Cuttack, Feb. 9: Members of the Biswanath Pandit Central Library at Khannagar in the city will be able to access text books, journals and other competitive and reference books in the digital format in a year.
Readers will be able to download documents from the centre as the Cuttack Municipal Corporation has planned an e-library in the institute, which will initially have a separate room with two computers and Internet connections to cater to the same number of readers at a time. In the next phase, the authorities have plans to increase the number of computers to 10.
At present, there is no computer in the library.
The civic body has earmarked Rs 20 lakh in the first phase for the project in its annual budget.
"The e-library is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the city. A draft proposal for the project has been mooted at a meeting held on Monday," said A. Sridevi, chairperson of the corporation's standing committee on education, recreation and culture.
Sridevi said that according to the plans, a panel would be formed to conduct a detailed study on the feasibility and implementation of the project in other metros in the country. Only after reviewing the implementation of the e-library project in other parts of the country, the civic body will go ahead with the one in the city. "We hope to complete the necessary ground work and implement the e-library project within the next one year in the city, as funds will not be a hindrance for us," she said.
In 1981, the Biswanath Pandit Central Library was set up with a provision of 100 seats at Saheed Bhavan. In 1998, it got shifted to its present building. Since then the corporation has been managing the affairs of the library, which has now 427 members registered with it. It has a separate reading room for nearly 50 persons on the ground floor.
"Though we welcome the e-library initiative, the civic body should first redress the basic infrastructural deficiencies at the centre on a priority basis," said Ajay Das, a student. He alleged that the library had been reeling from neglect since long due to lack of adequate infrastructure, including chairs, tables and drinking facilities.
The central library has a collection of over 53,000 reference books, including various encyclopaedias, text, guide books and various language-based literature books in Odia, Bengali, English and Hindi.
The students, however, are demanding for immediate purchase of new competitive books as the last purchase was made in 2013.
Senior officials, on the other hand, said that already the works for repairs of the library had started and measures would be taken to address the basic problems on an urgent basis.