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Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune

16 May, 13 tweets, 3 min read

Let us tell you a story of how we digitised 7,000,000 pages of almost 16,000 rare books at to create borilib.com: one of the first world-class Indian digital library of rare books.

(thread)

Established in 1917, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute is home to more than 153,000 rare books (& 28,000 manuscripts). It includes collections on topics such as Vedas, Ayurveda, Buddhism, Jainism, Sanskrit & its Grammar, and Ancient Indian Philosophies to name a few.

As the institute approached its centenary year (2017), we recognised the need to evolve in a new direction. We recognised the need to protect the treasure in our care, and also the significance of making it accessible.

Hence started the mission to digitise our library.

Step 1 - Creation of online catalogue

We carried out data entry of all books as per "Marc-21" standard. It has 26 fields per catalogue entry that helps researchers to sift through a large catalogue with efficacy.

It is available on the intranet for the visitors of our library.

Step 2 - Selection of Books for Scanning

The books were screened as per 3 parameters: their availability online, copyrights, and academic significance for the field.

Based on this, close to 16,000 books were selected.

Step 3 - Establishment of the Digitisation Lab.

We today have a one of the most well-equipped digitisation lab in India. It includes 3 book scanners and 2 document scanners.

We are eternally grateful to Ajmera group for helping us buy the first book-scanner in 2016.

Yardi Softwares sponsors the whole initiative -

Mr. Anant Yardi, the founder of Yardi Systems, facilitated the implementation of the entire project. They donated 2 new book-scanners, sponsored the digitisation process & also our move to “Digitalaya” platform developed by C-DAC

Step 4 - Non-destructive scanning (page-by-page) of almost 16,000 books.

Our digital initiatives partner, Nyansa, worked in 3 shifts, from 6 AM to 12 AM, and completed the scanning of more than 7 million pages in 2 years’ time.

Step 5 - Move to "Digitalaya"

As the digitisation picked up pace, we partnered with C-DAC, and chose their indigenous “Digitalaya” platform to host our digital library.

Step 6 - creation of borilib.com

The dream became reality as the digital library went online in late 2019.

It hosts 8,269 books today, with 7,500 odd books in the pipeline.

The pandemic has put a brake on our speed, but we will finish the job by the 2021 end

borilib.com is available to curious minds at subscription basis.

We admit that we are still sorting out many legacy issues to smoothen the experience, but that’s the thing with such a transformation. We are almost there.

After 5 years, and tremendous efforts of multiple teams, we know that our digital journey has only begun.

In that sense, we are 100 + 3 years old.

We remain grateful to every helping hand, as we strive to safeguard the heritage we host for posterity, while also making it accessible to people across the globe.

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