Marathi Wikisource & Digitisation Workshop

Objectives of the Workshop

1. To build awareness about the strengths of Marathi Wikisource as a knowledge reference resource
2. To connect active community in Marathi language area
3. Networking with organisations with manuscripts,old reference books and gazetteers
4. To develop liaison with libraries,museums,research institutes,social institutions and knowledge enterprises
5. To develop methodology for listing,selection and prioritisation of material
6. To acquire skills for digitisation, running OCR tools,uploading on archives and Wikisource

Madhav Gadgil speaking

Background

Maharashtra Granthottejak Sanstha (MGS),a pioneering organisation working for the preservation of Maharashtra’s linguistic and cultural heritage. It was founded in Pune, India in 1894. Being an important archive for the preservation of many hundreds of years old manuscripts and historical artifacts from the Peshwa era, the institution is open to public for study and research. In a noble initiative to celebrate 121st anniversary of MGS, Pune the board members have decided to re-license 1000 books to free license and to donate them to CIS-A2K in order to be digitised and uploaded on Marathi Wikisource project. These books are the single largest content donation made by an organisation in the history of Marathi Wikimedia projects. These books when digitised and uploaded will prove to valuable resources both for researchers and general readers. MKCL (Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited), a reputed organisation is extending manpower support for the scanning of the books. Till date 2700 books are digitised and 900 books are uploaded on Internet Archive. Further process of uploading on Wikisource is to be started. With this view, it was decided to organise this workshop and include other libraries also, who wish to take up such project.

Organizations

35 Representatives from following libraries and museums in Maharashtra attended session at Jnana Prabodhini.

1. The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute,Pune
2. Pradnya Pathashala Mandal,Wai
3. Deccan College,Pune
4. Maharashtra Granthottejak Sanstha (MGS),Pune
5. Jnana Prabodhini,Pune
6. Karveer Nagar Wachan Mandir,Kolhapur
7. Shri Samarth Vagdevata Mandir,Dhule
8. Pune Nagar Vachan Mandir,Pune
9. Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal,Pune
10. Lokmanya Tilak Smarak Wachan Mandir, Chiplun
11. Vedshastra Vidya Sanwardhan Mandal,Karad
12. Rajwade Sanshodhan Mandal, Dhule
13. Sangli Nagar Wachanalay, Sangli
14. Vigyan Ashram,Pabal
15. Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth,Pune

For more info see the originally published piece on Wikimedia Blog