National Digital Library of India

National Digital Library of India (NDLI)

Type of site	Education
Available in	12 Search Languages languages
Headquarters	IIT Kharagpur, WB, India, Kharagpur , India
Country of origin	India
Key people	Dr. B. Sutradhar, Jt. PI of NDLI, Librarian of Central Library, IIT Kharagpur
Employees	>92 (January 2023)
URL	www.ndl.gov.in
Commercial	No
Registration	Free
Users	87,09,389+ (July 2024)
Launched	19 June 2018
Current status	Active
Content license	CC0

The National Digital Library of India is a virtual repository of learning resources, providing services including textbooks, articles, videos, audiobooks, lectures, simulations, fiction, and other kinds of learning media for the learner community. It is a project managed by the Ministry of Education, Government of India through its National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT). The objective of the project is to collect and collate metadata and provide full text index from several national and international digital libraries and other relevant sources. The NDLI provides free access to many books and is designed to hold content in any language, offering search support for the 12 most widely used Indian languages. It is developed, operated, and maintained by the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.^[1]

NDLI offers access to educational materials across various disciplines and academic levels, aggregating content from numerous national and international sources, including books, articles, theses, audio-video lectures, and OERs. The platform supports multiple languages, ensuring resources are available to a wide audience. Built using open architecture, open-source software, and open metadata, NDLI provides access to more than 100 million items in 39 Indian languages, out of 423 languages in total.^{[citation needed]}

The development of a digital library portal was initiated as a Pilot project (NDLI Ph-I) in April 2015, lasting until 30 September 2017. The initial duration of Ph-II was from 1 October 2017 to 31 March 2020, but it was extended to 31 March 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Ministry of Education, Govt. of India initiated Ph-III of the project, with a duration from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2026.^[2][3]

Dedicated to the nation on 19 June 2018 by the Union Human Resource Minister Prakash Javadekar, the library aimed to integrate significant Indian digital and non-digital libraries through a single-window platform and ensure accessibility to educational resources for every demographic.^[4]

The digital library portal's development began as a pilot project (NDLI Ph-I) in April 2015. By 2016, the beta version of the portal went live. During this period, content was aggregated, and partnerships were established with numerous institutions across India, including central libraries of various universities, public libraries, and other educational institutions. The portal expanded its repository and incorporated tools to facilitate access and usability, including multilingual support.^{[citation needed]}

The official launch of the NDLI platform occurred on 19 June 2018, with the stated aim of democratizing access to knowledge for over 50 million students across India. By 2019, NDLI had aggregated over 30 million items in more than 70 languages, covering subjects such as literature, science, mathematics, engineering, and medicine. During this period, its reach was expanded, and advanced technological features were integrated to enhance user experience. A new and more user-friendly UI was launched to make it accessible on various devices, promoting wider use in both urban and rural areas. By that time, NDLI also enhanced its capabilities in handling and preserving Indigenous content, including rare manuscripts and folk literature, contributing to the preservation of cultural heritage.^{[citation needed]}

As schools, colleges, and universities across India went into complete lockdown on 25 March 2020, NDLI adapted by shifting from a ‘data-focused’ approach to one centered on ‘agility and service,’ requiring significant efforts in classifying content into user-targeted services, resulting in the first major overhaul of the site since its inception.^[5]

Phase Two of the NDLI project was approved for the period from 2017 to 2020. However, the project timeline was extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, the Ministry of Education, Government of India, extended the NDLI project until 2026. As normal activities gradually resumed after the pandemic, a major overhaul of NDLI was implemented to further enhance its capabilities and reach.^{[citation needed]}

On 22 April 2024, the National Digital Library of India (NDLI) launched its 3.0 version, designed to create a more personalized user experience through an enhanced interface.^{[citation needed]}

NDLI currently houses content from 23 state boards and national boards such as CBSE and NCERT. The range of content includes school, college, and university-level topics, as well as material for 21st-century skills such as digital literacy, language and communication, and scientific temper. These resources are available in text, video, audiobook, presentations, and simulations in multiple Indian languages, aligning NDLI’s objectives with the vision of the National Education Policy.^{[citation needed]}

Like other digital libraries worldwide, NDLI faces the challenge of disseminating, popularizing, and increasing user awareness of its platform. To address this, several initiatives have been undertaken with the assistance of the Government of India, including the NDLI club.^[6]

In 2020, the Indian government launched the National Education Policy (NEP 2020), and NDLI used this as an opportunity to promote the platform and help educational institutions adopt key recommendations outlined in NEP 2020, such as the establishment of topic-centred and project-based clubs designed to nurture students' interests and talents through supplementary enrichment material, guidance, and support.

NDLI launched the NDLI Club in March 2021 as a digital initiative that provides a platform for institutions to establish activity-based clubs where students can engage in various learning activities using content from the NDLI repository. The NDLI Club platform enables institutions to create events, upload reports, maintain event logs, automatically generate certificates, and build networks to exchange resources.^{[citation needed]}

As of July 2024, over 5,800 institutions have established clubs using the NDLI Club platform, bringing together nearly 1.7 million members from different regions of India. The primary objective of the NDLI Club is to promote NDLI awareness among students and teachers through activity-based learning, offering NDLI as a resource and service.^[7]

The National Digital Library of India (NDLI) provides Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) services to academic institutions across India. To date, NDLI has facilitated the establishment of more than 150 IDRs, enhancing the digital infrastructure of these institutions.^{[citation needed]}

NDLI set up its own Digital Preservation Centre at Salt Lake in 2019.^[8] Initially, the contents of "Presidency Alumni Association" were digitized there and integrated into NDLI. This features content such as:

• The Presidency College Register, a list of graduates from 1858-1925.
• Oaten on Netaji - Poem by the Professor of History on Subhas Chandra Bose.
• Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, one of the first Graduates of Presidency College, marked absent in the attendance record of the class of 1858-59.
• Volumes of the journal by the alumni, "Autumn Annual", edited by Late Nabanita Deb Sen.
• Issues of the Bengali science journal "Jnan O Bijnan" that were published from 1948-2020.^[9]
• A Bengali translation of "Srimadbhagabad gita", contributed by Udbodhan Karyalaya.

User registration is open to users from around the world. However, content from some sources is only accessible to registered users, including works from:

• World eBook Library
• OECD iLibrary
• Satyajit Ray Society

The library is managed by the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur.

• Digital Library of India
• Traditional Knowledge Digital Library
• Panjab Digital Library
• Open access in India