It’s a library on the move. What was set up as the imperial secretariat collection in Kolkata in 1891 moved to Delhi’s Civil Lines when the capital shifted, with a detour to the summer capital of Shimla. After being shuffled between various buildings in Delhi, the 8.5 lakh volumes were parked in Shastri Bhawan, whose imminent demolition has put a question mark on the library’s future while its regional languages section stays packed away. The second-largest central government collection should learn from the largest in what not to do. Despite starting a digitisation drive in the 1990s, its slow progress at Kolkata’s National Library has left lakhs of old volumes too brittle to handle. The digital library mission must be expanded with the latest technology before more priceless paper gets foxed.