National Archives of India to film, digitise documents

New Delhi: To ensure longevity of documents in its custody, the National Archives of India (NAI) is preparing security microfilms of valuable records as a precautionary measure against loss by fire, flood, war and sabotage through an elaborate digitisation and microfilming program which is being practice over past many decades.

There will be digitisation and microfilming of around 2 crore pages. The cost of the project is estimated to be around Rs10 crores. The NAI has decided to digitise and microfilm about two crore pages available at its Janpath office.

The documents to be digitised will normally be in A-4/B-4/A-3 sizes. The documents will be digitised in color by using Face-up Scanning technology with pixel type moving linear CCD sensor scanner.

Scanning in true color — ICC — International Color Consortium specs, with white balance self calibration to capture original colors, cold light during scanning to prevent any harm to the original document. The documents of NAI to be digitised are of archival importance and due care in handling of these documents by operators has to be ensured.

It will not just to digitise the documents, but also to create a “convergence” where links to archives of other ministries or states could be provided for a certain topic to make research simpler.

Currently, over 90 per cent of the records are in original paper format and are susceptible to decay and destruction.

Moreover, scholars looking for research material , will have to visit the archives in person and request for a document to be retrieved, a process that can take anywhere between a few weeks to months.