def load_char_mappings(mapping_path):
    """
    load EMNIST character mappings. This maps a label to the correspondent byte value of the given character
    return: the dictionary of label mappings
    """
    mappings = {}
    with open(mapping_path) as f:
        for line in f:
            (key, val) = line.split()
            mappings[int(key)] = int(val)

    return mappings