Berhampur: The Model Public e-Library in Berhampur, funded by non-resident Odias, was inaugurated at Town Hall here. Berhampur Member of Parliament Siddhant Mahapatra threw it open for the public on Wednesday.
The Odisha Society of the America has funded, proposed to repair, renovate, modernise pre-existing libraries and bring information technology to the grassroots level to address socio-economic and educational needs of people.
"This centre was inaugurated by chief minister Naveen Patnaik in an old library building near the Berhampur Municipal Corporation office on September 6 last year during the 150th year celebrations of the civic body that was a municipality till 2008. But the operation of the e-library was delayed because there was no parking space. The civic body and the Odisha Society of America finally agr-eed and selected the current location at Town Hall as the most cost-effective solution to establish this model library," said management information system officer of the corporation Basudev Panigrahi, who is taking care of the project.
"The Odisha Society of the America has Rs 20 lakh for the e-Library here that has 12 terminals and two servers. It would be open for six hours in two shifts on every working day from 8am to 11am and 4pm to 7pm. There is a proposal for nominal charges for the users' entry and also time slots. We will also charge for printing hard copies of documents. Students and regular users will be provided identity cards. The network information system will integrate with our systems within one month," said Panigrahi.