Jamia Millia Islamia University, or JMI, has acquired an overhead scanning device to scale-up the digitisation unit of their central library, Dr Zakir Hussain Library. The university plans to digitise archival records in its possession to allow for easy access for researchers.
“With this unit, the library proposes to undertake the phase-wise digitization of historical manuscripts, rare books, old serials, archival newspapers in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and English languages at a larger scale. These centuries old documents will be digitised within the safe premises of the library by its own staff being trained to this end,” says a statement issued by Jamia Millia Islamia.
It further added that Dr. Zakir Husain Library is first among central universities of India to have a modern and efficient digitisation unit in the country.
The JMI Library also intends to digitise items related to the university's history like photographs, private papers of the founder and benefactors of university like Mahatma Gandhi, Hakim Ajmal Khan and Dr Zakir Husain etc. In addition, journals and magazines, news clips related to 100 years old university shall also be digitalised.
The digitisation unit seeks to promote teaching-learning and research in an online digital format and preserve art, culture and history and a large number of “its rarest of the rare manuscripts” and other archival documents for future generations.
Digitising Records
The high-speed scanner is made in France and has been acquired with financial support from the National Archives of India, Ministry of Culture, Government of India. The scanner, as per a statement issued by JMI, has the capacity to scan a page in less than a second.
The scanner comes with features such as real-time colour preview, automatic glass opening, electrical flat and v-shaped book cradle, automatic cropping and automatic curvature correction.
Similar scanners are installed at several university libraries of the world like John Hopkins University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Central Florida, The Graduate Institute of Geneva, National Library of France, Library of Hagen's University, Germany, McGill University, Cleveland Art Museum and National Library of Finland.
The central library of the university is already providing access to a large number of e-resources to its users from their homes and other remote locations during the period of COVID-19 lockdown from March 25.
