Kerala colleges get net gains

KOCHI: The digital library project in colleges is a first of its kind in the country and all the colleges in the city will be gradually be included in the project, said Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution at St Teresa’s College on Monday.After taking a look at the first phase of the project under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) implemented in August, he said the work of the library is progressing in five colleges in the city, the other colleges being St Albert’s College, Sacred Heart College, Bharat Mata College and Government Ayurveda College, Tripunithura. The library would be formally inaugurated by Minister of Communication and Information Technology Kabil Sibal in January, he said.  “I want other colleges also to enjoy this facility and am trying my best to get it implemented,” he said.The District Planning Office is implementing the project through Keltron which selects the colleges according to the infrastructure. The cost of the project is Rs 8,80,000.The digital library is a college asset value creation. Capturing, storing, indexing, preserving and redistributing the intellectual output of the educational establishments is being done through DSpace, an open source digital repository solution.“The ambience of the library has changed and it looks more inviting after renovation. The digital library will be of great help to us as we can access a lot of details, including academic, about the college online. It will help the alumni too,” said Susan Jacob a final year student of Communicative English.“The thesis papers of the students, college magazines, photographs, old newspapers and magazines at the archive have been digitalised. Question papers and conference proceedings will be available online. This will be of great help to research scholars too,” said College Principal Sr Teresa. Anyone can access the data of all the five colleges from the site.As for other heritage development projects, the Minister said citing Kumbalangi as an example, that public participation is  necessary for their success, funds are not a problem.