Calcutta University uploads 19th Century records on its website for public

The Calcutta University on April 30 made century-old records available online for the public.

The Calcutta University on April 30 made century-old records available online for the public. According to the official notice released by the institution, the University made its archive, including rare records dating back to the 19th century, available online for the public. While addressing the media, the University’s Vice-chancellor Sonali Chakraborty Bandyopadhyay said that the archive can be accessed by anyone through the official website of Calcutta University.

While revealing that the decision is taken because of two major reasons, Ms Chakraborty Bandyopadhyay stated, "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.”

Stating the second reason, she said, “The second is our responsibility as a public institution to the citizens as well as the world at large. The necessity and value of academic research should be felt by society.” 

So far, the library resources of the university, including the digital collections, were accessible to users within the campuses only. The vice-chancellor further added, “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.” 

According to the source, the list of digital resources includes 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). 

The university also uploaded age-old question papers, syllabus, theses, and more on its website. The source suggests that users can check 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) on the university’s official website i.e. https://www.caluniv.ac.in/. 

Meanwhile, the university is conducting online classes due to the nationwide lockdown imposed in order to contain the deadly virus COVID-19. The study material for the students is available on the University’s website.

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