An ambitious plan of digitising rare books and records is underway at the Odisha State Archives.
Even as time and again, preservation works are being carried out by the State Government and INTACH, the rare records with the State Archives remain in poor shape, gathering dust and rotting. Also, the State Archives is beset with staff and space shortage to preserve huge piles of rare archival records that centuries old.
To tide over the problems, the State Archives has already finished conservation of a large number of records and started the process of digitising them recently.
Sources in the Culture Department said the decision to digitise rare records and books is aimed at preserving them for posterity. It is also aimed at making them available to interested persons. The digitised material will help one study the rich historical and cultural heritage of the State.
Superintendent Bibekananda Das said the Odisha State Archives houses over 50,000 rare books and around six lakh important records from 1803 to 1947 related to State’s political, cultural, social and administrative history.
“Documents belonging to the pre and post-Independence period, rare agreements, books and old maps are in archives and certainly there is an urgent need to preserve these invaluable documents as they are becoming brittle and disintegrating.”
Under the project, the Department envisages digital scanning of all rare books and records of the State Archives and development of a digital database of all scanned documents. At present, the State Archives has archival records dating back to 1803.
Director of Culture Department Sushil Das said of the financial allocations made by the State Government for the purpose, the Department plans to buy optimisers and other equipment required for digitisation.
The Department intends to get the documents digitised at a minimum of 300 or 600 dots per inch using high resolution scanning technology.
In another development, the Culture Department is setting up a permanent regional archive at Pensionpada in Sambalpur where thousands of records related to the history and culture of Western Odisha would be preserved.
“The construction works on the building is being carried out by the PWD and would be completed soon,” Superintendent Das said.
