Digital archiving of Gorkhapatra essential: Minister Karki

By Our Correspondent
Banepa, Mar. 16: Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki has said that preserving the Gorkhapatra, which carries a history of 121 years, is essential.
Inaugurating a workshop organised on digital archive of all the publications of Gorkhapatra Corporation (GC) in Dhulikhel on Tuesday, Minister Karki said that various publications of the Gorkhapatra since its inception should be preserved in the digital archive and developed them as national heritage.

He said digital archive would be an important work not only for Gorkhapatra but the entire nation.
“Sister publications of the Gorkhapatra and those publications which ceased to exist should be digitalised to preserve them,” Minister Karki said.
He said that Gorkhapatra that carries history of the nation has played an important role in promoting culture, literature and language and to disseminate information to people.
Stating that paper could not be kept safe forever, he said that making digital archive of the printed copies was essential to preserve them.

This initiative would also help new generation to have access to Gorkhapatra publications, he added.
The digital archive of Gorkhapatra will help not only the Nepalis but also the foreigners who have interest in Nepali history and culture. He also wished success of the workshop.

Addressing the function, Executive Chairman of the Gorkhapatra Bishnu Prasad Subedi said digital archive would be its most important work in its 121 years’ history.
He said that the work of digital archive was pushed forward because keeping the publications’ of Gorkhapatra safe was a challenging job.

He said, “Gorkhapatra is priceless property of the country and we need digital archive to save each issue of this newspaper.” He informed that all old publications of the Gorkhapatra under its ownership agreements have been signed.

In the two-day workshop, altogether four working papers related to digital archive will be presented. After digitalisation of the publication, readers would easily read the publications including their first issue.