PAL digitises 100,000 more pages

Most online books were in Urdu, whereas, some Punjabi, Pashto and Sindhi books were also available

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) has so far digitised over 100,000 pages in its e-library available on the website, enabling readers online access to the content in various languages.

PAL was about to reach a milestone by digitalising and uploading up to 500 books in its e-library by the end of this month, its Urdu Editor Akhtar Raza Saleemi said on Monday.

Talking to APP, he said all the digitalised books available on the PAL website do not require paid subscription, as our purpose was to promote literature in Pakistan and provide maximum facilities to the book readers in the country.

Divulging details of the e-library, he shared that most of the online available books were in Urdu language, whereas, some Punjabi, Pashto and Sindhi books were also available. The e-library had some books of English literature and English to Urdu translated as well.

“The quality of the scanned copies of books is highly refined even the decades-old digitalised books are easy to read”, he added.

Hailing the efforts of the PAL team, who converted the hard copies of books into the digital form, he said converting five hundred books in one year was not an easy task, as some books contained more than two thousand pages.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2022.