Spread over 30 acres on the Belvedere Estate in Kolkata, the National Library, India’s largest repository of print resources, has embarked on an extensive upgradation plan.

The Ministry of Culture has not only endorsed nearly Rs 10 crore for various development plans taken up by the library, it has also constituted an advisory board to expedite and preside over work on various projects at the library. Comprising 15 members and ex-officio members, the committee includes academicians from Jadavpur University, University of Hyderabad, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Indian Statistical Institute, Jamia Millia Islamia, Visva-Bharati (Santiniketan), Institute of Development Studies (Chennai), besides other scholars and historians. The advisory board, which supersedes the earlier Board of Management of the National Library, is expected to hold its first meeting on November 4.

“The board will administer the institution and implement the policies and plans as directed by the Ministry of Culture. There are projects that we have endorsed and the board will preside over their implementation. Armed with historians and academicians, the ministry has extensive plans,” said K K Banerjee, director, National Library.

While the library has already digitised 32,00,000 pages of 9141 published works prior to 1900 in English and different Indian languages, an expert committee has been set up to identify and recommend materials from the holdings of the Library for digitisation.

Again, the library has already converted 1.42 lakh catalogue records into machine readable format, which is expected to be made available to the public on the website. The proposal for financial approval of the remaining 23.58 lakh records has been sent to the ministry.

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