The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) and the city-based Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation (RRLF) will urge the government to digitise public libraries across the country.

"Along with the RRLF, we will recommend the government to adopt digitisation of public libraries on a large-scale throughout the country," Dr Shantanu Ganguly, Fellow at the Knowledge Management Division of TERI, told PTI here.

The International Conference on Digital Library Management here organised by the New Delhi-based TERI, also passed a resolution to this effect.

RRLF has been set up by the union ministry of culture to act as a nodal agency for the development of public libraries in the country.

"The future lies in digitisation of all learning resources. Public libraries should choose a hybrid model - having both e-resources and printed books. This will usher in a new information revolution in the country," Ganguly said.

Digital libraries are becoming a critical component of global information infrastructure as they facilitate rapid flow of information bridging the digital divide and providing an uninterrupted access to information in multiple languages.

"We will update the government with the present status of public libraries in the country and tell them about the benefits of digitisation. We need to have proper infrastructure for this as well as skilled manpower to digitise the huge number of books, journals and other resources," the TERI official said.