Digital libraries: History of Buryat book digitized

Buryat chronicles, Buddhist xylographs, editions of Christian missionaries and books of the first professional literary men of Buryatia, who wrote in the old Mongolian scripts and Roman alphabet are now available in the digital format. The lovers of old book traditions from now on can familiarize themselves with them on the CD “The history of Buryat book”. It has been issued by the National Library of the Buryat Republic. The brand new edition is sent to the Universities and book repositories of Republic.

The new database focuses on the history of development of Buryat book publishing and spans the period from XIX century to 30’s of XX century. Bibliophiles now have an opportunity to study the original editions in the convenient computer PDF format, and also to read the commentaries and information about the rarities of the scholars of the Institute of Mongolian, Buddhism and Tibet Studies of the Siberian branch of Russian Academy of Sciences.

"The urgency of digitization is defined by the fact that the history of Buryat book culture of the end of XIX - beginning of ХХ century has been still little-studied. Before 1931 books in Buryatia were published in old Mongol type, from 1931 to 1939 – in the Roman alphabet. After the Buryat script adopted Cyrillic alphabet old editions were withdrawn from the circulations and became available just to the narrow scholar readership", – remarked the librarians.

The CD has been issued in the framework of the joint venture of the National Library of the Buryat Republic and UNESCO Office in Moscow with financial support of Ford Foundation. "The history of Buryat book" will enter the digital library "Buryatika" – the major information resource of the Buryat Regional Center of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library.