A collection of documents written by the National Library can be downloaded or can be exported to CD, through the e-Library .
This digital library was launched by the Minister of Arts and Culture Mookhesswur Choonee this Thursday, October 20, attended by the Ambassador of France in Mauritius and Jean-François Dobelle Hauroo Premchand, officer in charge of the National Library.
The latter in his speech stressed that very soon the photographers, video and multimedia will also be part of the collection of data.
Also according Hauroo Premchand, the Mauritian e-Library aims to expose not only the local information at the international level, but also to create a digital archive of digital documents, while preserving the contents of any printed materials that get damaged in the long term.
The e-Library mauritiana was created from the Greenstone Digital Library Software (GDLS), University of Waikato, New Zealand. The online library will be available in CD very soon and in the meantime the online version is available at http://www.issioc.org
For the Minister Choonee, this initiative is primarily a democratization of access to information: "We must move quickly, adapting and adopting the latest technology as it important for a knowledge-based society" he said in his speech.
Mookhesswur Choonee also explained that the e-Mauritian just solve the problem of storing large documents and books as well as the protection of literary material for over 200 years. Before concluding that he hopes that the digital library is growing rapidly in terms of quality and quantity.
After the e-Library mauritiana, it will be the turn of the images of the island to meet in digital mode with the creation of a Museum Image by two months. This will be followed by the national archives dating from 1700, 1715, argued Roland Chung.