Lok Sabha Question No. 154 (STARRED), answered on 2023-07-31
Subject: National Digital Library
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Saikia Dilip, Ranjeetsingh Naik Nimbalkar

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *154 ANSWERED ON 31.07.2023

## National Digital Library

*154.   SHRI DILIP SAIKIA: SHRI RANJEETSINGH NAIK NIMBALKAR:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  the  Government  has  undertaken  any  survey  to  check  the  infrastructural  and functional status of national libraries across the country, specially in North East;
- (b)   if so, the details of Eastern part of the country;
- (c)  whether the Government has conducted an evaluation/study of the reach and awareness of the National Digital Library of India;
- (d)   if so, the details of the findings thereof and if not, the plans of Government in this regard;
- (e)  whether  the  Government  has  standardized  the  data  in  all  national  libraries  across  the country; and
- (f)   if so, the details thereof and if not, the plans of the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF EDUCATION (SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)

Part (a) to (f) A Statement is laid on the table of the House.

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STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (f) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.  *154  ANSWERED  ON  31.07.2023  ASKED  BY  SHRI  DILIP  SAIKIA,  SHRI RANJEETSINGH NAIK NIMBALKAR, HON'BLE MEMBER(S) OF PARLIAMENT REGARDING 'NATIONAL DIGITAL LIBRARY'

(a)  &  (b)  Library  is  a  State  subject.  To  ensure  sustained  development  of  libraries,  National Mission on Libraries (NML) was launched by Union Ministry of Culture. NML has 4 major components:

1. Creation of National Virtual Library of India (NVLI)
2. Setting up of NML Model Library Scheme
3. Quantitative and Qualitative Survey
4. Capacity Building

Government of India also provides financial assistance to States / UTs for modernization and digitalization  of  libraries  identified  by  States/UTs  under  NML.A  survey  was  conducted  to understand the scenario of public libraries with respect to infrastructure, services, usage, staff across  the  country  including  north  east  states.  Detail  report  of  the  survey  is  available  at https://www.rrrlf.gov.in/Docs/pdf/Survey\_Report.pdf.

(c) to (f) With an aim to make available to the learner's community learning resources through a single-window,  National  Digital  Library  of  India  (NDLI)  was  launched  in  2018  under  'National Mission on Education through ICT' by Union Ministry of Education.  NDLI is a key enabler by forming a centralized knowledge platform by collecting and indexing metadata from individual and institutional Digital Repositories.

A third-party evaluation was carried out by National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) in Oct 2020 for all projects under NMEICT including NDLI. Some of the key observations of the evaluation are:

- 37 million resources have been added against the target of 20 million resources, which is 85% greater than the target.
- More than 75% users are satisfied with the project.
- Most of the Users' have stated that books are available in various languages.
- The interface of NDL is simple and easy to use and is easily accessible and the servers of NDL are responsive enough

Detail report is available at https://ndl.iitkgp.ac.in/static-content/report-tel.pdf.

Under the NDLI component of NMEICT, Pan-India awareness programs are conducted through NDLI Clubs to disseminate their contents. Details of the club and workshops conducted by NDLI is mentioned below:

|   No of NDLI Clubs |   No of Registered Members |   No of Events/ Workshops |
|--------------------|----------------------------|---------------------------|
|               4851 |                    1243223 |                     10609 |

According  to  information  provided  by  Ministry  of  Culture,  7  Libraries  are  functioning  under Ministry of Culture, Government of India:

i. National Library, Kolkata ii. Central Reference Library, Kolkata iii. Central Secretariat Library, New Delhi iv. Rampur Raza Library, Rampur, (U. P.) v. Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Patna, Bihar vi. Delhi Public Library, Delhi vii. Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation, Kolkata

Ministry of Culture has carried out digitization of the 7 Libraries and an Union Catalogue of all these  Libraries  under  National  Virtual  Library  of  India  (NVLI).National  Digital  Library  of  India (NDLI) hosts more than 9.8 Crore digital content in 39 Indian languages as on 26 th  July 2023. There are more than 82.5 lakhs registered users on the NDLI platform with average 3.5 lakhs content download per day.

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