Feb

184 Year Old Kerala State Central Library Starts Digitizing Hundreds of Rare Books

The Kerala State Central Library, which happens to be one of the oldest in India, has made the big leap to the digital age by digitizing hundreds of books, some which date back hundreds of years. Located in Trivandrum, the capital city of the South Indian state of Kerala, the library has to its credit books, documents, and letters that have highly restricted physical access. The library has started its digitization drive since 2006 and has been making digital copies of its rare collection to be added to its Digital Archive. During the initial phase, 707 rare documents (which include 644 English and 63 Malayalam books comprising of 3,280,268 pages) were added to the Digital Archive. 480 more English books with a total of 1,840,321 pages were added in the second phase in 2012.

Among the titles that have been digitized include An Account of the Trade in India by Kockyer Charles that was published in 1711, along with books on the ancient Vedas and other religious books. The library also contains documents that outline the way the Travancore legislative assembly functioned in the 20th century. However, the library’s pride is Righte Noble and Pleasant History of Successors of Alexander Surnamed the Great, which was published way back in 1569.

Sovan Mandal (2403 Posts)

Sovan Mandal is the senior tablet and tech corespondent for goodereader.com. He brings a international approach to news that is not just applicable to the North American market, but also Asia, India, Europe and others. Sovy brings his own writing flavor to the website and is interested in Science Fiction, Technology and Writing. Any questions, send an email