Bhubaneswar, Sept. 3: A collection of more than 40,000 reference e-books on the social sciences, including theses and reference study material on political science, development studies, anthropology, sociology and business, was included in the e-collection of Pranakrushna Parija library of Utkal University today.

The vice-chancellor of Utkal University, Asoka Kumar Das, inaugurated the collection "Sumitra Nayak memorial e-resources" and marked it for the digital section of the library.

The collection was donated by faculty member of York Business School, UK, Bhabani Shankar Nayak, who was also an alumnus of the political science department of the university, in memory of his mother.

Recollecting his student life, Nayak spoke about the importance of a library in the present education system.

The Pranakrushna Parija library has been renovated at the cost of Rs 33 lakh. Efforts are on to link it with other digital libraries of the world.

Higher education minister Pradeep Panigrahi laid the foundation stone for the digital library in December last year. According to plans, the library will be built on an area of 12,000sqft and will have an electronic repository of books and journals.

The digital cataloguing under e-Granthalaya has been completed and several new computers have been installed to help the faculty and the students.

There are more than 2.7 lakh books in the Parija Library at present. The library will also have scanners to preserve rare manuscripts. There are about 3,673 manuscripts on religion, rituals, history and medicines in the library. The university is coordinating with other state universities for e-books, e-magazines and e-journals with help from a private firm.

The library also plans a special section for specially-abled students with modern equipment such as Braille readers and special software to help them access books and other study material.