ARMENIAN FROM BEIRUT, PIERRE GUYUMCHIAN, GRANTS DIGITALIZATION DEVICE TO MATENADARAN FOR TWO MONTHS
Noyan Tapan
Jun 29, 2007
YEREVAN, JUNE 29, NOYAN TAPAN. Pierre Guyumchian, an Armenian engineer
from Beirut, granted a digitalization device Atiz BookDrive Diy to
Mesrop Mashtots Matenadaran for two months. An agreement "On Free of
Charge Use of Property" was signed on June 26 between Arshak Banuchian,
the Acting Director of Matenadaran, and P. Guyumchian.
In P. Guyumchian’s words, it occurred to him to give that device to
Matenadaran after the stir over the agreement signed between the U.S.
Minnesota Hill Museum-Library of Manuscrips and Matanadaran.
P. Guyumchian stated that Matenadaran’s manuscripts should be
digitalized without the participation of foreigners, only Armenian
specialists should be engaged in it. "There are few centers like
Matenadaran in the world, and we should not give out its wealth
to foreigners," he said. P. Guyumchian said that before coming to
Armenia he visited Mayravank in Antelias and was upset to find out
that part of the books kept there had been already digitalized by the
Hill Museum-Library. As a result, if someone wishes to use that books,
he should receive the Hill Library’s consent. At the same time, P.
Guyumchian said that the device given by him is more suitable and
operates more smoothly than the one offered by the Hill Library.
A. Banuchian said that they plan to find out by means of the device
given by P. Guyumchian how quickly manuscripts’ digitalization is
done, how much that device is useful for that purpose, whether it
can be perfected, and how many devices of the kind are necessary for
digitalization of all manuscripts of Matenadaran.
The RA Ministry of Education and Science charged Matenadaran to
submit a manuscripts digitalization program to the RA government
within three months.
In A. Banuchian’s words, this program should also include manuscripts’
restoration, photography, creating databases, as well as publication
of unpublished originals.
It was mentioned that a proposal of a method of Matenadaran
manuscripts’ digitalization has been received from Karl Franz
University of the city of Graz, Austria.