The Panjab Digital Library (PDL), originally known as the Punjab Virsa Digitisation Initiative (PVDI), is a voluntary organization digitizing and preserving the cultural heritage of Panjab since 2003. With over 100 million digitized pages, it is the biggest resource of digital material on Panjab. There are many historically significant documents stored and made available online. Its scope covers Sikh and Punjabi culture. The library funded by The Nanakshahi Trust was launched online in August 2009. Its base office is located at Chandigarh, India.
The library's mission is to locate, digitize, preserve, collect and make accessible the accumulated wisdom of the Panjab region, without distinction as to script, language, religion, nationality, or other physical condition.
Davinder Pal Singh is the co-founder and the executive director of the Panjab Digital Library, contributing significantly to its mission of preserving Punjab's cultural heritage. It is the biggest online Punjabi resource in the world.
Name The organisation deliberately spells Punjab in its name as Panjab with an 'a' as Davinder Pal Singh feels the spelling more accurately represents the Punjabi language's phonetics.
Foundation In 2001, The Nanakshahi Trust was founded at Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, Punjab with the mission of "to develop the Sikh aesthetics and to assist the destitute and downtrodden", working toward the preservation of Sikh artwork and literature for posterity. To achieve this goal, Nanakshahi Trust established the Punjab Virsa Digitisation Initiative programme (PVDI, headed by Surinder Pal Singh), with the project initially being called Online Virtual Library. PDL was founded in Chandigarh on 20 April 2003 by Davinder Pal Singh and Harinder Singh with the motto Revealing the Invisible Heritage of Punjab. Another early figure of the organisation was Jatinder Singh. It was established by The Nanakshahi Trust, having a founding investment amount totalling 10,000 rupees per month. A key factor that motivated the foundation of the body was the loss of heritage related to Punjab and Sikhs due to natural and human causes, such as the destruction of the Sikh Reference Library in Amritsar on 7 June 1984, the loss of material due to inadequate storage, and the ongoing phenomenon of Sikh manuscripts deliberately being burnt on pyres for religious reasons. Sikh heritage had seldom been properly preserved, examples include the destruction of the original Thanda Burj site, the destruction of the original house of Bebe Nanaki (sister of Guru Nanak), and renovations around Takht Hazur Sahib, also the original Zafarnama that Guru Gobind Singh wrote is missing. Many historical gurdwaras were demolished and rebuilt with marble via Kar Seva renovations. Historical manuscripts of Sikh scriptures (birs) were being sent to Goindwal for "cremation". There was no cataloguing, microfilming, or photographic documentation attempt of the collection of the Sikh Reference Library prior to its 1984 content loss. No notable efforts by Sikh or government bodies was being undertaken to safeguard Sikh heritage. More over, Sikh literary collections are widely distributed with no central resource.
As per the organisation, Guru Nanak promoted the study and conservation of the writings of elders. According to PDL, the current epoch is the transition of knowledge from paper to digital medium, with there being a period of fifty years to transfer the knowledge in paper to digital before whatever has not been migrated is permanently lost. As per Panjab Digital Library:
Between 1994 and 1995, Davinder Pal Singh realised the importance computers could play in documenting and preserving heritage. In 1995, he encountered a printer imported from Japan in Chandigarh and noted that it could store digital images. In 2000, they realised the importance of digitization as a preservation medium. In 2003, he quit his job to pursue the idea, setting up a rented space in 2007 for the project. In November 2005, there were 36 volunteers in Punjab and twelve in the United States (with the US group being led by Harinder Singh). In 2006, there were ten working groups that were digitising 5,000 pages daily. By 2007 the organisation began receiving donations. The library was launched in 2009 with 5 million digitised pages being made available to the public. By 2010, the body had grown to thirty-five working groups, with its pace of digitisation improving from 5,000 pages monthly to 5,000 page daily. By 2011, it had thirty-five working stations or groups. In February 2013, PDL was launched in the United Kingdom with Jagdeep Singh as its local coordinator and with a permanent installation at Sri Guru Singh Sabha Southall. By 2014–2015, the organisation was also active in Canada. In 2014, PDL's head office was located in Mohali. In 2015, a fire at the District Commissioner of Amritsar destroyed all of their records from 1849 to 2015, motivating the organisation in their mission. Its mission has three objectives:
Addressing heritage loss due to environmental and human causes Saving items for future preservation and study Connecting individuals globally by providing continued free online access
Coverage PDL is interested in digitizing anything which is related to the Panjab region but also neighbouring areas (Panjab, Haryana, Himachal, Kashmir, Rajasthan, and Pakistan [especially western Punjab]). It is also interested to digitize anything concerning the Panjab region or in Gurmukhi script lying anywhere in the world. PDL is an archive being presented in the form of a library. It digitizes manuscripts from rural areas with the same vigor as it digitizes government files for posterity. The PDL's philosophy is digitization first, thus some of its collection lacks metadata. They digitise without prejudice on language, politics, or religion. It carries out its work for free by using donations and only accepts payment for government-related projects.
It has digitized 4,500 volumes of the Khalsa Darbar Records of the Sikh Empire, consisting of around 450,000 pages. It has digitized the records of eight princely-states of the Punjab States Agency, namely Patiala, Nabha, Jind, Malerkotla, Faridkot, Kapurthala, Kalsia, and Nalagarh, comprising 650,000 digital files. Furthermore, colonial records from British Punjab are also digitised. It has also digitised items in languages other than English and Punjabi and also maps. Furthermore, gazettes, gazetteers, newspapers, and periodicals such as The Indian Express, The Tribune, Akali Patrika, Ajit, Hind Samachar, Jag Bani, Sant-Sipahi, The Spokesman Weekly, Khalsa Akhbar, Kaumi Ekta, Dit Singh Magazine, Khalsa Dharam Prakashak, and The Sikh Review have also been digitised. It has digitised the records of gurdwara management bodies, such as the SGPC and DSGMC, and also the state governments of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. The resolutions of the SGPC since 1932 have been digitised. A heavy emphasis is placed on single-copy documents and records which have no copies. All together PDL estimates that the state governments of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh possess 70 million single-copy documents. It has digitised 22 lakh pages of Himachal Pradesh's government archives. The Haryana state government has rejected multiple requests from PDL to digitise their records. PDL believes there are more documents remaining in the areas of former West Punjab (now in Pakistan) than what remained in former East Punjab (now in India). The organisation has around 5,000 qissas in its collection and 65 spy-letters in Marwari from the 18th century that are useful for understanding Punjabi-Mughal relations. The letters from 1711 are by Diwan Bikhari Das. Aside from literature, it also digitises phulkari and bagh designs (more than 900 designs, such as from Peshawar and Malwa), and has digitised over 7,000 miniature paintings. 200 maps have been scanned. It also has documented around 1,000 murals. The body also digitises photographs (over 13,000), such as the pictures taken by Dhanna Singh Chahal. Furthermore, 180 hours of historical interviews have been saved. The project has also digitised legal records relating to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the 1986 Saka Nakodar killings. Over 35,000 artefacts have been digitised, mostly phulkaris.
Panjab Digital Library operates abroad, such as in the United Kingdom (incorporated 23 November 2011) and United States. They are also a registered charity in Canada. The data of the library has is used by 50,000 users monthly, with a total of 1.2 million users overall. Its data is backed-up at six locations. The book data is made available in PDF format.
Methods PDL offers both in-house and on-site digitisation. As per PDL, they digitise the material of a specific institution and then give that data back to the institution so they can maintain and preserve it but PDL also maintains a backup of the digitisation work. The project aims to scan items in their original form, colour, graphics, and texture. The organisation uses a variety of scanning and photography methods with scanners and cameras. A favoured method is the use of an overhead DSLR camera attached with a special lens with good lighting. For phulkaris and large paintings, they have developed a special method (described as jugaad) to digitise it in sections and stich the section images together. The organisation has developed 13 computer programs for its work. The PDL digitises documents without touching the actual item. The organisation also digitises items at the site they are held rather than bringing items to be digitised to their office to carry out the work. They capture an image in both RAW and JPEG formats, after being assigned an accession number in the central resource, with a comparison being conducted to ensure the entirety of the original work was captured by the image.
The organisation adopted the Dublin Core Metadata (DCM) for its digitisations and formulated its own PDL Metadata Schema (PDLMS) based on the DCM. It also developed its own Digital Image Management Software (PDLDIMS) for its specific needs. Data mining is currently only conducted on English literature as there is a lack of mature OCR technology for non-Roman scripts, although Punjabi University (Patiala) is developing an OCR for Gurmukhi. PDL maintains weekly backups of its central data at six locations in three different formats (DVD, hard-drive, and magnetic-tape). Copyright remains with the original owners while the digitised material can be used for educational purposes. PDL has an agreement with the publisher Singh Brothers to show their publications. There are plans to implement artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and big data analytics.
Funding Most of the funding for the organisation comes from public fundraising and donations but they are paid nominally by the government for work they carry out on behalf of the government. One donation method is the Adopt-a-Book scheme, where a donator chooses a work to be a custodian of and pays for its digitisation. The organisation does not receive any support from Sikh bodies, such as the SGPC. It also receives little government support. The Punjabi diaspora helps support the project.
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