi – 1,713, Shivamogga – 1,705, Ballari – 1,291 and Dakshina Kannada – 1,043.

 Membership Drive marks World Book Day

 Library staff, who too are at home in the wake of a lockdown, called up the members of the respective branch library over phone, asking them to sign up for a free membership through a Digital Library App. In this way, the membership drive marked the celebration of 

‘World Book and Copyright Day’ on Thursday (Apr.23).

“Public can access over one lakh e-content by downloading Digital Library App. Hence, World Book Day was celebrated in a special way by informing members over phone to download this App,” said B. Manjunath, Deputy Director, Department of Public Libraries, Mysuru.