The Calcutta University on Thursday made its archive, including rare records dating back to the 19th century, available online for the public. Vice-chancellor Sonali Chakraborty Bandyopadhyay told PTI that the archive can be accessed by anyone through the Calcutta University's official website.
There are two major reasons behind the decision, she said.
"The first is our responsibility to the students and faculty, whose education and research are getting hampered as they cannot physically access the library collections due to the restrictions.
"The second is our responsibility as a public institution to the citizens as well as the world at large. Necessity and value of academic research should be felt by the society," she said.
The university's library resources, including the digital collections, were accessible so far to users within the campuses.
"As a public university, we feel that it is our responsibility to make CU's digital collections part of the global academic commons, to facilitate the pursuit of knowledge beyond borders," the vice-chancellor said.
The list of digital resources include convocation addresses (1861-2018), Tagore Law Lectures (1870-1986),University Commission reports (1917-1919), minutes of the senate, provisional committee, syndicate & and council (1857-1988), The Calcutta Review (1844-1966).
Besides, the university's old question papers (1891-1980), old syllabi (1955-1977), full text of theses (PhD/DLitt/DSc) (1960-2018) and medical dissertations (1956-2005) have also been made available.
The vice-chancellor said teachers of the university have initiated online teaching as regular classes are suspended due to the lockdown and they have also been regularly uploading study materials on the website.
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