GUWAHATI, Dec 15 - The Asam Sahitya Sabha on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Assam Electronics Development Corporation Limited (AMTRON) which aims to provide a dedicated online platform for the State�s literary treasure.
Sabha president Dr Kuladhar Saikia and managing director of AMTRON MK Yadav signed the MoU at a programme held at its city-based office. Under the MoU, AMTRON will develop a digital archive for the apex literary body of the State, by digitizing various literary works.
After signing the MoU, Saikia said that in the first phase the project will cover the works of Srimanta Sankardeva and his contemporary writers. It will further cover various rare, hand-written and other invaluable literary works of the region.
�The main purpose of the project is to preserve the invaluable literary works of the State and make them available through internet. It will help both literature enthusiasts and researchers since laying hands on such rare literary works often turns out to be a painstaking affair,� Saikia said.
As some educational institutions have already started the process of digitalization on similar line, the Sabha will try to get in touch with them and create a common sharing mechanism.
�Under the initiative, invaluable literary works and manuscripts of Assam will become accessible on cyber platform through different search engines. As a result of which, it will become easier to find out such works by using some key words on the internet. The project will cover both old and new literary works of Assam,� Saikia added.
In the project, Sabha will also take help of different educational institutions of the State under which interested students will get the opportunity to get associated with the project. The digitalization work will be carried out through scanning, DTP, optical character reader, etc.
MK Yadav said that they will provide all technical and logistical support to Sabha in this project. Initially, all the digitized works will be available in the official website of Asam Sahitya Sabha. Later, AMTRON will develop an exclusive website for the purpose.
