NAN-ELS-5
Collaboration
By Maureen Okon
Abuja, Oct. 12, 2017 (NAN) Jens-Petter Kjempprud, the Ambassador of Norway to Nigeria said on Wednesday, that plans to digitise some of Nigerian’s literary collections was for safety and preservation.
Kjempprud told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Abuja, that the collaboration between that country and Nigeria to digitised its literature, was base on the recognition of the rich cultural tradition.
He said that the digitisation will include works written in Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.
The envoy explained further that the goal was for the project to serve as a model for other countries, and would help create a full-fledged African digital library.
According to Kjempprud, Norway has digitised every written material and also has the capacity at their national library.
”The idea of digitising the literature was base on the recognition between Norway and Nigerian’s rich literally tradition and culture, so that lead to the digitisation of literal works of both countries.
”So we had to digitise every written material in Norway to make it easy to access and also to aide in preserving our literal history. We then saw the need for Nigeria to be involved in the technology.
”Bearing in mind that we have enough capacity at the national library in Norway; the arrangement was for the National Library in Nigeria to collect all written materials of these three languages.
”So we submit it to the library there in Norway for us to digitise it and then send it back to the authorities in Nigeria, “he said.
He added that, with the current technology of smart phones and digital computer, that there was need for old literary material to be saved.
”This means that every Nigerian will have easy access to every written literature of the three languages and it will help in maintaining it for future use.
”As we all know a lot of old literature is disappearing gradually, so this will be a wonderful possibility of cooperation and for the common benefit of the whole world to preserve Nigerian literature, ” the envoy said.
The project which has been described as a win-win for both Nigeria and Norway would start by converting books written in Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba languages into digital formats.
Kjempprud said that the digitised books would be made donated free to the Nigerian National Library to be used at its discretion.
He said further that the Norwegian National Library would also provide a wider choice of books for Nigerians living in Norway. (NAN)
ETIM/EAL/EAL
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Edited by Ekemini Ladejobi