Cultural assets are powerful products and lifeline of humanity. People have a right of open access to it, said Dr James H Nye while delivering his speech at the Odisha Knowledge Hub (OKH) lecture series in the Secretariat here on Wednesday.
A renowned author in language study, bibliography and Indology, Dr James laid stress on conservation, digitization and open access of cultural assets throughout the globe. “Available cultural resources at different locations need to be digitized in an international quality standard and be linked with each other,” he suggested.
Holding the view that conservation and open access to cultural assets and heritage had been a challenging task, Dr James said Odisha has the potential and capability of being a model State in this direction in South East Asian region. He offered to have collaborative partnership with Odisha for conservation of Odia language, heritage and other cultural assets.
After the lecture, Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi felicitated Dr James by presenting Odishi Khadi shawl and a book on Nabakalebara.
Dr James also presented the documents of the summary proceedings of the Orissa Advisory Council held on May 8, 1936 in digitized form to the Chief Secretary.
Dr James is presently working as bibliographer for Southern Asia, Joseph Regenstein library, University of Chicago. Previously he served as Interim Director South Asia language Resource Center. Some of his path braking works include, “International Information Exchange: New Configuration for library Collaboration in South Asia Studies”, Geospatial Data and Integration of Digital Resources for South Asian Studies”.
Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan introduced the esteemed scholar to the audience and mentioned about contributions of Dr James in digitization and preservation of Purna Chanddra Bhasakosha in Southern Asia Joseph Regenstein library of the University of Chicago.
He was also instrumental in digitization of Odia language dictionary.
Dr James assured to help Government’s initiatives in conserving all records and books relating to Odisha that are available in the State, within India and also in other countries, said Balakrishnan.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik witnessed the lecture from his conference hall through video conferencing. Ministers, MlAs, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, academicians, persons of eminence from various fields along with senior functionaries from both Central and State Government participated.
The programme was also video linked to all 30 districts from where Collectors and senior officials participated in discussion.
Because of the growing popularity of the programme, it was further video linked to 2nd floor conference hall of the Secretariat from where senior officials participated.