Started on September 1, the project to digitise a part of the Delhi Archives started on September 1, with 30,000 pages being scanned on the first two days.
According to officials at the Delhi Archives, which has an estimated 10 crore pages of archival material, the digitisation and microfilming of four crore pages would be done within 30 months.
Free of cost
Once completed, the low resolution images would be available online free of cost, though users would have to enrol by giving a government-issued ID proof. For downloading copies of the records, there would be a fee, which is yet to be decided, said an official.
Currently, six overhead scanners have been deployed. An additional eight scanners and one oversize scanner to be used for maps etc. would be installed by the end of the month. Once in place, the target would be to scan 50,000 pages a day, the official said.
In addition, the records will also be available on microfilm, which will not be available for the general public. These are required as courts only recognise microfilm, not digital records as evidence.
The project had been pending since 2011 and was finally cleared by the Aam Aadmi Party government recently. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and Art and Culture Minister Manish Sisodia said the archives were a “treasure”.
‘Lessons to be learnt’
“There is a need to share the archives with more people in the interest of knowledge, research and analysis. We need to learn from the past. It is also important for governance,” he said.
Once finished, the digital library of records would be the largest such online archive in Asia, as per the government.