Soon, public can access Tamil Nadu Archives online

A senior official from Tamil Nadu Archives told DT Next that the authorities were receiving between 50 to 80 manual applications from the stakeholders every day seeking information.

“We have provided information to more than 65,000 persons in the last few years,” he said adding, “In the view of increasing applications, the State Archives have undertaken the digitisation of all the records including East India Company data under the Tamil Nadu Innovation Initiative Schemes for digitisation at a cost of Rs 12.68 crore,” he said.

The official said that works has already began to digitize all the records to provide online access of the data to students, public, stakeholders and government departments.

Explaining about the availability of the documents, he said, Tamil Nadu Archives have vast collection of records from various departments of the erstwhile Board of Revenue, the Secretariat, records from Collectorates, district court dating from 1670.

“As a storehouse of vast and diverse collection of rare books dating from 1633 and valuable documents in Dutch, Danish and Persian language, the Tamil Nadu Archives is a destination for knowledge of history of the land in its various dimensions,” he said adding, “This library has an extensive collection of 2.3 lakh books and periodicals that attracts researchers, academicians and historians from universities and colleges.”

He said that once the digitization process is over Tamil Nadu Archives will also implement a project to improve web access to its records and internal networking system. “Accordingly, all the records could be accessed online,” he said.

The official said that the government has decided to establish a research and digital information dissemination centre this year and for which the State Planning Commission has approved an outlay of Rs 2.46 crore.