Santiniketan: Rare black-and-white footage, voice clips, pictures and memorabilia of Rabindranath Tagore and famous persons known to him and his family will soon be available on social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

The decision has been taken by Visva-Bharati following an order from the human resource development ministry.

The ministry has also ordered the university to depute two officials for running the social media campaign.

Visva-Bharati opened three accounts - on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter - on Wednesday to promote the works of Tagore and the university.

Nilanjan Banerjee, the special officer of Rabindra Bhavana, is the social media operator. Santo Sankar Dasgupta, who is in charge of the university's computer centre, will decide on the social media posts.

Rabindra Bhavana sources said there were a few thousand voice clips of Tagore and Rabindrasangeet exponents such as Shantideb Ghosh and Kanika Bandopadhya. The university is also in possession of the voice clips of thousands of lectures and photographs of eminent persons who visited Santiniketan.

There are also rare photographs of famous personalities Tagore had come in contact with such as Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Victoria Ocampo and Indira Gandhi.

"The materials in our archive at Rabindra Bhavana will be circulated through social media," Banerjee said.

"The university will also post its activities on social media regularly," officiating vice-chancellor Sabuj Koli Sen said.