HYDERABAD: Most students in rural areas wish they had access more books. The National Digital Library of India (NDLI), launched early this year and sponsored by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development and coordinated by Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur is one such free resource.
Quite a few online libraries are available these days, but the highlight of NDLI is that it offers more than 65 lakh books to students ranging from the age group of primary education to post graduation levels.
The NDLI repository contains contents from various subject domains like technology, science, humanities, agriculture and others.
The library has materials from featured sources like NCERT for primary level academic materials, Krishikosh for over 50,000 books articles and material on agriculture, NPTEL for over 10,000 video lectures regrading engineering, and their likes. They also provide over 2 lakh audio books, which is a leap forward for students who are visually impaired.
The NDLI is a huge help for economically backward students. Scholarships are provided for such students in the form of tuition and admission fees. Once they get into their academic institutes, quite a few of these students either drop out or fall behind drastically in terms of academic performance, since the expense for books and likely materials are too high.
NCERT books for students in government schools or books suggested by state government schools are still affordable. It gets really hefty on the pockets of students in post graduation level of academics.
With the price of books ranging from anything between at least Rs 500 to over Rs 1,500, and the logistical problem of a physical library-like limited copies of books and journals being issued by multiple students- the National Digital Library of India is a breath of relief.
Another aspect of this initiative also will help female students across universities to access a library at any given time of the day. With many universities, like Benaras Hindu university, applying curfews for female students, resulting in them not being able to access their college libraries post evening time.
The library will also help in various schools that have adopted the idea of smart schools and digital learning.