It was Scottish poet Alexander Smith who had said, “I go into my library and all history unrolls before me.” Imagine, then, what one could do, with all of India’s libraries and historical archives at your fingertips.

That’s exactly what the archival team at the Indian Institute of Management–Ahmedabad (IIM-A) seems to have pulled off, by building an online repository that lists and maps over 500 archives across India, and even some from outside the country. Titled Archives on India, the initiative is a first for this country, and is a sort of master-list of all museums and archives, says Professor Chinmay Tumbe, chairperson of the IIM-A archives committee and economics faulty at the premier institute.