Karnataka government dental college has set-up a digital library under the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences HELINET programme.

The digital library will have access to the collection of postgraduate dissertations, medical journals and other information resources. A large number of international journals in dental sciences worth Rs. 1.5 crore will be made available with effect from September 2003.

The required infrastructure like computers, servers, printers, Internet connectivity, local area network, independent digital hall have been developed in the college for the functioning of the digital library. In addition, around 10,000 volumes of important references and rare books have been fully automated with the library software called 'ie-Lib' developed by Adithya Software Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. All the books and video-cassettes have been bar-coded. The staff and teachers have been provided smart cards for day-to-day circulation purposes. Access to the digital library has been made available through Internet along with extended online reservation facility, renewal of documents borrowed and request for new books. Further, the video-cassettes have been completely digitised and made a part of the digital video library for quick and easy access.

The digital library is a user-based library service that seamlessly connects users to the information they need electronically, regardless of the sources, stated Dr. S Ramanand Shetty, principal, Government Dental College.

According to R Ramaraj Urs, librarian, RGHUS, the health university was developing a digitised system through the HELINET programme. The digital library was opened by Dr. R Chandrashekar, vice chancellor, RGHUS.

The dental college also set up the Oral Pathology department which has installed equipment worth Rs. 6 lakh. The department was inaugurated by Dr. AB Maalakaraddy, minister for medical education, government of Karnataka.

There 41 dental colleges in Karnataka. While 40 are private institutions, the government dental college is the only one run by the State.