Plans afoot to set up hi-tech library in Bidar

Source: The Hindu



The district administration plans to set up a hi-tech library in Bidar to aid the development of the educationally backward district.

The library will have a large reading room, a conference hall, and a cyber corner with high-speed internet connectivity, apart from books on various subjects.

The library would be shaped by fusing two schemes — the district central library sanctioned for the city and the Mohammad Gawan Library allotted by the State government, Anurag Tewari, Deputy Commissioner, has said.


Work on the project has begun. Officials have identified land on Janawada Road in the city. A detailed project proposal has been submitted to the Department of Libraries. “We have requested the Director of Libraries to give approval to a proper design for the building and a format for the library. We hope to start work in a month of receiving due approvals,” he said.

Before finalising the design of the library, officials went through heaps of pictures and sketches of interesting libraries of the world. A committee headed by Assistant Commissioner Venkat Raja went through pictures of iconic libraries such as the Trinity College Library, the National Library of Kolkata, the Central Library in Panjim, Goa, and the Heritage Library Building at Cubbon Park in Bengaluru. Finally, they decided on a modern library in a building that will remind one of Bidar’s heritage, he said.

Mr. Tewari described this as a labour of love. This is a tribute to Mohammad Gawan by a grateful city. The grand wazir or the Prime Minister of the Bahmani Sultans set up the Madrassa of Mohammad Gawan, a world class university in the 15th century. He established a library with over 3,000 manuscripts and also maintained a personal library of at least 1,000 books according to historian Ghulam Yazdani. “The least we can do is to set up a well-equipped library in his name,” he said.

The district administration will try to learn from the digital library set up in the Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University under the National Knowledge Network programme. The university has a dedicated an internet line of one gigabyte speed.




Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/Plans-afoot-to-set-up-hi-tech-library-in-Bidar/article16727265.ece



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