Re: [LIS-Forum] UNESCO helps preserve Indian documentary heritage

11 Apr 2008

      Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:19:29 +0530
From: Susmita Chakraborty 

With  regard to Mr. Leonard Fernandes' comments, I have a question to ask
the LIS community.

When some (rare) resources are uploaded so that everyone can have it for
free, is it not defeating the purpose if someone (publisher or any other
other profitmaking body)  tries to earn profit from it?
On the other hand, I feel that libraries having such rich archives must go
the digital way(digitization and dissemination of rare materials)  by
exploring state/national government or other funds and then try to derive
some revenue from these resources to cover the running costs of those
libraries.

In these days of finance-crunch, it may point out one way to break-even.

Regards.

Susmita Chakraborty
Bengal Engineering & Science University, Shibpur, Howrah, W.B.

On 4/10/08, Mailing List Admin  wrote:
...
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2008 16:07:57 +0100 (BST)
From: Leonard Fernandes 
Bold step indeed!!
Being a print-on-demand publisher myself, we had approached the Goa
Central Library with a unique proposal. The Central Library, instituted
during the Portuguese rule in Goa, has a unique collection of rare
manuscripts written in Konkani, Marathi, English and Portuguese, not to
mention a vast archive of newspapers. However, the collection has aged and
is fragile. Therefore, when people come to research on this part of the
world and have to either turn them away or risk damaging the books
further.
We had proposed that we will scan these books and produce one copy (most
copyrights have expired) that they can use to give to researchers and
other visitors. Print-On-Demand allows printing of just one copy at a time
and the technology is aptly suited for this kind of a situation. We had
also proposed that we will print their books that are stored in microfilm.
Both proposals met with rejection despite the curator being in favour of
them because "books were a step backward when the whole world was going
digital"
In the context of such hare-brained decisions, one can only admire the
initiative taken by the Xavier college at Kolkota
...
Mailing List Admin  wrote: Date: Mon, 7 Apr
2008 11:02:21 +0530 From: Susmita Chakraborty
...
Congratulations to The Librarian, The Principal and the other members of
the team for doing a tremendous piece of work towards preserving great
cultural heritage of mother India.
...
Hope many others will get inspired.
...
Regards.
...
Susmita Chakraborty
...
Kolkata
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