J&K preserving Dogra Kings’ heritage through digitisation

Jammu Tawi, May 25: The archives department here is abuzz with activity as several teams work diligently to digitise precious manuscripts, books, and historic records of the erstwhile Dogra dynasty's kings to preserve the “invaluable heritage” for future generations.
“We are focusing on the digitisation of the archival records (containing manuscripts, books, journals, newspapers and historic records of erstwhile kings). We have a total archival record of 55,88,000 and we have already digitised 38,88,000 records,” Director, Archives, Archaeology and Museums, Jammu and Kashmir, Pradeep Kumar said here.
The department has laid focus on digitisation of the archival records of rare and precious documents and files concerning the armies of the erstwhile ‘maharajas' of Jammu and Kashmir.
“These are files concerning the armies of the maharajas and the decisions taken by them. The digitisation of these rare and precious files is going on,” another official said.
“We floated tenders for the digitisation of the remaining records in February and the selected agency, within the one-and-a-half-month period, digitised another 1.30 lakh pages. Hopefully, within a year, all the records will be digitised,” Kumar said.
Meanwhile, a digital archival repository has been established that will serve as a sanctuary for rare documents, books, and periodicals. After digitisation, these archival records are meticulously preserved, tagged, and stored on the racks and shelves.