Voluminous, dust-covered books, some of which are almost two centuries old, are being given a new lease on life at the Kottayam public library. The library, established in 1882, is currently engaged in a major preservation project, digitising nearly 30,000 books that were published before the 1960s. Once the process is complete, these rare titles will be available for free as PDFs on the library's official website.
"This library holds around 2.5 lakh books, including 50,000 in the reference section," explained KC Vijayakumar, the library's secretary. "Many of them are centuries old and are kept separately for preservation, but maintaining them physically has become increasingly difficult. That's why we turned to digitisation."
The project is being carried out in collaboration with the Indic Digital Archive Foundation, a non-profit based in Palakkad that specialises in archiving cultural materials in Indic languages. The foundation's project coordinator, Tony Antony, noted that only works with expired copyrights or with consent from the authors or publishers can be included.
The scanning itself is being handled by the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT). At the library's digitisation unit, cameras, scanning bases, lights, and computers have been set up. Rahul Chandran of C-DIT explained the process: "Two pages can be scanned simultaneously in about 30 seconds. However, each page must be turned manually. Each image is checked instantly, and errors are corrected with a re-scan."
In addition to digitisation, the library plans to implement pest-control and air-conditioning measures to protect older volumes from silverfish and dust. According to President Abraham Ittichira, books that are more than 65 years old are often severely damaged, making fumigation and climate control essential for their preservation.
Founded by T Rama Rao, the Kottayam Public Library has grown to be more than just a place to borrow books. It now houses a number of clubs for theatre, Scrabble, and fitness, as well as study halls and an art gallery. "It has become a cultural hub of Kottayam that welcomes people from all walks of life," Ittichira added.
Among the library's treasures are palm-leaf manuscripts, commemorative volumes, family histories, magazines, and old souvenirs—works that are rarely found elsewhere. Vijayakumar emphasised their importance, saying, "The value of these documents only increases with time. Digitisation is our only way of safeguarding them for the future."
The digital collection will be available on both the library's website and the Indic Digital Archive Foundation’s portal, Grandhappura, which already hosts a large archive of rare works.
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