Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the official website of the Odisha Virtual Academy, www.ova.gov.in, at the State Secretariat here on Friday.
In the initial phase, as many as 160 popular Odia books relating to literature have been digitised and placed in the website with an aim making those reach the lovers of the language and Odia literature, not only in the State but also across the globe.
A total of three MoUs were signed with the University of Chicago Library, C-DAC and Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore to expedite digitisation of Odia literature and development of Odia software.
The objective of the website is digitising approximately 2,000 rare and copyright-free Odia books, various Odia dictionaries, establishing a free digital library, promoting Odia unicode font faces through standardisation of typing keyboards and others.
The academy’s purpose is to digitise and preserve rare Odia books, lexicon, ancient magazines-journals, traditional music, ancient documents, literature on science and history, folk culture, tribal language and literature, history-oriented essays, folk culture, speech of great personalities, Shree Jagannath culture, temple and architectures.
