19th century Marathi books to be made available online

Thane: About 500 books in Marathi language will soon be made available to readers online in digital form. The special software for conversion in digital format of books in Marathi had been indigenously developed by Thane-based educational institute Vidya Prasarak Mandal (VPM). VPM did extensive research in the development of the software for last five years and has succeeded in conversion of books, especially the ones in Marathi, into electronic form, institute’s chairman Dr Vijay V Bedekar said here during the weekend at a function. [caption id=“attachment_1595727” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP.[/caption] As of today, 265 books, dating back to the period of 1844 to 1930, have been converted into digital form, he said. By August 1, the institute plans to convert at least 500 Marathi books into the electronic format, he said. VPM has also developed a website which has the data base of eight lakh titles (of books) presently with 20 libraries from Thane, Pune, Kolhapur and other areas. Demonstrating the software, Bedekar claimed that it has a powerful search engine through which one can search for anything, be it an author, a subject, publication, etc, in just one click. VPM is presently focusing on digitisation of Marathi books though they have other books also on list, including in Sanskrit, he said. PTI