Conservation and Preservation of Archives: A Case Study of Punjab Digital Library

Archives contain millions of documents like manuscripts, rare books, paintings, photographs, and historical records. All these constitute human heritage. Paper manuscripts, with the passage of time, are getting fragile and brittle because of various reasons. Lamination does not seem to be a permanent solution of preserving this cultural heritage for posterity. Digitization technology brings with it untold benefi ts for heritage preservation and access. Once a document has been properly digitized, it becomes immortal and can remain accessible long after the original has ceased to exist. The option of digital access further aids in preservation of originals through reduced need for physical handling. The Punjab Digital Library is a new approach to preserving Punjab's heritage for future generations. The central digital archive, developed over the last six years, grants electronic access using powerful searching and browsing capabilities for the researcher to sift through vast amounts of data. PDL has been instrumental in digitally preserving over 2.5 million folios from 3,400 manuscripts, 2,200 book, 1,990 issues of periodicals, 5,578 issues of newspapers, 3,152 photographs, 248,000 legal documents, and some 168 hours of video recordings. The current collection of data amounts to about 15,000 GB.