Salar Jung Museum library to go digital

Soon researchers and visitors to the Salar Jung Museum would be able to access the books in digital format at the museum library itself. Visitors could use the computers at the library to read works. The digitisation work will be executed by IIIT, Hyderabad. Out of the 60,000 odd books, 40,000 were collected by Salar Jung and his family members.

Some of the rare books date back to 1600s. About 18,000 books have already been converted in html format, the remaining are in pdf format. Museum director Nagender Reddy said, “Scanning of 52,000 books has been completed. For some antiquarian books the photographic technique is being used as they are brittle.”

There are about 300 books from the 18 century. The museum has close to 40,000 books in English, 11,000 in Urdu, 3,500 in Persian and even rare Turkish books. Soma Ghosh, librarian, Salar Jung Museum, says, “Salar Jung had interest in a variety of subjects and there is a good mix of books. Some of the rare titles available are ‘Reflections on the revolution in France by Edmund Burke, The General Historie of the Turkes (the oldest book 1631) and Poetical Works of Robert Burns 1787.”

She adds, “A bible in hardbound is another rare book and is in good condition. It was originally published in 1609 in Douay. It is translated from Latin Vulgate into English and compared with Hebrew, Greek and other editions.” Though the museum attracts about 5,000 visitors daily, few visit the library. Soma Ghosh says that serious researchers from across the country sometimes visit the library, their number may be few but the rare collection makes their trip worthy.

The museum authorities have no plans to place the content on the internet and readers would have to visit the library. Nagender says, “Books that are prior to 1942 which do not come under copyright act are being digitised.”

By:T P Venu