Bengaluru: The digital library initiative launched by the Karnataka government prior to the nationwide lockdown in February has been a great success. The Department of Public Libraries provided the data which showed that around 10.9 lakh e-books and 5.49 lakh videos have been accessed so far. The success has come as a surprise to even the authorities.
Out of the 23.79 lakh who registered under the Karnataka Digital Public Libraries (KDPL) initiative during the pandemic period, the majority — 4.11 lakh people — were from Dakshina Kannada district.
The number of registrations from Bengaluru Urban district was much lower with 2.37 lakh users. The maximum number of people were from the North zone (77,160), while the East zone had the least with 7,956 registrations. The least number of users were from Kodagu district with only 1,773 people signing up for KDPL.
A closer look at the data reveals that a majority of subscribers to the free service did not download a single e-book or video. Satish Kumar S. Hosamani, Director of the Department of Public Libraries, said more than 10 lakh users had registered in January and February this year. “As they are newly registered, they are yet to access our e-books or videos,” he said.
Co-founder of the website ‘Ruthumana’, Kuntady Nithesh says: “We have to ensure that the books are in the right format as the interface is important. Unless the user interface is good, people will not make reading e-books a habit.”
Image Courtesy by Romannerud from Pixabay
