Arts
A British Council membership is all you need to tap Colombo’s first digital library wall
The first digital library wall of Colombo was launched by the British Council, Colombo on Monday, November 4, at the Open University, Nawala.
The collection of digital books, reports, podcasts and learning apps can now be accessed and used remotely by anyone at any given time, across the country.
The digital library wall is an illustrated wall paper with active QR codes that links a phone or tablet to a variety of content including e-books, learning apps, podcasts,reports and IELTS related material. The QR coded content can be downloaded free of charge using Android or iOS QR scanning apps. It presents a new way of accessing the library collection by facilitating the ability to download the content on to a device which can be read on-the-go.
“We have over 120,000 e-books in the library. It also consists of academic papers, research articles, press reader – which allows you to read magazines and newspapers from around the world. The best part is, all of it is free access, only a membership from British Council is needed,” said British Council Country Director Gill Caldicott.
“The British Council has given out an amazing collection of books, from which we will be able to access the books free. Personally, it is a pleasure to have this particular medium with OUSL, as it is very useful for our students and staff. According to the need of the university the collection of books differ. Thereby we have access to a vast area of knowledge,” said Prof. S.A. Ariadurai, Vice Chancellor of the Open University of Sri Lanka.
“This is the second digital library in Sri Lanka. The first was launched in Jaffna, a few months ago. What we are trying to do is, to nurture the people with online digital reading behaviour. It is the traditional procedure with remote accessibility,” said British Council’s Marketing Manager Dinuk Baskeran.
At the launch: Gill Caldicott and Prof. S.A. Ariadurai