Bengaluru: During lockdown, bookworms found refuge in digital library

There are over 5,000 Kannada topics related to various subjects for school and college syllabus. There are over 4,200 e-books in Kannada and over 600 educational videos too. Our aim is covers subjects like science and technology, commerce and management, arts and humanities, competitive and entrance exams, school education, personality and skills, classics and literature, leisure reads, simulation labs, magazines, newspapers and journals - Department of Public Library official

Bengaluru: The COVID-19 lockdown was a time for the people to spend their entire day in closed doors. This leads to witness a rapid growth in the downloading of Karnataka Government's digital library app.

The State transformed its legacy libraries into digital libraries and launched a library app. Since then more people have taken to e-learning and setting a record. It was an attempt by the Department of Public Libraries, Government of Karnataka, in association with K-Nomics Techno Solutions Private Limited, Bengaluru to keep the learning among the students active during the lockdown period and introduced a digital library for students as well as for the use of the general public. Now digital libraries across the state have set a record by registering more than 5 lakh readers.

The reports from the department of public library confirms that the digital library facility has been provided as a first step in 272 public libraries across the state. It said that as of September 23, a total of 5,02,512 members were registered with the digital library. The department claims that due to the variety of attractive content that is available in the app is a reason for a large number of users.

The digital library is set up with the latest technology for content of Educational and general learning. This new initiative offers lessons in Kannada, English, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu. It also provides study materials for students of both State and CBSE Board curriculum in the digital form to study.

"There are over 5,000 Kannada topics related to various subjects for school and college syllabus. There are over 4,200 e-books in Kannada and over 600 educational videos too. So, department aim is to help students and covers subjects like science and technology, commerce and management, arts and humanities, competitive and entrance exams, school education, personality and skills, classics and literature, leisure reads, simulation labs, magazines, newspapers and journals'' says a senior official from the Department of Public Library.

Karnataka has a vast network of public libraries which includes 2 state central libraries at the state level, 30 district central libraries at the district level, 26 city central libraries, 13 mobile libraries, 488 branch libraries and 5,766 gram panchayat libraries.

The library modernization (digital library at first phase) project covers 272 public libraries consisting of 26 city central libraries, 30 district central libraries, and 216 taluk libraries. As a part of the project, quality learning materials are being provided to 10 lakh government school and PU college students across the state.