British Council goes online with a top-notch digital library service

The British Council Library has started offering annual online memberships for Rs 1100 per year. The service is introduced to remove some of the hassles involved with going to a physical library, including late fees, travelling to the location and waiting for particular books or periodicals to become available. This service is available all across India, and not just in the cities where British Council Libraries are present. Over 2,25,000 academic and fiction texts are available on the service. This includes 120,000 academic works on various topics such as IT, Humanities and Science. There are 350,000 works from British and Afro-Asian literature. Scientific journals are also available on specific focus areas. The kicker is digital access to movies screened at film festivals, including Sundance, Cannes and Tribeca. Some of the magazines available as part of the service include New Scientist, Amateur Photographer and the Economist. Audio books are also available including Doctor Who. There are 16,000 graphic novels and comic books put up. Videos and presentations for e-learning are also available as part of the service. More than 4000 newspapers and magazines are available around the world, with options to listen to these being read out, and instant translation in 18 languages. The service is available through browsers on computers or mobile devices. The digital service however, does not include the entire catalogue of physical books and periodicals available at the libraries across the country. There are membership plans available that offer access to both the physical library as well as the digital version. Interested readers can sign up for the service here.