The Gandhinagar District Library will earn the distinction of being the first computerised library in the country, when it will be thrown open for the general public at a function here on August 24, to be organised by the State Youth and Culture Department.
The computerisation of the library, with Internet connectivity, has been done by the State Directorate of Libraries, under a project funded by Kolkata-based Raja Rammohan Roy Library Foundation under the Union Human Resources Development Ministry. It is envisaged, under the project, to introduce computerisation in all government district libraries in the state.
Director of Libraries A F Shaikh told Express Newsline on Saturday that computerisation of district libraries in five of the 26 districts was over, which included Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Mehsana, Bharuch and Junagadh. The Gandhinagar library would be the first to be inaugurated on August 24 by Education Minister Anandiben Patel, who also holds the Youth and Culture portfolio.
Shaikh said the process of computerising the remaining district libraries was on and would be over by March next year, while the computerisation of two central libraries — one each in Gandhinagar and Vadodara — would be completed under the project by the end of this year.
All district and central libraries would have internet facilities and be connected with the G-SWAN (Gujarat State Wide Area Network) under the Centre-aided project. ‘‘Once the system is in place, a book-lover will be able to avail a book of his choice sitting at home from any district library. He has to just surf a list of books posted by the Directorate on the Internet and place an order for that book,’’ he explained.
Asked, the director said postal charges for dispatching of books to the readers would be borne by the concerned government district library authorities. The reader has to dole out a meagre Rs 40 as one-time deposit to register himself with the government library of a district.
The directorate has received a Rs 1.50-crore grant from the Kolkata-based Foundation under the project to purchase computers, hardware, software, colour TVs, VCRs and create other infrastructure facilities at the district and central libraries being computerised with internet linking.
The Foundation has accepted the government’s proposal to provide grant of Rs 4 lakh to help charitable trusts set up taluka or village-level libraries. The government has also plans to computerise its nine brail libraries in Bhavnagar, Porbandar, Visnagar, Idar, Bhachau, Ahmedabad and, Mehamdabad.