Bengaluru British library moves online, readers have a plethora of options to choose from

The British Council Library plans to move online for the love of reading. The members will get a plethora of options to choose from.

According to a statement issued by the council library online, "Our growth strategy for the next five years identifies, as a priority, the need for the British Council to continue to build stronger connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and India. We do this by creating opportunities for young people in India to succeed in a globalised world. We know that digital access is increasing rapidly, and that young people are a digital-first generation. We want our focus to be on scale and a high-quality online experience for customers, with digital and mobile at the heart of what we do."

This means the physical library offer in Bangalore will now become a fully online offer, supplemented with programming and partnership activities relevant to the audience. The library's ongoing commitment to work with state governments remains unchanged.

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The council further stated that their digital offer will bring the best of UK education, arts and culture to a much larger audience beyond physical locations. The council has invested in increasing and strengthening digital offer so that the customers can access a vast range of educational and entertainment resources online.

Online collection revamped

Antonius Raghubansie, Director Learning Services, British Council India stated, "Our physical centre in Bangalore will become a state-of-the-art, computer-based testing centre for IELTS and other UK qualifications, managed by BC Examinations and English Services India Pvt Ltd. The demand for UK examinations, including IELTS, continues to grow and this change will provide many more young people with the opportunity to access internationally recognised qualifications as a route towards international mobility for work or study, and to improve their employability."

The library's statement further said that online collection has been revamped and thousands of newspapers, magazines, audiobooks, e-books, comics, podcasts, self-development and training resources have been included. The members have access to a plethora of recreational content with unlimited right to use the services.

The Mobile App version of the Digital Library will be launched at the end of June for both Android and iOS platforms, offering a seamless and interactive customer journey which pulls together content in one place and allows members to build their own library collection.

Raghubansie also added that the digital offer will bring the best of UK education, arts and culture to a much larger audience beyond physical locations. The council has invested in increasing and strengthening digital offer so that the customers can access a vast range of educational and entertainment resources online.

It should be noted that the library is also moving the annual Reading Challenge event online for the first time this year with the available titles added to the Digital Library.