Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash
Javadekar has launched a new digital initiative National Digital Library
of India (NDLI) on the occasion of National Reading Day.
NDLI is a project of the Ministry of Human Resource Development
under the aegis of National Mission on Education through Information and
Communication Technology (NMEICT) with the objective making digital
educational resources available to all citizens of the country to
empower, inspire and encourage learning.
NDLI developed by IIT Khadagpur is the Single Window Platform that
collects and collates meta data from premier learning institutions in
India and abroad, as well as other relevant sources.
It is a digital repository containing textbooks, articles, videos, audio
books, lectures, simulations, fiction and all other kinds of learning
media.
Speaking on the occasion, Javadekar said, "A new era of Digital India
has begun. We dedicate this Digital Library to the Nation." He said that
the National Digital Library is a 24x7 ubiquitous knowledge resource
that is accessible to anyone with internet access and it is built to
enable the rise of Digital India.
The Minister said that anybody can access the digital library anytime
and anywhere absolutely free of cost and will contribute greatly to the
Government's commitment towards "Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat".
The minister explained that NDLI is a digital library that makes quality
learning resources available to all learners and has 1.7 crore content
from more than 160 sources, in over 200 languages, everywhere and 30
lakh users are registered on NDLI as on date and our target is to
increase the users 10 times in a year.
He said that NDLI platform is collaborative in nature and extended his
regards to contributing institutions which have made available their
digital repositories for integration with NDLI.
Javadekar added that apart from website, NDL is also available on the
Mobile app. NDLI Mobile app is enabling access to rich digital content
of libraries across the country and even foreign repositories to users
even in the remotest of areas.
He further said that the App, which has been downloaded over 6.70 lakh
times, is currently available for both iPhone and Android users. Users
can search for content using various parameters like subject matter,
source, content type and more. Right Now the app is available in three
languages - English, Hindi and Bengali.
[ Shared by - S. Saha ]