Czeck National Library plans to cooperate with Algeria, Iran

Prague, Jan 28 (CTK) – The Czech National Library (NK) plans to cooperate with librarians from Algeria and Iran in the digitisation of the NK's large collections of old Arabic and Persian manuscripts, NK director Tomas Boehm, who assumed the post in January, has told CTK.

The cooperation may result in the virtual merging of the libraries’ collections and exchange stays of experts.

The NK also expects to thereby gain some finances for the digitisation of rare texts, Boehm added.

The NK would like to launch the cooperation with the Algerian National Library.

The NK has over 200 Arabic manuscripts, part of which has been restored and digitised within the Manuscriptorium project. Other manuscripts are to be available in a digital version in the future.

The Czech library wants to offer the possibility of research stays to Algerian experts.

“We would like to help our Algerian colleagues study their history and culture,” Boehm said.

He added that the cooperation should also promote the NK collections in the world.

Iranian colleagues should mainly help the NK digitise Persian manuscripts and make them accessible to experts and the public, Boehm said.

He noted that the Iranian institution might help fund the manuscripts’ digitisation.

Boehm was not able to estimate the total digitisation costs as every manuscripts is unique, but they might amount to hundreds of thousands of crowns, he added.

Without foreign funding, the NK could hardly carry out the project of Oriental texts digitisation.

The continuing digitisation of the valuable NK stock is one of Boehm’s main goals in the post.

The NK has been creating the Manuscriptorium database since the mid-1990s.