Telugu library to go digital

Hyderabad: A veritable treasure trove of ancient Telugu literature with a collection of more than 50,000 volumes on diverse subjects, the 117-year-old Sri Krishna Devaraya Telugu Bhasha Nilayam is going the digital way.

The authorities took up the initiative to transform the facility into a digital library and make rich content available at a click.

Presently, the collection includes diverse subjects such as Upanishadic lore, Alankara Shastra, Sharada and age-old panchangams apart from modern knowledge and research books at this public library.

There are over 40,000 books in Telugu and 10,000 books in Sanskrit along with a collection of literature in English and other languages available for readers. The Bhasha Nilayam is a major source of information and knowledge in Telugu not only for students but also for researchers.

Efforts were already initiated in a small way for the digitisation process and a proposal was already submitted to the government for the purpose.

Sri Krishna Devaraya Telugu Bhasha Nilayam Secretary T Udayawaralu said once digitised, the vast collection in Telugu would be of great help for students and researchers in easy collection of information of their choice. “Until now, around 1,000 books and a few old newspapers were digitised by the Press Academy. Some 15,000 ancient and damaged books are now available for digitisation, which does not fall under copyrights issue,” he said.

Since the binding of the books has to be removed to take up digitisation, guidance of experts is being sought and also from the Archives Department.

In the present milieu, Telugu book readers started to dwindle, said Udayawaralu adding that digitisation of Bhasha Nilayam collection would not only help protect heritage literature but also make it available for the coming generations in a digitised format.

To promote Telugu language, eight awards to poets and literature experts are given by Bhasha Nilayam on the birth anniversaries of Boorgula Ramakrishna Rao, Ravichettu Ranga Rao, Madapati Hanumanth Rao and others, he added.