Digitization of scholarly materials in India for distance and open learners

In India, a number of national level institutions are digitizing their own information resources and varieties of rare items. The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has also established Digital Library of India Initiative. The digital libraries and institutional repositories in India include digitized collection of academic publications, like, dissertations, theses, research reports, working papers and research papers other than rare books and manuscripts. All these digitized materials can be made available and accessible to the learners of distance education. The distance and open learners should not be confined into the study materials provided to them and can explore the universe of knowledge through the digital libraries, institutional repositories and learning objects repositories available today. Present study explores the digital libraries and institutional repositories initiatives, programmes and projects in India that can be helpful to the distant and open learners. There is also need of establishing a national level learning objects repository for the benefits of open and distance learners and their tutors.