April 13, 2024
IIT Kharagpur creates National Digital Library for students
IITKGP Foundation
The National Digital Library of India (NDLI) is a public virtual repository of learning resources developed, operated and maintained from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. NDLI was developed by Dr. Partha Pratim Das, Professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering and his team of researchers and sponsored by the Ministry of Education. Dr. Das was a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and headed the Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship till 2023. Dr. Das is an IITKGP alumnus earning his BTech, MTech and PhD degrees in 1984, 1985 and 1988 respectively from there.
Prof. Das
The NDLI library boasts a mammoth database of nearly 55 million educational resources. Since its inception in 2015, the NDLI’s mission has been to create a national knowledge asset. NDLI is not just a repository with search/browse facilities but provides a host of services for the learner community. Filtered and federated searching is employed to facilitate focused searching so that learners can find the right resource with least effort and in minimum time. NDLI provides user group-specific services such as Examination Preparatory for School and College students and job aspirants. Services for researchers and general learners are also provided. NDLI is designed to hold content of any language and provides interface support for 10 most widely used Indian languages. It is built to provide support for all academic levels including researchers and life-long learners, all disciplines, all popular forms of access devices and differently-abled learners. It is designed to enable people to learn and prepare from best practices from all over the world and to facilitate researchers to perform inter-linked exploration from multiple sources. NDLI has digitally united the world’s largest democracy by launching two pioneer new services, the ‘Study at Home’ segment for schools and universities and a ‘National Covid-19 Research Repository’ for students, researchers and entrepreneurs followed by a CBSE Exam Preparatory for schools, colleges and entrance exams. The NDLI project has won the prestigious World Summit Award (WSA) 2021 for Learning and Education.