PUNE: Online library platform Knimbus is going from being an e-library platform to enabling colleges and institutes create their own virtual libraries.

"Knimbus 3.0 will be a full stack platform that will allow institutes to build and customise their own online libraries using the material we have. They will have their own homepage and mobile app, which will allow students access content from anywhere," said Rahul Agarwalla, CEO, Knimbus.

Set up in 2011 as a platform to make online content more easily searchable for research students, the new version also marks a shift from catering to PhD students and researchers alone to university and college students as well.

Agarwalla likens it to a variation of the Netflix model, where all the content is curated by Knimbus onto one platform, which is then customised by users as per their preferences. Agarwalla said the SaaS platform was currently being rolled out to existing customers like Niti Aayog and the NIT, New Delhi, and undergoing final testing before opening it up to others. The company hosts content from over 500 publishers along with e-learning material from universities across the world, some of which is available for free, while some is premium content.

"We are currently working with 300 paid customers and have 750 live libraries. The aim is to get to a 1,000 paid customers by the end of 2018," said Agarwalla.

A recent survey conducted among librarians by Knimbus showed that almost 60% of them had some sort of a digital footprint. The biggest constraints according to them were the cost of doing so and the lack of infrastructure.

"All our content is on the cloud and we manage the back-end, which makes it easy for anyone to set up their online library," said Agarwalla.

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Knimbus is making e-libraries a virtual reality for colleges - Economic Times