Singapore has started a national project to digitised literature by local Tamil writers and complete the collection before its 50th Independence Day in 2015.
The Tamil Digital Heritage Project would cover works of local Tamil authors between 1965 and 2015, The Straits Times reported today.
It would include songs and poems written and broadcast on Singapore Tamil radio in the 1970s and 1980s.
People in Singapore and abroad would have easy access to the digitised literature, said Arun Mahizhnan, chief coordinator of the Tamil Digital Heritage Group, which along with the National Library Board, was undertaking the project.
The NLB said it has more than 500 titles of literary works by Tamil Singaporeans or Singapore permanent residents.
The authors include K T M Iqbal, M Elangkannan and Singai Mukilan.
Tamil books have been published in Singapore since the late 1800s, said Mahizhnan, adding that their availability was?"woefully limited".