FREDERICK NORONHA
Books, books all around, but not much to read. This could well be the story of Goa. Ours is a world where lot has been said of digitisation, much money has been spent to make it happen, but the results of which are hardly to be seen.
Book digitisation refers to the process of converting physical books into digital formats. This is done by scanning pages and using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to recreate text which is searchable and editable. The digital versions can be stored, accessed, and shared electronically.
Goa has produced a lot of the written word over the centuries. Former library head Aleixo Manuel da Costa (1909-2000), in his four volume work ‘Literatura Goesa’, collated bibliographic details of some 11,000 publications by Goans from Goa and across the globe. This was written in 14 languages. His listing covers some 2,000 writers from Goa.
Given this enviable record, for such a small region, one would think that Goa would be awash with digital resources and with useful and historical texts that anyone can access by just visiting some online site. This
isn’t so.
After years of spending huge sums on buying complex scanners, employing staff, and repeatedly announcing plans for digitisation, the fruit of this work is hardly there to be seen. Libraries digitise some works, and then don’t share the same. It’s the same case with institutions too. In the meanwhile, a lot of opportunity is lost.
Book digitisation is important for many reasons. These include: preserving knowledge, widening accessibility, search-ability, cost-effective distribution, enhancing research and education, language and script revitalisation, and even space saving.
In spite of this, so little of the scanned work is made available to the public. Ironically enough, institutions outside Goa have done a lot more to scan and share books related to Goa.
Visit academia.edu and see where some rare and hard-to-find Goa books are coming from. A few publishers in and around Delhi have also seen opportunity in this, and have converted the copyright-free scans of books from another era into reprinted books. These are available for sale, but often at a relatively high price, and in hardbound format.
But, by way of sharing such work, libraries across India have scanned their (copyright-expired) books related to Goa, and often placed these online. For instance: there are books shared by the Internet Archive Books. In some cases, even former ‘hippy’ visitors to Goa have shared their recordings online, knowing that this could one day be of use to someone.
Some books have also been shared via the Digital Library of India (Goa University scanning centre). There are valuable resources at the university library, especially in the collections which prominent Goans donated to the institution. Such collections include the Pissurlenkar Collection, and the Carmo Azavedo Collection, the Nuno Gonsalves Collection, among others. These works, being old, are mostly out of copyright, and can be easily scanned and shared. This definitely helps the wider cause of the promotion of education.
In case for some reason the earlier push to digitisation in Goa has now slowed down, or completely stopped, steps need to be taken to see how this can be revived.
But the elephant in the room is something else. Libraries and institutions which digitise their holdings are often afraid to share such work. This may also happen due to a lack of vision; but, more often than not, it has to do with the ‘fear of sharing’.
It is true that library usage has gone down over the years. In the 1980s, those of us who were interesting in reading, thronged to these institutions. There was no choice. Today, with material floating around in cyberspace, it’s easy to overlook the importance of a library.
Libraries play a far more important role than just to pick up something to read. They need our support. Libraries help to ensure knowledge preservation and access; they support education; promote literacy and learning; offer digital and tech access; and ensure cultural and heritage
preservation.
But that’s not all. Libraries also promote research and innovation… boost community engagement and social development… support democracy and the freedom of information… bring in even environmental and economic benefits. It can be said that libraries even ensure our mental well-being and personal growth.
But in times of declining footfalls in libraries, there is a fear that more digital sharing will cause even fewer people to visit and use a library.
But, this is a misconception.
Libraries are knowledge hubs. Not just places to store books. They have a vital role to play in terms of guidance, research support, holding community programmes, and even building learning spaces. Digital resources increase access, and promote more further learning. Libraries will still stay relevant, even more so, as users will find in them more archival material, expert guidance, and
reference services.
Physical and digital resources can surely co-exist. Librarians have a key role to promote digital literacy. In a word, digital resources will complement — not replace —
library services.
Currently, there’s a tough situation in Goa. So many of the age-old books and records are just lying in some dusty corner, undigitised and unstudied. There’s a greater chance of texts relevant to Goa being scanned in Portugal or somewhere else in the world. In addition, there has been a loss of language skills. The Portuguese language is known to a limited number. This is true of the Modi and the Halekannada scripts too, mostly completely forgotten.
Some time back, a lot of Goa Church records got digitised due to an initiative of the Mormons. The global Endangered Archives Programme pushed digitisation in Goa a bit more, prior to 2015. But all these have their limits. Funding has its limitations too, and one cannot wait till funding comes, to undertake an important job of this kind.
Our libraries have a wider social responsibility. Their task is to spread knowledge, and ensure equal opportunities for learning. If they build well-utilised digital libraries, they could attract more funding, grants and public support. This would be justified too. Digital texts on local issues can surely attract new users, and save fragile books from damage.
Unless locals appreciate the importance of such work, we will be wasting a lot of potential and never accomplishing this task.
